Larger companies were impacted heavily, but many of them were buffered by significant cash reserves that smaller companies lacked, so many smaller businesses were impacted to a greater degree.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\nThe Advantage of Small<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Lean has always been a goal, in one form or another, in the manufacturing world, but it\u2019s become more critical in the last couple of years, and certainly more companies have realized that they\u2019re ill prepared to suffer disruption on a large scale. But ironically, smaller companies have less in overhead to adapt to changes. As they say, \u201cit\u2019s easier to turn a speedboat than a cruise ship,\u201d so small companies\u2019 size is an advantage in that respect. They can change more easily, but the question is, \u201chow?\u201d. Or what tools and methodologies can they put in place to help them transform?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Change is difficult for any size company. No large company suddenly says, \u201cHey, we\u2019re going to be Lean,\u201d and then it happens in a snap or even over six months or a year. Regardless of company size, Lean starts small\u2014likely in a specific area\u2014and grows over time. Lean manufacturing is adopted slowly and expands organically.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In smaller companies you have more direct access to the executive team to make a company-wide transformation and, make no mistake, executive buy-in is critical to Lean success. Below are a few fundamental principles of Lean manufacturing worth considering for smaller organizations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Fundamental Principle #1: Customer First<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n The primary principle of Lean is customer first<\/em>. There\u2019s nothing more important than what the customer wants. Everything should be aligned around that need, whether it\u2019s designing a product or manufacturing a product based on customer demand. Companies sometimes forget about this very simple but critically important principle when they\u2019re looking at how to change internally or why they should change. The driving force should always be what\u2019s important to the customer or what the customer needs. Sometimes the customer could be internal. For example, a manufacturing department delivering to a distribution network: the distribution network, then, is a customer. Nonetheless, customer first<\/em> is the most important principle of Lean.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Fundamental Principle #2: Waste Not<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Another Lean principle, derived from muda<\/em>, the Japanese term for waste, is only produce what\u2019s needed<\/em>. In other words, minimize waste as much as possible. One of the most important of the seven types of waste in Lean, especially for smaller companies, is not overproduce<\/em>, which is wasteful of time, effort, materials, and parts. Small companies don\u2019t have the luxury or the budgets to overproduce.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Satisfy the customer but do so by being efficient and by producing only what\u2019s needed to meet that customer need and no more\u2014even if more can be done. It is more efficient to repurpose that time and effort somewhere else.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Fundamental Principle #3: Standardize Products and Operations<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Standardize products, if possible. However, consumers today want customized products, so this Lean principal is less of a focus, depending upon the industry. An extreme analogy is no one wants a black Ford Model T anymore. We all prefer custom products precisely tailored to what we want. So, standardization of product is difficult these days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Standardization of operations to balance and even out workload, however, is still a key part of Lean manufacturing, described by another Japanese term, mura<\/em>. Again, larger companies, with a litany of legacy processes and systems and people, find it much harder to change direction and standardize. Smaller companies typically have fewer legacy processes and systems; so theoretically, they enact change and remove inconsistencies easier because the list of things to change is much smaller.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Fundamental Principle #4: Keep Asking Why?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Smaller companies face endless daily problems either on the manufacturing shop floor or at the more strategic level with product engineering and design. Lean tools have been developed along with lean principles that help companies stretch their problem-solving so their teams can be more adept at facing challenges and solving them effectively.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Five Whys is a classic Lean manufacturing tool to help you get to the root cause of a problem or expose potential problems in your processes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It\u2019s really a simple approach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If you have a problem, ask Why? <\/em>five times:<\/p>\n\n\n\n I couldn\u2019t get to work on time this morning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Why? I got up late.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Why? I didn\u2019t set my alarm clock last night.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Why? I forgot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Why? I was out too late.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Why? I didn\u2019t drive to pub and my friends wanted to stay late.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And so on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You can use this with your kids, spouses, and anybody else. Sometimes teams\u2014and manufacturing teams, especially\u2014lack some of these basic structures and disciplines to effectively address challenges and problems. The five whys<\/em> is a classic and very helpful Lean tool.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Lean provides a number of these simple techniques as part of its tool kit, if you will, that empower company teams to dig in and find the right answers to nagging problems, which enable smaller companies to solve their customer and operational problems in the most efficient way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Where the Rubber Meets the Road<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Next week we will discuss how to apply these principals at your company, associated challenges, and what kind of results you can expect.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If this discussion has piqued your interest in how to implement Lean principles at your company,\u00a0please contact your local SOLIDWORKS reseller<\/a>\u00a0to learn about\u00a0DELMIA 3DLean<\/a>, which makes it easier to collaborate with Lean teams\u2014internally and externally\u2014while automatically capturing all data securely in the cloud on the\u00a03D<\/strong>EXPERIENCE\u00ae platform<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"\/](\"https:\/\/blogs.solidworks.com\/solidworksblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/08\/2leanshopfloor.jpg\")
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