Patterson Alliances

What is lean?

Wed, 17 Apr 2019 09:17:48 -0500

Lean is a business approach that is used in manufacturing and service industries to eliminate waste, increase processes and reduce costs. In short, lean means using fewer resources to create more value for consumers.

This term was used to describe Toyota Production System, also called JIT or Just in Time Production, in the 1980s. After the Second World War, Toyota became successful when the Japanese owners adopted many of the American techniques for quality and production. Their production process was based on Edwards Deming’s ideas for statistical quality control as well as Henry Ford’s manufacturing techniques.

Lean manufacturing consists of well-defined tools that companies can use to control and reduce many works in process, consequently eliminating non-value adding activities. When an organization adopts lean principles, more focus will be placed on key processes to constantly increase customer value without creating unnecessary waste.

For this to happen, lean thinkers will make changes to optimize the flow of services and products through value streams which flows across assets, technologies and departments to consumers. Lean manufacturing will eliminate waste from all value streams, rather than at isolated stages. This helps to create processes which need less space, capital, human effort and time to produce at significantly less costs with hardly any defects, when compared to traditional systems. As a result, companies will be able to react quickly to customer demands with high quality, high variety and low cost.

There is a common misconception that lean is only suited for manufacturing industries, but this is not the case. Lean can be applied to every process and business. Today, businesses in all services and industries including governments and healthcare are using the principles of lean. Some companies will use the principles and methodologies for their own system without referring to lean manufacturing. Toyota Production System is a good example of this. By doing this, they are demonstrating that lean is the way how a company operates and it’s not temporary program for cost reduction.

When a company is changing their traditional ways to lean thinking, this process is often described as a lean transformation or just transformation. The entire process usually requires a company to completely transform how business is conducted, which calls for long-term commitment and perseverance.

Essentially, lean is regarded by many as a set business tools that can assist in identifying and eliminating waste or muda. Some of the lean tools include Value Stream Mapping, Kanban, 5S and poka-yoke. When waste is removed from business processes, production cost and time will reduce and quality will improve. Ultimately, lean seeks to make work processes simple to understand, execute and manage.

grapheneinfo: Understanding graphene’s electrical properties...

Wed, 03 Jan 2018 09:02:04 -0600

grapheneinfo:

Understanding graphene’s electrical properties on an atomic level (w/video)

— However, not all graphene is the same. With so few atoms comprising the entirety of the material, the arrangement of each one has an impact on its …

popmech: Inside the plant where Lockheed builds the F-35

Mon, 08 Sep 2014 11:01:50 -0500

popmech:

Inside the plant where Lockheed builds the F-35

Now this is cool. Solar Roadways

Mon, 26 May 2014 09:40:00 -0500

Now this is cool. Solar Roadways

crookedindifference: ListenTree: Live streaming sound from an...

Mon, 26 May 2014 09:28:49 -0500

crookedindifference:

ListenTree: Live streaming sound from an outdoor ecological monitoring sensor network to an urban audience by Gershon Dublon at the MIT Media Lab:

A visitor to the installation notices a faint sound appearing to emerge from a tree (or several), and might feel a slight vibration under their feet as they approach. By resting their head against the tree, they are able to both feel and hear crystal clear sound through bone conduction. To create this effect, a specialized audio exciter transducer is weatherproofed and attached to the underground base of a tree (or trees), transforming the tree into a living speaker that channels audio through its branches and provides vibrotactile feedback. Any kind of sound can be played through the tree, including live audio or pre-recorded tracks. In one deployment, we used Arboreal Telepresence to display live streaming sound from an outdoor ecological monitoring sensor network, bringing an urban audience into contact with a faraway wetland restoration.

Our intervention is motivated by a need for forms of display that fade into the background, inviting attention rather than requiring it. We consume most our of our digital information through devices that often alienate us from our immediate surroundings; Arboreal Telepresence points to a future where digital information might become enmeshed in material.

emergentfutures: Top CEOs Make 331 Times the Average Worker....

Fri, 23 May 2014 16:28:22 -0500

emergentfutures:

Top CEOs Make 331 Times the Average Worker. Does Anyone Care?

Chief executives of companies in the Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index made an average $11.7 million last year. The average production and nonsupervisory worker: $35,239. That means CEOs are paid 331 times the average worker, according to a report released this week by the AFL-CIO, a federation of trade unions.

Full Story: Business Week

formfollowsfunctionjournal: Consolidated Aircraft Corporation...

Fri, 23 May 2014 16:27:05 -0500

formfollowsfunctionjournal:

Consolidated Aircraft Corporation Worker, 1940’s.

fuckyeahwwiipropaganda: Amazing, high quality Kodachrome...

Fri, 23 May 2014 16:26:02 -0500

fuckyeahwwiipropaganda:

Amazing, high quality Kodachrome WWII-era photos.

Not exactly propaganda but I wanted to share these color photographs. They look like they were just taken yesterday. We’re so used to black and white or poorly colored photos from that era that these almost look faked.

Cool

Consumer 3-D Printing -- Does it Matter to Hardcore Manufacturing? | Emerging Technologies content from IndustryWeek

Fri, 18 Oct 2013 09:36:13 -0500

Consumer 3-D Printing -- Does it Matter to Hardcore Manufacturing? | Emerging Technologies content from IndustryWeek:

It might seem too simple, maybe beneath your engineering expertise, but consumer-level 3-D printing can help change the way you, your bosses and your kids think.

"Now that Congress has finally gotten its act together, reopened the government, and temporarily..."

Fri, 18 Oct 2013 09:15:59 -0500

“Now that Congress has finally gotten its act together, reopened the government, and temporarily averted economic disaster, the lasting effects of the 16-day federal shutdown are starting to emerge. For many scientific experiments, the damage has already been done.”

- What the Shutdown Did to Science (via popmech)

Bolt Blog: The Value of US Manufacturing and Why It's Not Coming Back

Fri, 13 Sep 2013 11:25:46 -0500

Bolt Blog: The Value of US Manufacturing and Why It's Not Coming Back:

boltboston:

Bolt helps teams build physical products. Manufacturing is a big part of what we provide assistance with, so you can imagine we are asked a deluge of questions about manufacturing on a daily basis. One of the most common is “can we make X part here in the US?” The answer is always yes, but at…

I can’t disagree more, with at least two of your assumptions: 1) Design and Development will remain in the US and 2) US Manufacturing won’t see Manufacturing come back.

1. Having worked for several multi-nationals, Design and Development follow the Manufacturing, and companies do it for the same reasons to reduce cost or time to market. Not saying it is right or even makes operational sense, but those leaders who believe they need to move Manufacturing overseas don’t stop there.

2. I’ve also seen several companies move their manufacturing back or decide not to move their manufacturing in the first place by putting greater focus on Lean, Supply Chain Excellence, wanting to keep and developing local suppliers and creating closer relationships such that the overall supply chain cost is reduced.

A nation that doesn’t build things, is a nation in decline. Because with Manufacturing comes better communication with the designers, developers, customers, suppliers, etc. I think something that you will see is more regional manufacturing, manufacture for a market in that market, whether it be specific products for that market or products for shipment to a larger region.

Turkish Teen Makes Plastic Out of Banana Peels via @bigthink

Fri, 26 Jul 2013 11:53:15 -0500

Turkish Teen Makes Plastic Out of Banana Peels via @bigthink:

Plastic? Where to start! It’s now the number one form of ocean debris, and muscled its way up the food chain, starting, of course, with hungry microbes. Recent research confirmed that the fish we eat also can’t help but consume plastic. Oh, but there’s good news. On Thursday, Elif Bilgin, a 16-year …

Elif Bilgin, a 16-year-old girl from Istanbul, Turkey, won $50,000 at the Google Science Fair for her process of turning banana peels into bio-plastic- a better greener alternative than using fossil fuel for plastic production.

engineeringisawesome: Evans Wadongo: MwangaBora Lamp In 2004 at...

Sun, 28 Apr 2013 13:37:01 -0500

engineeringisawesome:

Evans Wadongo: MwangaBora Lamp

In 2004 at the tender age of 19, Evans Wadongo took it upon himself to create an alternative to the unhealthy and often dangerous kerosene lamps and firelights used by villages like his in rural Africa. The enterprising Kenyan engineer developed the MwangaBora lamp, a fume-less light source made of 50% recycled materials that has since been widely distributed throughout the countrysides of Kenya and Malawi. To further the production and distribution of such lamps, NYC’s Friedman Benda gallery is hosting a three-day charitable selling exhibition—designed by fashion designerReed Krakoff—showing an edition of 1,000 solar lamps designed entirely by Wadongo.

Cool Hunting

“Necessity is the mother of Invention” - Plato

There is a great blog post on “the thINKing canvas”...

Mon, 15 Apr 2013 12:58:26 -0500

There is a great blog post on “the thINKing canvas” about how to find customers for your business.

This is a great example of one way to create and use a visual strategic plan.

Kaizen Training: ADVANTAGES OF LEAN MANAGEMENT

Mon, 15 Apr 2013 12:50:21 -0500

Kaizen Training: ADVANTAGES OF LEAN MANAGEMENT:

kaizen-training:

The manufacturing process endeavors to get rid of every waste. This helps eliminate unnecessary costs, processes, and tools. Nutshell, the lean manufacturers scrutinize the manufacturing processes and see whether they can eliminate any unnecessary movement.

To begin with, the lean…

Lean means getting rid of waste but some companies take it to mean reduce production workers. The fact is it should be about getting rid of waste that doesn’t add value to the product or service being delivered to your customers. In my experience getting rid of layers of management between the factory and the person with the authority and responsibility to the customer to deliver the best product at the right price for the company and the customer.

americanmanufacturing: Our favorite topic - Made in the USA -...

Sat, 13 Apr 2013 16:17:40 -0500

americanmanufacturing:

Our favorite topic - Made in the USA - took the cover of TIME magazine. The article makes for a great weekend read!

Interesting excerpt:

Labor statistics actually shortchange the importance of manufacturing because they mainly count jobs inside factories, and related positions in, say, Ford’s marketing department or at small business doing industrial design or creating software for big exporters don’t get tallied.

We summarized the story, and threw in some analysis.

RADIO: AAM's Scott Paul on Leslie Marshall Radio Show, April 11, 2013 | Alliance for American Manufacturing

Fri, 12 Apr 2013 11:09:02 -0500

RADIO: AAM's Scott Paul on Leslie Marshall Radio Show, April 11, 2013 | Alliance for American Manufacturing:

Alliance for American Manufacturing’s (AAM) President Scott Paul explains we’re seeing small growth in Manufacturing hiring. Listen to the show on https://soundcloud.com/keep-it-made-in-america/aams-scott-paul-on-leslie.

Kaizen Training: How taking lean manufacturing courses helps your business, Part 2#2

Sun, 07 Apr 2013 08:34:47 -0500

Kaizen Training: How taking lean manufacturing courses helps your business, Part 2#2:

kaizen-training:

How Lean Manufacturing Training Courses Can Help Your Business

It is very important for everyone in your organization to get lean training, because the concept has to be applied to the entire business processes. This way, everyone can understand the lean principles and identify how it can help…

inkfactorystudio: We visualized this video explaining the...

Sat, 06 Apr 2013 21:43:16 -0500

inkfactorystudio:

We visualized this video explaining the amazing-ness of graphene!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OtM6XJlynkk

Graphene - The Super Supercapacitor

Sat, 06 Apr 2013 21:41:05 -0500

Graphene - The Super Supercapacitor