I had an interesting conversation with Patrick Russell, Terminal Manager at Active USA in Chillicothe, OH. He is a Six Sigma Black Belt and he is implementing the Kaizen philosopy of lean manufacturing with value added items. According to Wikipedia, Six Sigma is a business management strategy, initially implemented by Motorola, that today enjoys widespread application in many sectors of industry:
Six Sigma seeks to identify and remove the causes of defects and errors in manufacturing and business processes. It uses a set of quality manufacturing methods, including statistical methods, and creates a special infrastructure of people within the organization ("Black Belts" etc.) who are experts in these methods. Each Six Sigma project carried out within an organization follows a defined sequence of steps and has quantified financial targets (cost reduction or profit increase).
Patrick's goal is to reduce waste by 20%. By implementing some Kaizen steps he has been able to cut
inventory costs and warehousing costs. He counted steps that employee's took throughout their shift. He determined they were walking approximately 493 walking steps for one load x 8 loads a day. He suggested as an example you could save a worker 14 steps by placing a wrench closer to the work station.
Patrick had contacted me wanting a quote on 13 free standing sections of pallet rack. Each stand alone section of storage rack would be located near work a work station. I told him that I was fascinated by the Kaizen philisophy so he recommended a book called "The Toyota Way" about the Toyota management system. At this point I decided to do some research on this Kaizen methodology.
When applied to the workplace, Kaizen activities continually improve all functions of a business from manufacturing, warehousing, distribution and management. By improving standardized processes, Kaizen aims to eliminate waste. Kaizen was first implemented by several Japanese businesses during the country's recovery after World War II and has since spread throughout the world. Kaizen has been known as the "Toyota Way".
Picture courtesy of Kaizen Technologies Inc.
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