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CANDO helps get you Lean

Added March 18th, 2010

Written by By Brendan Burnett-Kurie, reporter for the Douglas Budget.

Douglas might be getting a little leaner, and it has nothing to do with dieting.

Recently, CANDO received a USDA grant that paid for Lean Manufacturing training courses to area businesses. The first training seminar, free to the businesses participating, took place Feb. 25 at Eastern Wyoming College. In attendance were eager learners from Arrow Electric, Douglas Hometown Apparel, the Douglas Area Chamber of Commerce, Douglas Budget and Wyoming Workforce Services.

Lean Manufacturing is a philosophy made popular by Toyota that focuses on finding, identifying and eliminating waste in your business. While it focuses on manufacturing, the lessons learned are applicable to all businesses to speed up its flow of products or services.

Lean is defined as, “A systematic approach to identifying and eliminating waste (non-valueadded activities) through continuous improvement by flowing the product at the pull of the customer in pursuit of perfection.”

The seminar starts off with a history of production in the United States, from Ben Franklin to Henry Ford to World War II. Then a fake business is created – Buzz Electronics – which will become an exciting, hands-on example of the benefits of Lean. All attendees are given a job in Buzz Electronics, then actually take part in the production of the company’s two products: The Blue Avenger and the Red Devil, which are both basic circuit boards.

Four separate times, the attendees sit down to create products and then discuss how the system could be simplified or adjusted to speed up production time. Over the course of the day, manufacturing goes from separate stations for each step to an assembly line that speeds up deliveries.

In between the hands-on manufacturing examples are lessons and discussions on what can be improved and what worked well. Through the course of the lesson plan, aspects of Lean are introduced piece-by-piece and attendees are given time to break into groups and apply the lessons learned to their own companies.

Sessions are currently scheduled in Cheyenne, Gillette and Sheridan, with CANDO hoping to hold at least one more in Douglas, if there is interest.

Interested businesses should contact Cindy Porter at CANDO at 358-2000.

“We’ll schedule a free business assessment with them and then talk to them about the small business Lean training,” she said.

Learn more about Lean Manufacturing

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