Lean Dynamics LLC                                                                            

Lean Dynamics brings its clients a strong capability in manufacturing improvement based on Lean principles.  We have deep experience and demonstrated capability with how lean principles must be adapted for the process industries: food & beverage, consumer products, pharma, and chemicals.  In fact, the seminal work in this area, Lean for the Process Industries was written by Peter L. King, President of Lean Dynamics.

We promote “Lean – With a Purpose”.  Everything should be done to satisfy a well-defined business need, to bring tangible value to the business.  Lean done without a defined business purpose, based only on a belief that Lean is a good thing, may achieve some meaningful results but is rarely sustainable.

We have a well-defined, time tested roadmap for applying lean principles to optimize manufacturing effectiveness, in a way that the operation is ready for each next step along the way, and that each step builds on the foundation provided by the previous steps. 

Our lean roadmap includes a number of effective processes, that when applied in the right order, can completely transform a manufacturing operation:

• Workforce engagement - to signal to the associates that they are a valued part of the operation and to tap into their experience and unleash their creativity

• Value Stream Mapping (VSM) - to understand flow, barriers to smooth flow, and where wastes occur in the process.
  

• 5S – to improve workspace organization and operating convenience, but more importantly to begin to show real improvement early and to begin to build value for work standards and operating discipline.

• Kaizen Events (Action Workouts) - to further engage the workforce, but with a real purpose driven by the wastes found on the VSM so that real improvements are realized

• Visual Management, management at the Gemba (the place where the work is done) - to build a bond between associates and leaders.

• Total productive Maintenance (TPM) to improve the value-adding use of the equipment.

• Single Minute Exchange of Dies (SMED)  - to reduce changeover time and cost, to reduce inventories, shorten lead times, and enhance agility and responsiveness.



• OEE improvement to increase usable capacity and throughput.
  

• De-bottlenecking - to improve throughput and reduce in-process inventories; Theory of Constraints to insure full bottleneck utilization.

• Cellular flow patterns - to reduce flow variability, standardize flow paths, and reduce changeover complexity.

• Production scheduling using Product Wheels – to level production to reduce production peaks and valleys, to right-size campaign lengths to eliminate short runs and illogical changeovers, and to sequence products to simplify changeovers. 
  

• Pull Replenishment – to minimize inventories to the levels need for smooth uninterrupted flow based on real time conditions on the plant floor.

• Supermarket design – to right-size inventories (aka “Supermarkets”) needed to support Pull using analytical methods based on replenishment frequency, forecast errors and lead time variabilities.