Category: Productivity Increase

Lean Manufacturing in Food, Drug, Cosmetics & Chemical Industry

2/25/2020

Here is a case study that exemplifies improved productivity of pellet manufacturing by 28% per shift via LEAN.

Learn about how to use LEAN Business Process Improvement methodology for
Innovation and Manufacturing …

Keywords and Tags:

#Manufacturing #Lean #ContinuousImprovement #Kaizen #QualityImprovement #ManufacturingManagement #Pharmaceutical #LifeSciences #Food #Beverage #Biotechnology #LeanManagement

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How to Reduce Testing Load of Analytical Labs in R&Ds? A Six Sigma Case Study in a Biotech Company

1/22/2020

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how to reduce testing load of analytical labs in research and development _ a six sigma case study in a biotech company

Six Sigma Case Study in a Biotech company

Problem: A Canadian Biotech company had too many samples for testing in their research lab. How to cut down this analysis load?

Due Diligence: The entire product development process was mapped end-to-end. Possible causes for the problem were identified using RCA. It was found that, there were way too many experiments conducted during product development. For e.g. 85 experiments were conducted to arrive at a base level prototype having minimal features.

Solution: Six Sigma methodology was employed. More of experiment planning was needed during product development. Regardless of type of product or product complexities, the aim was to keep experiments to minimal. Design Thinking and DOE were employed. The development protocol was modified such that final prototype is developed with meager 20 experiments at the maximum. Alongside cutting down analysis load, the process improvement campaign cut down product development time, built-in product quality, and enhanced production output.

Result Dashboard:

Decreased overall development costs by 200 %
Improved R&D’s productivity by 250 %
Prevented recruitment of additional scientific manpower, thereby curtailing business expenses and overheads.

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Keywords and Tags:
#ContinuousImprovement #Innovation #SixSigma #DesignThinking #DOE #Biotech

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How to Choose a Business Process Improvement or Continuous Improvement project?

1/16/2020

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A business process improvement project within an organization usually starts out with statements like “We have this problem and we think this is the issue that must be sorted out”. In my experience, 9 times out of 10, the cause of the problem is radically different from what one ‘thinks’ is the issue. Hence, the precursor to choosing a process improvement project is to acknowledge that there is a problem whose root cause(s) must be first be identified before going any further with the process improvement idea.

Once you have an idea of the ‘real’ issue(s) or the ‘root cause(s)’ which must be addressed, you must establish what sort of improvement you are seeking. Because a goal provides the context for determining as well as designing an action plan. For example, the improvement steps to save $1000 via a process improvement campaign are obviously far different from the steps to save $100,000 or $1M - but that’s also the only way you can draw a project's finishing line and establish whether that project was a success.

Also, the journey for reaching goals may vary and the execution plan documents the road map for achieving the goal.

All popular continuous improvement methodologies such as Lean, Six Sigma, Hoshin Kanri, Lean Six Sigma, Kaizen , Kanban etc. incorporate the same focus on setting goals that are easily understood, across an organization.

Remember: Regardless of the Continuous Improvement methodology being employed, the goal must be set before selecting a process improvement project, because a project is largely defined by what it is supposed to accomplish.

You may need multiple process improvement projects to achieve a set of goals or often multiple projects to achieve one single goal. A standard line of action while choosing process improvement goal is based on the study of ‘Variation Journal’.

Continuous improvement tools, 30 continuous improvement tools for investigation and business process improvement, bpm, 18 different continuous improvement methodologies to increase productivity, organizational excellence and decrease cost, business process management and continuous improvement executive guide series book, shruti bhat

Variation Journal as the name implies, is a record of process variation(s) observed throughout the lifetime of a process. Upon scrutinizing this process variation record, any process that elicits a ‘Common Cause’ variation becomes a potential candidate for improvement.

Usual process improvement project pick strategies include- selecting those processes that save maximum money, are easiest or fastest to complete, solve an obnoxious problem, or a process that adversely affects employee working, or where the process improvement is hardest to accomplish (with the idea of 'getting the hard stuff out of the way' will provide serious onward momentum for all subsequent process improvement work).

Tip: Process improvement project success depends on the goal set up, as well as, a sound execution plan before you go about implementing process changes.

In my career as a Global Continuous Improvement Leader spanning a decade, I have found that, using Agile during process change implementation, paves way to guaranteed success with process improvement campaigns.

With Agile management the execution plan becomes a series of sprints instead of one long comprehensive plan.

Tip: Note that Agile works best in environments of frequent changes or development of a new product line, where new features and obstacles are constantly introduced and need to be managed.

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How to Improve Operational Efficiency? A Lean Kaizen Case Study

11/27/2019

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how to improve operational efficiency_a Lean Kaizen case study

Lean Kaizen Case study

Problem: A Canadian Pharmaceutical company had production issues with fifteen products and this consequently increased production back-orders. How to improve operational efficiency?

Due Diligence: Conducted a value stream map to identify potential cause(s) for the back order situation. Additionally technical processes of production were also evaluated. Both technical processes as well as operational processes had snags and must be improved.

Solution: Lean Kaizen methodology was employed. Pharma being a regulated industry, the regulatory impact of proposed process change must be studied prior to embarking on process improvement journey. Regulatory impacts studied were- statutory compliance, licenses, tax breaks, sales permission etc. A protocol for process improvement for all 15 products in a tiered fashion was designed. Appropriate modifications to production planning and concerned operational processes were undertaken.

Result Dashboard:

Process improvements for all 15 products was completed within time-scope-budget.
Process improvements of 8 products were done without need for statutory re-approvals.
Back order status was reversed; market demands are being met timely.
Process improvements for balance 7 products were done without need for beta testing/ bio-equivalence studies.
Overall saved around 15% of total budgeted expenses for this project basket.

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Kaizen For Productivity Improvement Of Pellet Manufacturing: A Case Study

10/23/2019

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Learn how implementing Kaizen improved productivity of pellet manufacturing by 28%. For details checkout the video below-

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Kaizen Training for R&D, Manufacturing and Service-based Organizations

5/2/2019

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A Kaizen Transformation roadmap will help you balance two worlds- the 'right now' and the 'next future'.

Top Experts in Kaizen Strategy Design & Training

Kaizen Masterclass

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Keywords and Tags:
#Kaizen #KaizenTraining #KaizenLeaderMasterclass #ManufacturingExcellence #AgileKaizen #Lean #BPM #Manufacturing #OrganizationalExcellence

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Business Turnaround and Continuous Improvement Tips & Tricks Part 4 of 6- Lean Manifesto

2/22/2019

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Born at Toyota, Lean is a lighter, leaner way to achieve results. A Lean process is ruthless about getting rid of errors, steps, processes and people that don’t add value to a company’s products or services.

business turnaround and continuous improvement tips and tricks part 4 of 6, LEAN Manifesto, dr shruti bhat

Lean is all about focusing on customer needs, reducing defects, creating waste-free processes that result in maximum ROI and Customer value.

Although Lean defined Toyota Production System (TPS) in 1940s, with time, Lean has been extended to other manufacturing verticals such as- electronics, cement, construction, food & beverages, pharmaceuticals, personal products, engineering etc.

The best part about Lean is that, Lean brings in a 3:1 rate of returns for any organization regardless of industry sector, that implements Lean correctly.

Lean Manifesto:

Focus on customer: Lean is based on Voice of Customer (VOC). If a step doesn’t add value to a company’s product or service from the customer’s point of view, LEAN strips it out.
Eliminating waste: Traditional Lean weeded out 7 types of waste- Over-production, Over-processing, Defects, Delays, Unnecessary movement, Unutilized resources, Unnecessary inventory. With time, Lean philosophy has under gone changes too, that is changes for the better. Present day LEAN methodology eliminates 14 different types of waste.
Just-in-time (JIT) attitude. Producing anything in anticipation of customer needs is a waste as per Lean philosophy. Instead you produce only when there are orders in hand as in Kanban's pull approach.
LEAN works with ‘pull’ system Vs ‘push’ system.
Visual representation: Lean uses Value Stream Maps to visually draw out processes and Visual Management to execute and sustain benefits of LEAN processes.

Which companies can use Lean?

LEAN can be implemented by Manufacturing as well as Service based companies.

LEAN is best for incremental improvements, organizations that focus on their people and culture, companies that want a less mathematical and more flexible approach than Six Sigma. But you can strive for a break-through Six Sigma improvement by eliminating waste Lean-style.

In the next part of this article series I shall discuss another time-tested business improvement methodology; TQM