Discrete Manufacturing Consulting
Empower your discrete manufacturing operations by driving productivity, enhancing flexibility, and improving quality
Manufacturing companies face growing complexity in their operations, driven by increasing market volatility, supply chain constraints, higher product customization, and rising labor and material costs. To maintain competitiveness, organizations must enhance their agility, optimize resource utilization, and eliminate inefficiencies across their processes.
By implementing lean manufacturing principles and tools, companies can streamline production, reduce lead times, and increase productivity and quality. This leads to greater operational stability, cost reduction, and improved responsiveness to customer demands.
At Kaizen Institute, we support organizations in designing their operational strategies and embedding a culture of continuous improvement. Our approach enhances manufacturing efficiency, improves output consistency, and creates more resilient and flexible production systems. Through discrete manufacturing consulting, we support companies in developing high-performing operations, fully aligned with ESG principles and leveraging the best available technologies and digital solutions.
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Client results
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- Value Stream Mapping (VSM): Mapping both material and information flows across the value stream and measuring key performance indicators (KPIs) to identify inefficiencies, bottlenecks, and waste, establishing a clear baseline for improvement opportunities.
- Training in Kaizen Lean Principles and Methodologies: Equipping teams with the skills and mindset needed to apply Lean thinking and tools, enabling them to actively contribute to the design of the future state.
- Future State Vision: Developing an optimized value stream with enhanced process flow, reduced lead times, and increased efficiency, ensuring alignment with strategic business objectives.
- Implementation Plan and Cost-Benefit Analysis: Developing a roadmap structured around Kaizen Events, and a detailed evaluation of costs, expected benefits, and key performance indicators to drive a successful transformation.
- Structuring Teams by Value Stream: Organizing teams based on the value stream to enhance accountability, improve cross-functional collaboration, and align daily activities with business objectives.
- Team Boards and Meetings: Implementing structured communication routines, such as visual management boards and regular team meetings, to ensure alignment, track progress, and facilitate decision-making.
- Workplace Organization (5S): Applying 5S manufacturing methodology (Sort, Straighten, Scrub, Standardize, Sustain) to create a well-organized, efficient, and safe work environment that supports productivity.
- Other Improvement Tools: Training teams in process standardization, structured problem-solving methods, and continuous improvement techniques, enabling them to proactively identify inefficiencies, enhance workflows, and drive a culture of excellence and engagement.
- Lean Line Design: Optimizing layout and production line design to implement one-piece flow, eliminate non-value-added operations, such as unnecessary movements, while enhancing manufacturing efficiency and improving workflow continuity.
- Border of Line: Structuring the interface between production lines and logistics to ensure smooth material flow (line supply and collection), minimize handling time, and enhance overall responsiveness.
- Standard Work: Studying and improving work methods to establish best practices that ensure consistency, reduce variability, and enhance productivity across operations.
- SMED (Single Minute Exchange of Die): Reducing changeover time in manufacturing processes to increase flexibility, enable batch size and stock reduction, improve equipment utilization, and reduce equipment downtime.
- Low-Cost Automation: Implementing cost-effective automation solutions to enhance process efficiency, reduce manual effort, and improve production reliability without major capital.
- Supermarkets: Implementing strategically placed storage areas aligned with the principles of easy picking access, visual management, and consumption-based replenishment.
- Mizusumashi: Establishing a logistics operator responsible for supplying components to the point-of-use, picking up finished products, and transporting production orders, all within a Standard Work cycle to ensure efficient material flow.
- Synchronization: Ensuring seamless coordination of material flow and production sequences through Kanban systems and Junjo, optimizing workflow efficiency and maintaining smooth operations.
- Leveling: Distributing production volume evenly over time to balance workloads, stabilize processes, and reduce variability, ensuring a steady and efficient workflow.
- Pull Planning: Aligning production and material replenishment with actual demand, minimizing overproduction, reducing waste, and enhancing responsiveness to customer needs.
- Storage and Warehouse Design: Structuring warehouse layouts and designing operation standards to minimize waste, maximize space utilization, improve accessibility, and enhance material flow efficiency.
- Milkrun: A logistics approach in which a dedicated operator manages all external logistics movements through standardized routes with reliable schedules and high transport frequency, reducing transportation costs and optimizing inventory management.
- Inbound and Sourcing: Optimizing inbound flows, including unloading, sorting, inspection, and storage, while managing the procurement of raw materials and components to reduce waste, ensure timely delivery, and improve cost efficiency.
- Outbound and Delivering: Enhancing outbound flows, including picking, quality control, repacking, and loading, while optimizing the distribution process to ensure efficient order fulfillment, reduce lead times, and improve customer satisfaction.
- Total Pull Planning: Implementing a demand-driven approach in all the logistic loops of the supply chain to synchronize material flow, minimize excess inventory, and improve overall production efficiency.
- Standardization: Establishing clear, repeatable processes by defining work and quality control standards to ensure consistent quality, minimize variability, and drive continuous improvement over time.
- Problem Solving: Using structured methodologies such as Kobetsu Kaizen, along with complementary tools like 5 Whys and Ishikawa Diagrams, to identify root causes, eliminate defects, and enhance quality performance.
- Autonomous Quality: Empowering employees to take ownership of quality at the source by implementing an autonomous quality matrix to identify source and detection points, while incorporating tools such as self-inspection standards and error-proofing (Poka-Yoke) to prevent defects or detect them early in the process.
- Six Sigma Tools: Applying data-driven techniques such as Statistical Process Control (SPC) and Design of Experiments (DOE) to reduce variability and achieve high process reliability.
Impact
Average assembly-line efficiency increase
Average overall productivity increase
Average total inventory coverage days reduction
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Our Approach
The KAIZEN™ approach begins with an end-to-end analysis. This analysis leads to a customized solution design and implementation plan. The contribution of the teams is critical to the success of any Lean journey. We organize our customers’ teams to break functional silos and develop continuous improvement skills.
We support our clients in implementing the initiative’s plan, ensuring set objectives are met.
Change Management
Kaizen Institute’s approach is practical, pragmatic, and collaborative. We work with our customers in their Gemba – where the action takes place – and observe the opportunities first-hand.
Our experts combine deep expertise with refined analytical and problem-solving skills, bringing an external and fact-based perspective to the industry’s challenges and opportunities.
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We create customized solutions for every business area
Kaizen Institute works directly with the client teams, with a “Hands On” and “Teaching by Doing” approach
Kaizen Institute works directly with the client teams, with a “Hands On” and “Learning by Doing” approach
