Business Assessments and Lean Training for Small Businesses

CANDO has won a grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (“USDA”) Rural Development. CANDO will use the grant, funded with federal stimulus money, to help manufacturers and other rural businesses become more profitable.

This grant will help pay for us to conduct a comprehensive assessment of companies’ needs, show them how to become more efficient, and then help them build capacity to grow. A key partner in the project is Manufacturing-Works, a University of Wyoming-based consulting agency funded by the Wyoming Business Council, the National Institute for Standards in Technology (“NIST”), and the University. CANDO is an affiliate of Manufacturing-Works.

CANDO’s business assessment process will review key areas of a company’s operations, facility, and personnel. When a need is identified, CANDO will connect the business with Manufacturing-Works, who can provide a matrix of services that specifically address those needs, improve efficiency, and fuel growth. The USDA grant will pay most or all of the cost for those services.

The project is underway now, and interested businesses may contact CANDO at (307) 358-2000 to arrange for the assessment process to begin. CANDO will be offering project services regionally, starting in east central Wyoming. Other areas of Wyoming will also benefit from the program during 2010.

What is Lean?

Lean is “a systematic approach to identifying and eliminating waste (non-value-added activities) through continuous improvement by flowing the product at the pull of the customer in pursuit of perfection.”

This strategy is used by organizations to help achieve world-class performance, and a more profitable way to run a manufacturing, or any, business. This systematic approach will help to identify and eliminate the eights types of waste in a business. Waste is defined as non-value activities — any activity that the customer is not willing to pay additional monies for.

A Lean enterprise embraces a company culture where the employees are empowered and expected to deliver results. Without employee support, you cannot make any changes, especially sustainable changes, within your organization. Your company culture will define how employees perform on the job, their relationship with management, how they react to change, and how well they work with each other. Many companies have achieved higher employee morale, in part because lean manufacturing includes listening to workers and their ideas about how to run things better.

Implementing Lean will

• Improve quality, safety and productivity
• Define and eliminate waste and focus on value added activities
• Reduce lead times, inventories, and costs
• Optimize space usage
• Improve on time shipments
• Create an empowered work force
• Capitalize on effective teamwork
• Create quick changeover
• Foster a culture of continuous improvement
• Open lines of communication from CEO to shop floor
• Support value added activities that customers are willing to pay for
• Bring the customer’s expectations and requirements into focus
• Improve employee morale

Eight Types of Waste Defined

Waste is any activity that does not add value to the product or service. The activity does not add value if the customer is not willing to pay more money for this activity. Waste can be viewed as the single hurdle that can limit a business over time, unless they are identified and systematically eliminated.

1: Overproduction:

Making more than is required by the next process.

2: Waiting:

Any idle time created when waiting.

3: Transportation:

Any movement of materials or people around a plant that does not add value to the product or service.

4: Non-Value-Added processing:

Any effort that adds no value to the product or service.

5: Inventory:

Any supply in excess of a one-piece flow through the manufacturing process.

6: Under Utilizing People:

The waste of not using people to the best of their unique abilities.

7: Defects:

Inspection and repair of materials in inventory.

8: Motion:

Any movement of people or machines that does not add value to the product or service.

Continuous Improvement

The transition to a lean environment will not occur overnight. A company must instill a mentality that continuous improvement is necessary to reach your company’s goals. The incremental improvement of products and processes, with the goal of reducing waste, of improving workplace functionality, customer service, or product performance is what is needed. The old adage “If you always do what you always did, you’ll always get what you always got” is certainly appropriate.

Continuous improvement ideas, coming from an inspired workforce, can result in astonishing improvements that competitors may find impossible to match. Lean production, accomplished properly, results in an organization learning from past mistakes, and not making the same mistakes in the future, since one of the goals of Lean is to eliminate waste.

For more info

To schedule an assessment contact CANDO.
307.358.2000

Learn more about Lean Manufacturing.

Funding provided by the USDA Rural Development program.