Parkland College is hoping to bring workshops to help businesses streamline their operations to Yorkton this fall. To test out the community's level of interest, local business owners were invited to a one day introduction to Lean Principles.
"If we're not willing to talk about problems, how do we get better?" Asked instructor Lynne Marr, Director of Canadian Manufacturers and Exporters Saskatchewan. "If you don't have a problem, there is a problem because we're not seeing where our opportunities are . . . if you can see problems you can adapt."
The philosophy behind Lean Principles is simple-make a practice of solving problems that waste company time and resources.
"The concept itself isn't hard, the sticking with it and following through can be difficult," said Marr.Over time, every business develops little problems that have the potential to grow into bigger ones. The goal is always to find those problems and fix them before they make their way to the customer or client.
Henry Ford is credited with the original concept of Lean. Essentially, anything that does not add value to the product or service is waste and should be eliminated. For example, errors in documents and waiting for the next step or approval are among the seven forms of "waste" companies encounter.
Lean Principles are meant to create flow.
"As long as a product is moving along, it's not going to collect that waste. It's when it stops," said Marr.
No matter the size of the business, there are ways to put Lean Principles to use.
"Health care is one of these industries that has had a huge interest and a huge impact by Lean," explained Marr.
In North America, up to 95 per cent of lead time is wasted, or not adding value to the end result. "Most of the time is wait-inspect, double check, go get another signature."
Marr also explained how our workplace culture relies on "the superstar" employee to overcome the many roadblocks placed before them. Instead, she said businesses should provide a standard work environment in which average workers can excel.
The workshop ended with a Lego simulation of the "Sky-View Airplane Company" assembly line. It became easier to notice Lean opportunities when trying to manufacture 40 Lego airplanes in a day (eight minutes).
For more information about Lean workshops, call Parkland College at 1-866-783-6766.
