Living in Ohio and Loving Japan

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Last we heard, our heroes at Dana Holding Corp. were battling the evil auspices of bankruptcy, looking for a protagonist -- a champion among men -- to wield his lean sword and rescue them from their inefficiency laden business practices.

Turn the page past Chapter 11, and Dana is now posting gains in the millions since Toyota veteran Gary Convis proved to be just the knight in shining armor they needed.

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Using Lean Manufacturing To Improve The Bottom Line

Lean and Green!

Who's going green? Companies throughout the world are caught in the wave of leafy green spunk, touting themselves as reformed, efficient greensters. But there is a little more to making your supposedly earth-loving biz green than just paying a few extra bucks for the recycling guy to pick up some additional color-coded bins each month.

Being lean and green is a very possible and very real thing, according to environmental management research pioneers Rothenberg and Maxwell. There are strong correlations between good manufacturing practices and superb environmental performances. As you take a page from lean and get that warehouse cleaned up and running more efficiently, that organization can better the environment ... Better-running equipment and a cleaner facility all around are good, earth-friendly components. Further, employing lean manufacturing techniques inevitably leads to less waste and lower inventory levels. Those companies that really take lean above and beyond are eligible for ISO9001 certification (superior quality management systems), which can be a precursor to adopting ISO14001 standards (superior environmental management). These certifications are set forth by the International Organization for Standardization, a non-government entity that endorses world-wide proprietary, industrial, and commercial standards.

A company can go green these days in a number of ways. Use renewable energy and biofuels, redesign production systems to be more environmentally friendly (cleaner, more efficient technologies), help your equipment to fulfill their maximum useful lifespans, or implement a new rage called TQEM (Total Quality Environmental Management).

A brilliant example of a company who successfully went lean and green is 3M, our favorite scotch tape pusher. The international diversified technology company created the 3P program for its worldwide facilities: Pollution Prevention Pays. In the name of preventing pollution at its source, the worldwide mega-co began using water-based coating for tablets in substitution for solvent-solution coating. The results? A $15k cost savings per year in raw materials, the prevention of 24 tons of air pollution, and the $180k-break that came with elimination of pipe treatment for air pollution concerns.

Nicely done, 3M! Let's get more companies on board. Lean implementation has been on the rise for the past few decades; adopting green should seem natural and complimentary to an already lean facility. You did it for your bottom line before; now do it for your earth.

The following video is a report about Toyota and lean manufacturing techniques that was aired on "Report on Business Television"

It provides a good overview of the Toyota Production System (TPS), which is the overall name for the lean manufacturing techniques Toyota developed, such as kaizen, kanban (JIT) and 5S. Their lean manufacturing techniques have given Toyota the ability to "produce cars the way Dell makes computers. " They have no inventory and they make each car to customer specifications as they are ordered. This is called flexible assembly.

This 4:20 minute video points out that the corporate culture is important. Everyone from the top down must embrace and support TPS principles. For example, unlike other car manufacturers the Toyota production line does not have a lot of quality inspectors at the end of the line. They are not needed because quality goes into the product, and is verified, during production.