This Italian manufacturing operation of 600 employees produces commercial communications equipment.  The operation employed a make to forecast planning system and was concerned about high levels of finished goods inventory, extended manufacturing lead times, and poor delivery performance.  Site management had investment plans drawn up to increase factory space in order to accommodate a 40% growth in volume over the forthcoming year.  The site was chosen as a pilot for a new lean manufacturing architecture aimed at boosting performance, and helping to deliver the company's growth plans.  One of our people led the detailed design and implementation of the “focused-factory” pilot at this operation.  A number of lean manufacturing cells were designed and implemented, employing a total of 90 people.  The work comprised of:

• The replacement of the existing forecast driven, push based, approach with a customer demand driven, assemble to order system

• The re-layout production into manufacturing cells, streamlining work flow

• The design of a cellular, team based, production organisation, with devolved support activities

• The establishment of Kanban control systems

• The development and implementation of lean performance measures for line-side monitoring and control

• The training of team leaders in problem solving techniques, leadership skills, and team working principles; and all pilot employees in cellular and lean manufacturing principles

The pilot successfully went live within 12 weeks.  Manufacturing lead times were rapidly cut by 75%, inventory inventory levels by 80%, and on time delivery performance rose close to 100%.   The floor space saved in the pilot area demonstrated that the planned volume increase could be accommodated without the planned investment in a new factory building.  The company subsequently rolled-out the lean manufacturing architecture to the remainder of this site, and its other key operations in Italy