The secret of productivity ; Lean Transformation

Recently, while I was playing with my four year old son Kerem, I told him that the cats can see better

in the dark. Afterwards my son asked me how I knew this.

I was speechless! How I would known this! Nor have I seen the earth from the eyes of a cat, Neither

have I met someone who has seen through eyes of a cat. It was just taught to me like this, so I have

accepted the information like I have accepted all the others given to me are true information without

feeling any need for a research.

Well, what if the cats really can not see better in the dark or maybe they could see better back in the

time when I was taught to be and they don’t have this unique property anymore now.

Always some information were given to us and we have accepted without having any need to

investigate and implemented them. The same applies in Manufacturing Operations,

- They told ‘Don’t let the machine stop, let it work, produce’; we have produced and made

overproduction.

- When there was a problem within the process, they told ‘Never stop the machine, we’ll fix

the problems later on, now we have to make production.’ We have continuously produced

and threw away the defected end products into garbage.

- They told ‘This customer is very important; never let any defect come out of the line’, We

tried to keep the quality on track by the operator we put at the backend of the line, but even

then we could not ship defect free product.

- They told ‘there is no budget for training.’ We did not give enough importance on trainings

and improvements; we could not benefit from the capacity of our workers, eventually we

have created a crowd of people without any hopes and targets.

- They told ‘Our financial KPIs are fine, we made a good profit in total sum.’ We could not

reach to details; we could not understand from which customer we made profit, and from

which we made loss.

We always did what has told to us but again we could not get the results we wanted, we could not be

productive, because we did not make researchs, did not follow the improvements and were always

closed to innovation.

World Wide Human Beings Splits into Three Groups

First Group: It is minority, the smallest group of all. All the innovation and improvements are done by

them. They put their signature to almost every new system or technology which enters into our life

and is very usefull.

Second Group: This group is a little bit wider than the first one. Even if they do not lead the

innovation, at least they continuously follow up the technology and the improvements and question

them. They compare their current or previous applications with the new systems and try to

implement the better.

Third Group: This is the biggest group which you can even not compare the amount of crowd with

the first and second group. They neither follow up the new improvements, nor know what is going on

in the world. They are only satisfied with the things that have been taught to them.

Which Group Do You Think You Belong to?

It doesn’t look like the effects of the global crisis would pass away easily. Infact some experts point

out that nothing’s going to be the same again, and we have to be prepeared living like this. While we

are coming from the very old time supplies which we have never thought that they will run out

someday, and going to the pasts’ limited supply opportunities, and currently moving further to the

futures’ non-existing supplies, all the business enterprises first priority subject is the use of supllies

very effectively and to be productive.

Briefly; to produce more and more with less and less.

So what is the password of being prouductive? What are the Do’s and Don’t’s of being productive?

In order to find answers to our questions, we have to step out of the third group which we are in,

into the second group which make research studies, question what has been told, and open to

innovation.

We have now passed into the second group. Now we are making researchs, question what has been

told, and compare what has been taught so far with the new technologies and innovations.

Who did what, how did they improve, how did they become a World Class Manufacturer? When we

seek answers and observe the results to the previous questions, we will see that the most of our

actions are not correct, most of them are must not do’s, and these actions we take are the biggest

contributors to our inefficiency.

We have just started to learn the pull system, the requirement of flow in production, jidoka culture,

continuous improvement philosophy, and other similar things that were already there but we are

learning them recently.

Yes, we knew it now.

The password of being productive is to be Lean...

With other words ‘ to think lean, to produce lean, and to bring up lean people.’

Like Toyota started doing many years ago, and keep on doing it now.

As production people, we have many way to pass through in being a ‘World Class Manufacturer’. We

have learnt well enough from our experiences, where we have to be and what we must not to do.

In means of Operational Excellence;

It is not an impossible target to be a best practice factory not only in one branch, also a best practice

factory for all other general process industries via implementing the wright principles together with

the

correct strategies.

In order to achieve this;

- Operational processes must be designed with excellence. (World Class Operating System and

procedures in all plants)

- Improvement programs must be planned for workforce. (Development program for our

employees - Skilled & Educated People)

- There must be a performance based management System -Management by objectives.

We and our country can only win via Lean Thinking.

Lutfi Apiliogullari, Istanbul

www.leanofis.com

Lutfi.apiliogullari@leanofis.com