Lean and Mean

What started in Highland Park, Mich., 100 years ago with Henry Ford’s assembly line, and was forwarded after World War II by automaker Toyota’s production system, is now widely available to professionals across myriad industries in the form of “lean” manufacturing. Lean is a production philosophy that considers the expenditure of resources in any aspect other than the direct creation of value for the end customer to be wasteful, and thus a target for elimination.

In the Show-Me State, nonprofit Missouri Enterprise, which partners with government agencies including the U.S. Department of Labor and the Missouri Department of Economic Development, works on the front lines to deliver business optimization services.

Missouri Enterprise President and CEO Dusty Cruise said last year, Missouri Enterprise staff assisted roughly 200 businesses in adopting lean practices. According to surveys conducted with customers by the U.S. Department of Commerce,- the nonprofit helped businesses save more than $56 million last year, spurred $92 million in new investment and helped create 116 jobs.

Cruise said while manufacturers are typical clients, lean principles span a range of industries, such as insurance, health care and construction. Wherever processes and people come together, lean manufacturing can help minimize costs. “There are always ways to look at what you’re doing and simplify the steps or minimize the work that’s involved,” Cruise said.

The methodology has made a difference at 80-year-old Lebanon-based machine and tool manufacturer DTE Corp., which embraced the process over five years ago.

President Thomas Waters, who’s led DTE – formerly Detroit Tool & Engineering – for more than two years, is very familiar with lean manufacturing, having worked with Toyota in the 1980s as the carmaker brought its systems to new American plants.

“I was one of the first foreign employees hired,” Waters said. “When they were trying to define lean manufacturing in English, I was one of the ones helping transfer this to another nation.”

Waters said the cornerstone of lean manufacturing sits with the “five S” principles of sort, set, shine, standardize and sustain, each designed to help companies weed out unnecessary steps.

“The way lean looks at making something is it divides (the process) into a manageable group of parts that need to come together,” he said. “What Toyota did is break the whole building of the car down into some very small steps and then defined those steps really well for each operator.”

Since implementing lean across DTE’s 230,000-square-foot plant, workstations have rolling carts filled with tools used only at that location. Designers at the 110-employee company have access to computers on the assembly floor enabling them to make modifications as needed.

Serving national clients, such as John Deere Co. and Caterpillar, DTE makes lawn-mower engine coverings, air conditioner parts and cigarette lighters across a range of industries. In early November, the company filled a dozen large machine orders for clients and around 50 smaller projects such as equipment tools. Waters said efficiently filling those orders is something clients expect.  

He declined to estimate cost savings or business gained through lean practices, but said those principles have informed the company’s culture and on its operational view.

“We have less waste. We can build things faster because we don’t have to look for things. The assembly time may be the same, but the search and hunt-and-peck time is gone,” Waters said. “That makes our customers happier and drives business.”   

DTE workers now ride three-wheel bikes with baskets to get from one side of the sprawling building to the other.

“Not everybody liked that idea at first,” said DTE Manufacturing Manager Tommy Millsap. “But they use them all the time now.”

On the ground level, Millsap said being lean is all about being clean and organized.

“It really has helped us stay attuned to our needs,” he said, adding having tools and workstations organized helps improve safety and let staff and managers know when new tools are needed.

Missouri Enterprise’s Cruise said when lean principles are adopted correctly, floor space opens up, inventory levels drop and employee morale improves.

“You have fewer machine and process breakdowns. The end result is you have more output per man hour than you’d have otherwise,” he said. “And usually you can get more business because you can be more competitive.”

Locally, Edmonds Dental Prosthetics Inc. and CTP Transportation Products LLC have utilized Missouri Enterprise in the past.

Cruise said at one copper tubing plant, Missouri Enterprise helped evaluate its production system, which led to a complete reorganization of its facility. Instead of workers handling the tubing six to eight times, the reorganization helped them handle the tubes just once or twice before shipping.

One engine manufacturer doubled the size of its assembly line after being evaluated by Missouri Enterprise. Cruise said the company wasted time by not having its production areas connected to its main 50-foot assembly line.

“By extending the line by another 50 feet, we could make those subassemblies feed directly into the assembly line just when they’re needed,” he said.

He acknowledged both cost and time are two key obstacles to adopting lean practices. Every company’s needs are different, so prices can vary widely. Costs typically range from a few hundred dollars to tens of thousands of dollars, he said, noting a couple organizations have spent more than $100,000 to maximize efficiency. Evaluations could stretch across a couple of months or a couple of years.

“It’s not the easiest thing to do,” Cruise said.

Easy or not, DTE’s Waters is a big believer in the concept.

Waters said since working with Missouri Enterprise, DTE has helped its own customers establish lean “cells,” or areas within their operations where they can strive to improve efficiency. He sees it as a service that gives his customers more value when spending money on equipment they might use for decades.

“Customers call us up now and want us to help put in lean,” Waters said.[[In-content Ad]]