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29, June 2017

How a Lean Enterprise Certification Program (LECP) Can Help Your Manufacturing Company

Lean manufacturing, also known as lean production (or simply as "lean"), is the systematic method that eliminates various types of waste in a manufacturing process. Lean takes into account waste created through overburden and unevenness in production workloads. Lean reveals what processes or components add value and which processes do not add value. This is done by reducing or eliminating everything else in the process to find the most efficient work path. Value is defined from the customer’s perspective and is very intuitive.

This Lean management philosophy is traditionally attributed to the Toyota Production System (TPS). Toyota’s growth from a small car company to one of the world’s largest automakers has drawn attention to its processes in an effort to explain its success. Systematic study of the methods and tools used at TPS and other successful companies produced Lean techniques that can be used in any business, including yours.

Lean can be thought of as a set of tools that identifies and systematically eliminates waste in a manufacturing process. The goal is to improve quality while reducing production time and cost. Examples of some of the tools in this kit are value stream mapping, 5S, and Kanban. There are many more that have been developed and have been found to be effective.

Identification of waste is a key aspect of these processes. This would seem to be a simple task, but often it is not. Waste is often very conservatively identified so many contributing wastes are often missed. Waste reduction can be addressed once a true estimation is determined.

Shigeo Shingo a leading expert on TPS quipped “only the last turn of a bolt tightens it—the rest is just movement." Only the last action was truly essential. The finer clarification of all waste establishes what constitutes value-adding activity and non-value-adding activity in the process. Non-value adding work is also a form of waste that must be done under the present work condition. Waste is measured to show the effect changes achieved and progress towards the new goal.

Impact Dakota brings Lean Manufacturing to your business through its Lean Enterprise Certification Program (LECP). This is the only program of its kind nationally recognized and developed by the Society of Manufacturing Engineers (SME). Our innovative program brings a working knowledge of the best practices of Lean to your company. Your key employees attend thirty-two hours of classroom instruction and complete a twenty-four hour practicum. They will attend a review course and must pass an exam before they earn their SME Lean Knowledge Certificate.

For more information about LECP or to contact us, click the button below! 

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