Lean Manufacturing Case Study: 
Shoe Company

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Date: May 2011                                 Sector: Orthopaedic Shoes                      Turnover: £2m                            Employees: 50

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1. The Lean Improvement Team

Production Manager, 6 Operators (cross functional)

2. Objectives

• Improve On Time Delivery
  
• Reduce Number of Quality Failures
  
• Improve Morale
  
• Assess Production Management and Scheduling
• Involve cross function teams
• Highlight Key Areas for Improvement
  

3. Major Issues

• Profit down from 10% to 1.5% over 3 year period
  
• Not sure where to focus efforts
  
• Avg. Delivery On Time – 60%
  
• Poor Morale
  
• High number of defects
  

4. Solutions

Lean Awareness Training, Improvement Team, Skills Analysis, Production Planning, Time Management, Problem Solving, Action Plan

5. New Methods

• Production Progress Chasing
  
• Rough Capacity Planning
  
• Skills Matrix
  
• Multi-Skilling
  
• Back Order Reporting
  
• Problem Solving Techniques
  
• Improvement Meetings
  
• Daily Task Lists
  
• Action Planning
  

6. The Results

• Improved on time delivery to above 80%
  
• Reduced number of defects & highlighted cost implications per fault
  
• Improved time management of production management
  
• Provided all staff with Lean Awareness training
  
• Removed waste to reduce lead time
  
• Set up Improvement Team & worked through problem solving techniques
  
• Adopted Six Sigma methodology to solve key issues
  
• Introduced Pareto Charts to highlight major business issues
  
• Provided production management with progress chasing & capacity planning tools
  
• Set up Skills Matrix to improve multi-skilling of workforce
  
• Improved staff morale
  
• Highlighted major issues to be linked into overall business plan/strategy

7. Lessons Learned

• Identified bottleneck areas in production due to poor scheduling and staff not working in date order.
  
• Lack of multi-skilling is major contributor to late deliveries
  
• Production department need to plan capacity and rotate staff
  
• If adhered to ISO 9000 procedures will improve quality and training control
• As leather is largest material cost, measuring utilisation is key to maintaining profit

8. Future Opportunities

• Adopt 5S Workplace Organisation
  
• Value Stream Map to further remove waste and improve efficiency
  
• Introduce better stock control
  
• Introduce Policy Deployment to link improvement to key business objectives
  
• Set KPI’s and utilise Visual Management to drive improvements
  
• Detailed Market Analysis to highlight profitable customer types
  

9. Ongoing Support

Initial 2 months support followed by bi-monthly meeting to track progress and consider future opportunities