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Lean Manufacturing Case Study: 
Shoe Company

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

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

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