Tag: replenishment

  • The Future of the Organization is On Your Shoulders

    The Future of the Organization is On Your Shoulders

    Become a superhero today

     

    Imagine this: You’re in a high-level planning meeting with senior leadership, when the CEO and CFO issue a clear mandate: Get inventory levels under control. The VP of Sales, never being one to hold back an opinion, steps in to argue that the organization needs to become more competitive if it’s to survive. Right now, your promised lead times are the longest in the industry – even longer considering how often your promised delivery dates are not met. Lowering inventory levels will only make things worse!

    The VP of Sales claims that, if service levels don’t improve, sales’ only recourse is going to be to offer deeper discounts even though margins are already paper thin. The CFO and the CEO declare, in no uncertain terms, that playing the pricing game is not an option.

    The meeting ended with everyone looking at you, clearly expecting you to come up with a way to lower inventory levels, decrease lead times and improve on-time deliveries. Basically, the future of the organization is riding on your shoulders. No problem, right?

    Right!

    eKanban Saves the Day

    Since senior leadership expects you to be Batman or Wonder Woman, it’s a good thing you’ve got a utility belt called Demand-Driven Manufacturing. On this belt are a number of utilities that can help manufacturers achieve what may seem like impossible (and conflicting) goals.

    eKanban saves the day

    In today’s post, I want to focus on one of the easiest utilities to master: eKanban. Since eKanban also targets one of manufacturing’s biggest issues (excess inventory), this is where many manufacturing superheroes begin. (There are some other rather nifty tools on this utility belt, like constraints management, but it makes sense for a lot of manufacturing managers to tackle improvements in stages.)

    As most manufacturers already know, Kanban is the visual inventory replenishment system that is fundamental to pull (demand-driven) manufacturing. When production is pulled through the factory based on actual orders, inventory levels go down because no more than is needed is produced.

    eKanban packs a punch in terms of inventory cost savings

    eKanban is a more powerful version of Kanban as the visual signals are electronic instead of physical cards. Electronic signals can be sent upstream faster, and there are no cards to lose. It’s also easier to learn to use an eKanban system because there are typically fewer steps involved. One manufacturer we worked with reduced the number of steps in their replenishment process from 66 down to 6 by replacing their manual Kanban system with SyncKanban eKanban software from Synchrono®.

    SyncKanban further magnifies the benefit of eKanban by making the system even more responsive to actual demand. Whereas many eKanban systems still require the operator to set the number of Kanban signals in the system, SyncKanban automatically recalculates the optimal number of signals based on actual demand. If there are more orders than anticipated, the number of eKanban signals in the system goes up in real-time. If there are fewer orders, the number of eKanban signals goes down, ensuring no more is produced than is necessary to fill orders.

    eKanban: Your Multi-Purpose Utility

    While you’re delivering a big Kapow! to excess inventory, don’t be afraid to tackle other key performance metrics at the same time. eKanban can also help here because eKanban signals pull production through the facility based on actual orders. When work center C needs more of a subassembly built at work center B, a signal is sent for replenishment to workstation B. With work at every work center focused on only what is needed, queue times decrease and flow increases. On time deliveries often increase as well with SyncKanban because of the application’s ability to match flow to demand in real time.

    One manufacturer was able to reduce inventory by 55% while also reducing leads times from 12 weeks to 2. Read the full story. Another manufacturer’s implementation of SyncKanban landed them on Supply and Demand Chain Executive’s 2017 list of 100 great supply chain projects. Learn more.

    Become an inventory superheroBe a Superhero in a Hurry

    Clark Kent changed into Superman with a quick hop into a phone booth. If only it were that easy! Not only are phone booths in short supply these days, production management is a bit more complicated than donning a red and blue onesie and a cape.

    Nevertheless, SyncKanban eKanban software is one of the easiest tools to implement, and many of our customers start seeing the positive impact of eKanban on inventory levels in less than 90 days. eKanban doesn’t even require the manufacturer to replace their ERP system. You can learn more about this in our paper The Changing Role of ERP in Manufacturing.

    We have a ton of material about implementing eKanban on our website. One of the most popular is the white paper series on eKanban that starts with Gaining Control: Exploring Push v Pull. If you’re already convinced eKanban is the right tool to use and it’s just a matter of how to get started, you’ll enjoy the series of guests posts from one of our customers that starts with Real-World Advice for Getting Started on eKanban. You can also watch a demo of SyncKanban or request a free trial version on our website so you can explore the tool first hand.

     

     

  • Guest Blog: Real-world Advice for Getting Started on eKanban

    Guest Blog: Real-world Advice for Getting Started on eKanban

    by Jim Shore

    Through this guest blog series, I’d like to share some of my experiences implementing supplier quality and Lean manufacturing initiatives by focusing on eKanban systems. This first entry offers advice for planning an eKanban rollout – suggestions that can also be applied across any Lean manufacturing project.

    As a result, my hope is that you, too, will experience successful Lean results.

    Lean eKanban

    Leadership matters

    My training as a U.S. Marine gave me many skills I carried over into civilian life and into my work as a Lean practitioner. First, I gained deep respect for strong leadership; and second, I’ve come to value a pragmatic approach to project execution.

    Successful projects start with buy-in from the top and an eKanban initiative is no exception. At a minimum,  recruit an executive sponsor to serve as the project spokesperson – someone who will fully support and clearly communicate with all stakeholders the rationale for the project. I know it sounds simple. Even though the benefits to the business are real (e.g., reduced inventory waste and carrying costs and more) asking people to change the way they work is also real. Let your leaders know project success is accelerated through gaining universal buy-in. (If you think about it, this is also a waste-reducing, Lean strategy!)

    The reality is that sometimes change is welcomed and other times you may meet resistance. Efficiency programs, whether Lean, Six Sigma or Theory of Constraints (ToC), require that teams understand the impact change can have on an environment. Change management strategies stress over-communication of:

    1. What the organization intends to accomplish;leadership advocates
    2. Why the organization is undergoing the change;
    3. What the change means to each individual;
    4. How success will be measured;
    5. How accountability will be measured.

    From the plant floor to senior management, buy-in starts with a clear rationale and explanation of how the new eKanban process or Lean methodology will add value. Leaders must effectively engage all levels of the team; explaining how the new process is great for them, the company, the customer and suppliers (for those using supplier Kanbans).  The last two bullets are extremely important. Ensure it is clear how success will be defined and how everyone will be held accountable for achieving it. In my experience, the best method is tying the annual bonus to the success of the project.

    Overcoming barriers to create lasting change vs. “initiative-of-the-month” change

    While rare, resistance can manifest as blatant sabotage of the new Lean initiative. More likely, resisters will remain quiet and hope the advocates of the new method will lose enthusiasm and the execution of the Lean project will fade, reverting to the status quo. To reverse this, make them part of the solution.

    On an eKanban project I led for a materials testing and extrusion-control instrumentation manufacturer, the rollout of the new software involved multiple sites. Corporate leadership sponsored and evangelized the project, but we still needed buy-in at the local plant level. By involving outspoken resisters in the process, we ended up gaining some real advocates – it also helped that we were able to reduce the replenishment process from 66 to just 6 simple steps.

    eKanban blog

    It goes without saying that for this – and any eKanban project – you achieve success through consistent communication and universal team buy-in. Depending on where your replenishment occurs, this principle extends beyond the four walls of an individual plant or enterprise, to your suppliers. (I’ll provide advice for engaging suppliers in the next post.)

    As part of their advocacy for the eKanban initiative – or any modern demand-driven supply chain project – leaders need to distinguish the project as a serious, ongoing operating process, not an initiative of the month.

    Drive the planning process with bottom-line facts

    A significant part of the planning process is business justification. Automating replenishment with an eKanban system provides some highly quantifiable returns.

    There is a real cost of carrying inventory and eliminating this cost frees up accessible cash that can be reinvested into the company. Consider the following:

    • The cost of just carrying inventory at a component level adds 10% to the valuation of the actual part – and that valuation increases by 10% for every month the material is not transformed into sellable goods.
    • On average, the cost of carrying finished goods is approximately 20% of its cost.

    For manufacturers managing materials with expirations, these costs can be compounded through scrap.

    These are just some examples of costs I help clients quantify as part of their business case for investing in an eKanban solution. Examine how these cost savings could impact your business. You can see how real-time inventory replenishment with an eKanban system can pay for itself fairly quickly.

    In the next post, I’ll cover some best practices for eKanban implementations utilizing Kaizen events and value stream mapping.

    Related resources:

    Article: Going eKanban – Moving from a Manual to an eKanban system

    Case Study: Continuous Improvement Immersion + the Right Tools Proves Profitable for Dynisco

    White Paper: Common Barriers to Moving from Push to Pull Manufacturing

     

    Jim Shore is the Principal of Quality Lean Solutions, a Consultant Firm that specializes in Medical Device companies, Supplier Quality and Lean Manufacturing principles.  Mr. Shore is co-author of “Proactive Supplier Management in the Medical Device Industry” (2016: Quality Press). Jim has 25 years of quality and supplier management experience in medical devices, semiconductor, aerospace and defense for firms and organizations including Titan Medical, Nypro Healthcare, Boston Scientific, Aspect Medical, Brooks Automation, Raytheon and ACMI Gyrus (now Olympus). He is Six Sigma Black Belt and Quality Manager/Operations Excellence-certified by the American Society for Quality (ASQ), as well as an ASQ-certified Quality Auditor and Mechanical Inspector. A veteran of Operation Desert Storm, he served in the U.S. Marine Corps for more than 15 years.

    Supply Chain Brief Best Article

  • Doing more with less: Learning from Kanban

    Doing more with less: Learning from Kanban

    The manual Kanban cards that were the precursor to Lean Manufacturing have evolved into eKanban systems that automate inventory replenishment and reduce material waste...

     

     

    READ MORE on our guest post on EBN, the premier online community for global supply chain professionals.

     

    EBN

     

     

    Supply Chain Brief Best Article

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