How Poor Understanding of MRP2 Can Lead to the Degeneration of Your ERP?
By Xavier Perrin (xperrin@xp-consulting.fr) Introduction Most manufacturing companies strive for enhancing their customer service level, reducing their lead times and reducing their inventories. Two approaches elaborated during the last decades have significantly improved these companies’ ability to take up these challenges: The advent of information technology allowed computer-aided planning tools…
Kanban: 4 Traps To Be Avoided
By Xavier Perrin (xperrin@xp-consulting.fr) A lot of my missions consist in helping companies to set up a pull system. It is surprising to see how many of these companies already tried kanban, without managing to keep it going on. In these cases, talking about kanban with teams remembering the failure…
Generic Kanban: How does it work?
By Xavier Perrin (xperrin@xp-consulting.fr) This article is dedicated to Keith FitzPatrick and all those passionate people who are taking part to the discussion initiated by Keith on the APICS Group on LinkedIn : “Kanban to the masses… not for beer drinking though!” Kanban is a well-known and powerful method. Kanban…
What is the point of SMED?
By Xavier Perrin (xperrin@xp-consulting.fr) When they are talking about their customers’ expectations, all the managers of manufacturing companies say without hesitation products and services quality, short lead times (speed), high customer service level (dependability), and the ability to adjust to the demands (flexibility), in addition to low costs. When they…
If the only tool you have is a hammer, you tend to see every problem as a nail…
By Xavier Perrin (xperrin@xp-consulting.fr) The lean approach, often discussed in this blog, is now considered essential for our companies’ competitiveness. At the same time, this approach is becoming more and more criticized. Disappointment is often observed when the results don’t meet the expectations, or don’t last. And sometimes, although the…
How do we waste our teams’ intelligence and energy?
By Xavier Perrin (xperrin@xp-consulting.fr) In most of the recently published books about lean, an 8th waste (muda) is added to the “7 wastes according to Toyota”. Next to over-production, waiting, inventory, corrections, motion, transportation and over-processing, “unused people skills” is indeed mentioned. Blue collars immediately come to mind: appointed only…
How Continuous Improvement may continually continue?
By Xavier Perrin (xperrin@xp-consulting.fr) It has been about thirty years that continuous improvement (kaizen) has first started being discussed. In many companies though, kaizen is still considered a management “option”. Operators and employees are not involved in the continuous improvement of performance. Kaizen actions are then led by production, quality…