Lean Management and industrial organization consultants

ATEMI Consulting is a Lean Management and industrial organization consultancy agency. Its expertise has been gained through major Lean transformations and performances, profitability and competitiveness improvements of companies such as United Technologies in the US, Airbus, numerous Airbus suppliers worldwide, Siemens automotive, Renault-Nissan...

Lean management is both a management approach and an organisational system that enables to generate or to improve Customer Value through the improvement of the company performances in Quality, Costs and Deliveries. Any company regardless of its industry sector, seeks to obtain better productivity at lower cost, flawless operations and streamlined processes. Lean is a set of key principles and methods aiming at the efficiency and effectiveness of all company processes through the systematic elimination of non-value added (wastes) and through the reduction of processes variations that generate defects and non-quality.

The key objective of Lean Management is to improve this Customer Value. Its improvement is fundamental in any company financial health initiative, competitiveness or in order to gain new market shares in a global competitive environment.

This Value is characterized by the ratio of the satisfaction of needs (from the customer perspective) and the cost associated to reach this satisfaction.

Customer Value = Satisfaction of Needs / Cost

Indeed, the Customer Value increases when the company performances in Quality (of products or services) and Delays are improved, in order to answer expectations and customer needs. The Customer Value increases also when the company internal costs are reduced and, as a consequence, the price of products and services to customers too.

That way, the Customer Value contibute significantly to company's profitability and competitiveness improvements.

In generating and maximizing Customer Value through the reduction of inefficiencies and through the reduction of non-value added, Lean Management improve the company performances, and at the same time, reduces internal costs.

In this context, ATEMI Consulting Lean Management consultants use 5 key operational Lean Management principles that are complementary and interrelated such as ; Pull, Takt, Flow, Zero Variation, Integration of All, which are the most efficient and effective Lean elements to improve the company performances in Quality, Delays and Costs, and which are applicable to any company processes (products or services), regardless of its sector of activity.

These principles associated to comprehensive Lean deployment structures (Lean diagnosis and/or Lean Operating System), allow ATEMI Consulting to propose rapid, practical and global solutions of implementing Lean Management in your company or to implement pragmatic solutions to resolve a specific Quality, Cost or Delivery performance issue.

The 5 key operational Lean Management principles :

5 Key Lean Principles atemi consulting lean management consultant — 5 Key operational Lean Principles

Flow & Single Piece Flow principles:

Increased customer satisfaction in Quality, Deliveries on time and Costs.
Accelerated answer to customer demands and market
Response to change can be managed more easily
Business issues become transparent and actions taken immediately
Significant waste (non value added) reduction
Lead times are reduced
Reduces inventories and Work-in-Process

Objectives of Flow principles:

Value flows uninterrupted along the Value Stream:

The sequence of value added tasks to the product is uninterrupted
Transportation and delays have been reduced to the absolute minimum
Value is added in a coordinated sequence of people, materials and information
The whole value stream is synchronized
Activities are coupled and tasks, equipment & organizations aligned to enable flow

Pull principles:

Produce only what the customer requires
Improved communication between processes
Standard method for communicating between processes - Kanban
Production system can respond to changes in customer demand
Decreases Inventory levels

Objectives of Pull principles:

Products are produced and delivered only at request of customer :

Customer demand controls component flow along the value stream
Material, information or support flow is directly triggered
Production is driven by “Pull” signals and mechanisms from downstream processes
The direct customer is always the next downstream process who sets the requirements for demand quality and delivery service
Work-in-Process is strictly optimized to the requirements of the Pull mechanisms and system is highly disciplined.

Takt time principles:

Gives the pace of the customer to the activities
Input to compare the time spent to the time available.
Enables to measure easily the progress
Lead time becomes a multiple of the Takt

Objectives of Takt time principles:

Takt time follows the pace of customer demand and the contents consist of only added value activities:

The work content of every Takt is defined in great detail and the work content distribution is perfectly levelled
The completion of each activity is visible and ensured within the Takt
The final customer demand is used to define Takt time and the organization can react quickly to changes
The forecasting outside of the frozen zone is also based on customer demand and retains flexibility
The number of Takt stations is reduced to an economical minimum

Zero Variation principles:

Doing right first time (no variation in Quality, Delivery, Cost)
Quality is physically integrated within the products and processes "Built-in-Quality"
Eliminating the causes of variation through:
- Anticipation and physical controls of potential defects (products and processes)
- Visual control of the process (to anticipate variations)
- Immediate Practical Problem solving
- Standards (SOI)

Objectives of Zero Variation principles:

There is no variation in the commitment made to the customer and the standard processes:

Delivery of the product, information or service matches the commitment in terms of quality, cost & delivery service
This is achieved is through zero deviation to standard processes
Immediate detection, signalling and remedy of incoming and created deviations occurs within Takt
Outgoing quality & check are the responsibility of the individual
Standard processes are designed to ensure zero variation and are continuously improved through root cause analysis, poka-yoke, etc...

Integration of All principles:

Integrating everyone. Working as teams.
Problems are treasures, that have to be lifted together (employees and management). Avoid “green culture”.
Correct the process, not the people.
Acting (employees and management) as if it was your own business.

Objectives of Integration of All principles:

Everybody in the organization has a strong sense of responsibility for sustaining Lean principles:

All employees participate in change activities and implement change directly to sustain the Lean principles.
Ownership of processes is automatic at all levels and participation in improvement occurs regardless of ownership.
Targets are cascaded and there is a clear accountability for meeting goals.
A strong culture of positive and blame-less team working culture which strives to sustain the Lean principles exists.

Lean Deployment through Kaizen Workshops & Kaizen Events

Lean Management Consultant ATEMI Consulting — Lean deployment through Kaizen

Whether from a Lean industrial diagnosis or from a complete Lean Management implementation structure (Lean Operating System), the Lean Management consultants of ATEMI Consulting will identify the priorities of your company for Lean implementation, being in Manufacturing, Engineering, Supply Chain, etc.. or support processes.

Processes or value streams identified for improvement are addressed through multifunctional teams in Kaizen workshops or Kaizen events (rapid workshops - typically 2 to 5 days) that are the key enablers of an effective Lean implementation, in a way to achieve the objectives within the shortest timeframe and through the most efficient and effective manner. The consultants in Lean Management of ATEMI Consulting will provide the adequate guidance, training-to-action and coaching to the different teams.

Expected outcomes are to have critical processes or value streams mapped out and optimized with solutions developed and agreed by the entire Kaizen team. Regular follow-up reviews, supported by ATEMI Consulting Lean Management consultants, will take place to support implementation, inclusive of all impacted employees to ensure they feel part of the change, resulting in a direct, positive impact on their satisfaction, motivation and morale.

Key advanced Lean Management principles are taught, explained and applied (training-to-action) by ATEMI Consulting Lean Management consultants during these Kaizen workshops or Kaizen events, with the objective to dramatically improve your Quality, Costs and Delivery company performances, whether it is an industry, healthcare, bank, service or IT company.

The implementation of these advanced principles of Lean Management will allow more cost-effective Operations, more efficient processes and increased Value to Customers particularly in :

Increasing the overall company productivity, removing non value added within the processes (wastes) will enable to produce more with the same number of employees.

Shortening the lead-time of processes will allow to deliver products or services more rapidly

Reducing the level of inventories and Work-in-Process,

Accelerating the time-to-market of new products development

Answering more rapidly the Customers demands.

Reducing the direct cost (recurring cost) of product and processes.

Cost reduction of products and services :

ATEMI Consulting Lean Management consultants propose adequate services of products and processes cost reduction through Value Engineering principles, which are considered around the globe as the most effective approach to cost reduction.

Also practiced in multifunctional team during Kaizen events, the Value Engineering principles are to identify system or process functions (primary, secundary and constraint functions - the function relates to the intended use of a product or process) along with the associated functions costs, in a way to identifiy and to reduce the secondary costly functions.

The team will develop alternative less costly solutions which have no impact, as prerequisite, on product integrity and Customer Satisfaction.