Lean Management and industrial organization consultants

ATEMI Consulting is a Lean Management and industrial organization consultancy agency that helps companies to dramatically improve their Quality, Costs and Deliveries performances.

ATEMI Consulting Lean Management consultants propose and implement practical, efficient and lasting « breakthrough » improvement solutions from a complete company Lean implementation aiming at improving significantly the company profitability and competitiveness, or to implement practical solutions to resolve a specific Quality, Cost or Delivery performance issue.   

The Lean Management consultants of ATEMI Consulting, with over 25 years of industry experience have implemented Lean Management and improved the performances of numerous small, medium and large automotive, aeronautic and electronic companies around the world such as Airbus (europeans production sites and numerous suppliers worldwide), United Technologies (Pratt & Whitney engines, Sikorsky helicopters, Goodrich, Hamilton Sundstrand, Carrier, Otis, Schindler,..), Siemens automotive, ...

The Lean Management consultants use, among others, 5 complementary and interrelated Key Lean Management principles such as; Pull, Takt, Flow, Zero Variation, Integration of All, associated to efficient and effective Lean deployment structures (Lean diagnosis and Lean Operating System) to propose and implement practical and global solutions of implementing Lean within a company.  

Flow & Single Piece Flow principles: 

• Reduces waste.
• Business issues become transparent (= interruption)
• Lead times are reduced.
• Response to change can be managed more easily
• Increased customer satisfaction.
• Reduces inventories and Work-in-Process 

Objectives of Flow : 

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 : 

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: 

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)
• Eliminating the causes of variation through:
• • Visual control of the process (to anticipate variations)
  • Practical Problem solving
  • Standards (SOI)
• Or smoothing the impact for the customer

Objectives of Zero Variation : 

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. Avoid “green culture”
• Correct the process, not the people
• Acting as if it was your own business.

Objectives of Intagration of All : 

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.

Whether from a Lean industrial diagnosis or from a complete Lean Management implementation structure (Lean Operating System), the 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 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.   

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.