Lean Horizons Consulting | Industry Expertise

Manufacturing Metamorphosis

Global markets. Markets of one. Perfect quality. Product life cycles measured in days. Inventory is liability. Every worker a knowledge worker. Free trade in a flat world spoiled for choice. These are the new realities.

The challenges facing the world’s manufacturers have never been greater – nor have the opportunities. Global economic growth is driving a demand for goods and services unprecedented in human history – but with equally unprecedented demands for value. Taken against this rapidly evolving landscape, the mass production models that served yesterday struggle to compete – even as overlaid with large and ongoing investments in information technology and global restructuring. The truth is that the velocity at which markets change can render mass production infrastructure obsolete in an instant. Lean offers another way; a more evolved way focused relentlessly on the customer’s concept of value. Radically different, radically simple.

Our place in the world of manufacturing

Manufacturing is the crucible of Lean and Six Sigma. Drawing upon the extensive, industrial leadership experience of our team we align Lean and Six Sigma with your purpose. It’s a crucial distinction. When employed the way they should be – strategically and organization-wide – your business benefits maximally. Your cross-functional teams apply Lean to create velocity, eliminate wastes, and synchronize flow in value streams focused on your customers. Six Sigma builds upon these gains by understanding, reducing and managing variation within those value streams. The combination is powerful. Your people’s sights are expanded and raised far above the internal. Through this modern view, your team members are able to think differently about how the value of manufacturing is achieved and how your business is done. They advance the activities and interactions that add value - and reduce the ones that do not. Enabled by education and tools, your teams reduce response time in all things, discovering and correcting problems before they impact your ability to serve. The underlying drivers of inefficiency are identified. The distorting masks of system-wide inventories fall away. Simplified, reliable, synchronous processes spanning your total supply chain expand your capabilities and, critically, the competitive agility of your business. In parallel, the costs of waste reduce system-wide, resulting in year-after-year gains in capital productivity and free cash flows supporting reinvestment, enterprise value and shareholder reward. By applying Lean broadly, you improve effectiveness across the production system and develop integrated solutions that answer not only the operational, but the strategic and organizational challenges, as well. You design your system for sustained growth and the continuous delivery of best-in-market manufacturing performance integral to best-in-market business performance.

Critically, it’s not just about the explicit tools of Lean and Six Sigma. It’s about your culture, a culture defined by leadership day-in, day-out. It is within this truly transformative space where we help most. We’ve lived it - not as theorists but on the front lines. We go there with you to impart the implicit knowledge that critically underlies successful implementation and ultimate enterprise transformation. Our people – your coaches – have experienced the successes – and the mistakes – capturing learning to benefit your business. We work with your teams to avoid the pitfalls and dead ends, to overcome the frustrations of change and build a confident culture committed to continuous improvement supported by sustained results. In doing so, we reduce time to value on your Lean Six Sigma investment. We look forward to partnering with you on your journey, a journey of cultural and economic metamorphosis.

Summary of representative results:

The following table provides representative results from Lean client collaborations.
Metric	Improvement (%)
Annual Inventory Turns	50 to 300
On-Time Delivery	60 to 80
Productivity	50 to 300
Internal Quality PPM	50 to 95
External Quality PPM	50 to 95
Overall Equipment Efficiency (OEE)	50 to 85
Production Lead Time	70 to 95
Cost per Unit	20 to 60
Safety (Accident Frequency Rate)	20 to 45

		Other Areas of Industry Expertise
		Financial Services

		Healthcare

		Private Equity

		Oil & Gas

		Biotech & Pharmaceuticals