FACTORY BLITZ

9th October 2010

‘Lean Production – a practice that considers the expenditure of resources for any goal other than the creation of value for the end customer to be wasteful, and thus a target for elimination’

In March of this year, EL ES DE Engineering was awarded a position in the ‘Factory Blitz’ program which is run by the Australian Manfuacturing Technology Institute (AMTIL). This program – jointly funded by industry and the Commonwealth Government, aims to promote the early adoption of world-leading ‘best practice’ technologies and techniques in the businesses of program participants.

EL ES DE’s team were lucky enough to have the services of Micheal Barker from MJB Management Consultanting work with them during the course of the Blitz.

With Micheal’s guidance, the team worked through an extensive ‘Value Stream Mapping’ (VSM) process. The VSM details every single step that is made from the time of a customer enquiry right through to the delivery of an order.

EL ES DE mapped out it’s current processes, then identified steps which were not adding value to the customer or could be done more efficiently. A lot of head-scratching and soul-searching then went into the ‘Future State’ VSM, which will form the road map of the operations for the business going forward.

Despite having another three months left in the program, EL ES DE have already seen significant operational improvements from the outcomes of the Factory Blitz. The pursuit of a ‘Lean Production’ environment is given the highest priority by the team at EL ES DE Engineering. Lean methodologies will enable EL ES DE to continue to provide value to our customers and remain competitive in the global environment.

Micheal Barker - Director - MJB Management Consulting