Lean Manufacturing

By:  Melanie Veness:  PCB CEO

Our unemployment levels are unacceptably high and we must do something about this, but what?

Since the majority of people who need jobs are relatively unskilled and have a limited education, it has been suggested that manufacturing holds out possibly the best hope for job creation. 

In talking to industrialists about the major barriers to growth (and hence, job creation), it seems that they face many challenges, with the inability to compete with cheap imports listed as the most severe.

So how can we help manufacturers to become more competitive?

Realistically, we are never going to be able to compete with the East on labour as an input cost, so we need to look at other areas of potential cost savings. We need to help industry to become more efficient - to work smarter and leaner, which will allow them to be more competitive and hence to grow.

To me, the implementation of lean manufacturing or lean production is a move in the right direction. Lean manufacturing is an operational strategy aimed at achieving the shortest possible cycle time by eliminating waste. It is derived from the Toyota Production System and its main focus is to increase the value-added work by eliminating waste in process. "Lean", is a production practice that sees the expenditure of resources for any goal other than the creation of value for the end customer to be wasteful, and consequently a target for elimination, and it’s principles can be applied across all businesses.

Implementing Lean decreases the time between a customer order and delivery. It is designed to radically improve throughput time, profitability (by lowering costs), customer satisfaction and employee morale. Quicker “throughputs” can be used as a tool to secure preferred relationships with retailers – by “just-in-time” replenishment, retailer stock-holding costs can be saved, making local suppliers much more attractive.

This gave me an idea of how we, as a Chamber, can help. In an effort to get industry to really understand and to embrace Lean, the Pietermaritzburg  Chamber of Business, in partnership with the Lean  Institute  Africa, will host a Lean Manufacturing Summit in October. We have invited some international lean experts to address delegates in the morning sessions. We have two award-winning benchmark factories in Pietermaritzburg and delegates will visit these factories in the afternoons. The champions at these factories will share their “lean journeys”. I think that it is important for delegates to see lean working in the South African context. Delegates will be shown how lean can be implemented in a labour intensive factory, and in a highly mechanized environment. The speakers will be briefed, not only to deliver a talk, but to provide delegates with something practical – like a “lean toolkit” or to do an actual intervention during the “factory visit” portion of the summit.  The final session will be a practical exercise, where delegates will have the opportunity to make lean changes in a simulated business environment.

We will be targeting businesses countrywide through the chamber network in an effort to spread the lean message as far afield as possible, and in so doing, we hope to instill a better understanding of Lean and to inspire delegates to become change agents in their factories and businesses. We also hope to set up a local network of lean forums, where champions can share knowledge.

Ultimately, we hope to help stimulate growth through change, and consequently to help create sustainable jobs.

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