LEAN Coaching & Implementation
Value Stream Mapping
In their book, Lean Enterprise, Jim Womack and Daniel Jones established a set of principles necessary to transform traditional enterprise systems into Lean enterprise systems. With MRC’s assistance, manufacturers use these powerful tools to map the flow of products and services in order to “pull” appropriate waste-elimination tools into problem-solving and continuous improvement.
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5S
A problem-solving culture requires processes that behave in predicable ways. Standard work sets the requirements for process outputs, as well as process inputs of skill, method, material, machine, measurement and environment.
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Standard Work
Standard work is the centerpiece of a Lean Enterprise as it creates process requirements and its expectations for those processes. Standard work establishes a single method to use enterprise processes and minimizes process variation caused by people, machines, materials, and the environment, enabling predictable results.
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Setup Reduction
Every day, businesses large and small lose tremendous amounts of productivity to poorly coordinated process setups that add waste to value streams. Setup is the time required to change the production process from the last good product produced to the first good new product produced. Long setup times often go unnoticed, as they are not typically viewed as part of a primary process to build products.
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Total Preventative Maintenance
Manufacturing and service organizations use various types of equipment to add value to material and information in the creation of products or services. When equipment performance is unpredictable, the ability for that process to achieve stability is diminished. And when a process is unstable, it becomes difficult to implement improvements and proactively solve problems.
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Maintenance Master
MRC’s Maintenance Master Certification is taught by Certified Maintenance and Reliability Professionals (CMRPs), and all sessions are held at on-site with local manufacturers to enhance learning with real-life examples. The workshops stress hands-on exercises and teamwork in order to improve equipment effectiveness, and participants become part of a maintenance professionals’ peer group to encourage networking and the sharing of best practices.
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LEAN leadership Culture
Many companies embarking on Lean journeys soon become frustrated with Kaizen events and isolated improvement projects that yield great short-term results but lack the ability to deliver sustainable improvement.
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Supply Chain Analysis
MRC, through the Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP) now gives manufacturers access to an innovative new strategic approach.
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Market Intelligence
Most small and medium-sized manufacturers lack the resources—human, financial, and otherwise—to aggressively pursue new sales leads. They realize the need for a Lead Generation effort, but without a dedicated structure, too many sales opportunities are likely to pass them by.
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Prevailing market forces play a key role in every business’s daily operations, and careful analysis of research data is the first step in creating an effective growth plan. Unfortunately, most off-the-shelf market research studies aren’t worth the time it takes to review them.
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Voice of the Customer
When businesses seek to grow top-line sales, the first step is to understand what the market needs and how to predict market trends.
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Competition plays a direct role in the success or failure of any business. Whether it’s the level of pricing pressure, the pace of innovation, or the services and benefits manufacturers are expected to offer, competitors place a stake in the ground that others must at least acknowledge if they hope to hold—let alone gain—market share.
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Technology-Driven Market Intelligence (TDMI) provides a systematic, comprehensive approach to technology-focused market intelligence research.
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Strategic Coaching
Strategic Planning
Most businesses and their leaders exist in the day-to-day, rarely (if ever) considering where they are going, much less how they are going to get there.
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Action Planning
MRC’s Action Planning coaching services are expert-led sessions that establish a baseline and support a recommended path forward to improve team deliverables and business operation. We begin by facilitating a business action planning session that includes interactive discussion and provides strategic management support. We follow this up with off-site analysis to summarize results and provide an actionable summary to your business. With the summary in hand, we deliver a focused action plan to support your strategic priorities.
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CoreValue Assessment
Through a partnership with CoreValue Software, MRC gives businesses the data and tools needed to build sustainable, transferable enterprise value. Founded in Lebanon, New Hampshire in 2012, CoreValue Software works with many Manufacturing Extension Partnership centers throughout the country to provide business valuation and improvement evaluations.
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Technology Solutions
Engineering Scouting
MRC’s Engineering Scouting services effectively connect businesses with proven technologies to solve technical issues, create new products, and improve processes. With a growing business need to shrink innovation cycles, retaining a competitive edge is an ever-increasing challenge that often means identifying and acquiring external technologies.
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Supplier Scouting
Manufacturers often struggle to find suppliers that meet specific criteria. Whether you are searching for a second supplier, or a new supplier to support a new product innovation, MRC can assist your supplier scouting efforts and effectively identify new vendors to support your business.
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ERP Selection & Implementation
Business Information systems—including Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), Supply Chain Management (SCM), Customer Relationship Management (CRM), and Product Lifecycle Management (PLM)—can deliver tremendous value, but only if selected and implemented properly.
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