The MRC Lean6® Transformation Process

Lean Manufacturing 101
Lean Manufacturing has been touted as one of the best competitive tools available in business today, delivering sometimes dramatic savings in productivity, cycle time, ans work-in-process inventories.

Lean Office
Lean Office is taking the principles of Lean Manufacturing and applying them to an office environment to identify and eliminate non-value added activities to increase throughput and reduce cycle times. Through the implementation of Lean techniques, the office is transformed from a confused and a slow process to a much more efficient and effective operation with increased capability to:

Reduce cycle times Reduce Work-in Process Reduce costs Increase capacity Improve lead times

Increase sales Increase productivity Improve quality Increase profits

Cellular Flow Manufacturing
Cellular Flow Manufacturing involves linking and balancing process steps to reduce process lead times by as much as 95%, Work-in-Process by 90% and floor space by 50-75%, while increasing productivity by 40% or more. Cellular Flow Manufacturing brings dramatic changes in the way product flows so that customer demand is met-on time-every time.

Minimize part movement and inventory Reduce lead times, cycle times and waiting times Increase productivity and quality performance

Free floor space Improve efficiency of cross-training Increase communication and flexibility

5S Workplace Organization & Standardization
5S Workplace Organization & Standardization reduces waste through a systematic application of the 5S System-Sort, Set in Order, Shine, Standardize and Sustain. The 5S System helps your company:

Improve quality Decrease changeover time Improve safety Reduce storage costs

Reduce cycle time Reduce machine down time Improve employee morale and work environments

Kaizen Events
Kaizen Events are a fast-paced, focused process for improving a specific component of a business-a product line, a machine, or a process. The event utilizes a cross-functional team of five to ten employees for a quick problem solving exercise where they focus on designing solutions to meet some well defined goals. Using supervisors and workers from the target area, the team establishes specific, measurable objectives to accomplish during the event, enabling your company to:

Reduce lead time Increase productivity Reduce work in progress

Improve quality Reduce space utilization

Pull/Kanban Systems
Pull/Kanban Systems control the flow or resources in a production process by replacing only what has been consumed, and employs customer order-driven production schedules based on actual demand and consumption rather than forecasting.

Quick Changeover/Set-up Reduction
Quick Changeover, based on the pioneering work of Dr. Shigeo Shingo and his SMED (Single Minute Exchange of Die) System of Setup Reduction, helps your company save money, maximize capacity, perform quicker setups, increase flexibility and improve product quality while reducing waste.

Total Productive Maintenance (TPM)
TPM is a process that maximizes the productivity of equipment for its entire life cycle and will extend the life cycle of equipment. Through the participation of all employees, TPM creates an environment that encourages improvement efforts in safety, quality, cost, delivery and creativity.

Maximize equipment productivity and capacity as measured by Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OOE)

Create well engineered equipment; building in safety and quality Develop people who are equipment knowledgeable

Value Stream Mapping (VSM) & Office (VSO)
Value Stream Mapping is a Lean Manufacturing technique which assesses an organization’s openness and capability for realizing change. It is a systematic approach that draws a holistic representation of the material and information flows for the facility, enabling participants to visualize value-added and non-value added activities for the entire stream in current and future states in order to plan improvement activities.

Office Value Stream Mapping focuses attention on the value stream for each product family, not just isolated activities, and leads to improving the whole. It is used to identify impediments to improve performance in the office. A common benchmark for lean manufacturers is 400% improvement in enterprise productivity over ten years; typically 1/8 of this improvement is obtained from the shop floor while the remaining opportunities are in the administrative functions of the enterprise (procurement, accounting, engineering, sales and order processing).

Lean Soft Skills
Practicing Lean Manufacturing is the answer for improving bottom line performance, but the strategies and methods can only go so far. To achieve and maximize these goals, you need people that possess the skills to respond to constant change, shorter demand cycles, and a quicker pace of doing business.

Lean people skills are the prerequisites to creating a Lean Enterprise. The development of “lean” people includes understanding how their communications, management, teamwork, conflict resolution and idea generation affect the whole enterprise and its ultimate needs and goals. Soft people skills are needed to optimize employees’ contribution to the effective implementation of Lean practices, thus improving bottom line results. An organization’s single most important asset is an efficient, well-trained workforce that makes the difference between a company’s success and growth or failure.