problem solving

I recently talked to an owner of a company. I asked him if he had engaged in any lean manufacturing initiatives. He answered his company was very lean; he had just purchased new equipment.

Like many business strategies, lean is often misunderstood. You can buy new equipment and if it is the right equipment and it is implemented properly your company could become more “lean”. But buying new equipment does not make you lean. Typically buying new equipment is the last resort of a lean initiative.

For an existing operation, before buying new equipment consider:

• Is your current equipment running consistently? Typically you need a good set of work instructions, properly trained operators and proper maintenance to make this happen.
• Record data, establish a baseline. If you want to improve, you need to have metrics and way of quantitatively measuring improvement. This could include measuring and recording data such as productivity, quality, and inventory.
• If something goes wrong record it in conjunction with data. For the biggest or most common issues, find the root cause. Test that you can turn the problem on and off.
• Consider solutions and brainstorm. Improvements could be simple, or out of the box ideas. Use a cross functional team to assist when possible. Depending on the situation new equipment could be a solution, but it would have to be better solution than anything else, factoring in: cost, productivity, quality or other key variables.

Getting equipment to run consistently, getting data, finding the root cause of issues can be time consuming and challenging work. But it is necessary if you want to make meaningful improvements in your process. Improvements that will more than pay for themselves. Without looking at your process and equipment carefully, buying new equipment could create more problems than it solves.