Eliminating the 7 Wastes throughout the Production Cycle

摘要

Any company embracing lean manufacturing philosophy generally focuses on eliminating the seven wastes. However, most companies focus primarily on doing that in manufacturing. At SigmaTron International's Elk Grove Village, IL, facility, production is primarily high-mix, low-to-medium volume. Not surprisingly, when that facility's team focused on eliminating the seven wastes as part of internal continuous improvement initiatives, they focused on both administrative and manufacturing processes occurring over the entire product realization cycle, from order acceptance through finished goods delivery. Program managers, buyers and operations personnel are all part of this focus on eliminating inefficiency. In SigmaTron's model, the goal is to normalize variances and level-load the factory through a combination of good supply chain management, an understanding of customer demand patterns, elimination of defect opportunities and, when needed, finished goods Kanbans.