Our heritage in helping organizations becoming more efficient and profitable originates from our in-depth knowledge of leading operational excellence programs based on the Toyota Production System. At the core of our client engagements is the focus on delivering rapid results that last for the long-term. We leverage the Toyota Production System and a revolutionary fusion of today’s most powerful data collection, business intelligence and process workflow technologies, to implement continuous improvement programs in a unique coordinated effort. We help organizations break down barriers to attain new-levels of productivity and new competitive capabilities.
Clients often approach Lean Value Solutions in pursuit of an operational excellence business system that establishes a foundation for creating a customer-focused culture. Our approach to operational excellence addresses the main reason that business improvement initiatives often fail to take hold or lose momentum which are lack of culture change management and sustainable program infrastructures.
Traditional operational excellence transformations occur over a three-to five-year period and the level of engagement. Often organizations begin by establishing a foundation for leadership and culture change, and quickly introduce data collection, operational intelligence and lean tools to build-out their operational excellence strategies. A key tool to achieve quick breakthrough performance improvements is the use of rapid improvement projects called kaizens.
Kaizens are a cornerstone of improvement approach that range from quick one-day to five-day improvement projects conducted on the shop floor or front office; the objective is to eliminate waste and achieve a more streamlined business process. Through a disciplined process, kaizen teams are empowered to make immediate business process changes to remove wasteful non value-added activities or practices. By the end of a week, kaizen teams typically achieve double-digit reductions in lead time, inventory, defects, and floor space and 25 to 50 percent increases in productivity resulting in 100s of percent improvement and ROI.
Our many clients also utilize an aggressive approach for rapid-fire, short-duration projects focusing on addressing critical challenges that must deliver immediate improvements and aggressive ROIs. This focused approach, which we call “Proof Positive”, combines project work, kaizen events, lean tools and enabling technologies simultaneously across critical areas in a business process.
In today’s economic climate such initiatives are helping our clients improve cash flow and reduce working capital, cut bloated inventory levels, reduce floor space requirements, improve quality and decrease energy consumption. Rapid “Proof Positive” projects may take anywhere from 60 to 120 days to complete and frequently release hundreds of thousands – even millions – of dollars straight to the bottom-line.