Lean Manufacturing and the 5S program
Ten Geelong based companies are participating in the 5S- introduction to lean program and introduction to lean program.
Regional Development Victoria and the GMC are supporting the program and subsiding costs for Geelong based companies to participate.
Companies are moving through the five steps of the program- sort, set, shine, standardise and sustain, as part of their lean journey.
All companies have moved past "sort" and "set in order" phases and have reported significant improvements.
David Peart, the Executive Officer of the GMC, said he was very impressed by the way that participants were actively making improvements.
The overall aim of the program is to improve productivity and profitability and we are seeing some great results to the extent that we will look at another program intake.
10 local businesses attended the first 5S workshop |
Message from the Executive Officer
Trying to keep up with today's rapidly changing business landscape and regulatory environment is a challenge. Sustainability is a central theme and includes reducing wastes and making business processes more efficient.
The good news is that there is help available to pursue a range of approaches to achieve Sustainability.
The Productivity through Efficiency Program is about to visit its 4th site- Ford Broadmeadows assembly Plant.
This will be a fantastic opportunity to see how the automotive industry is responding to the challenges of improving productivity and materials efficiency. I am heartened to see that these tours are providing valuable feedback to both participant and host companies.
Seven companies have successfully completed the facilitated program and developed a range of tools and action plans to pursue projects to improve their productivity. In total some 24 projects were identified under the project. Several of these are already underway.
With responses recently submitted to the Green Paper industry is very aware of the need to reduce environmental impacts. The GMC recently conducted a Green Paper workshop and is planning to conduct a further workshop focusing on re-tooling for climate change and on opportunities to access up to $500k in funding available for projects -
David Peart
|
Geelong industry members were recently able to tour Huyck Wangner to see progress with several improvement areas.
The plant tour of the Huyck Wangner Geelong facility by around 30 manufacturing peers had the aim of sharing key efficiency learnings, the plant tour also generated improvement recommendations.
Huyck Wangner utilised these recommendations within their efficiency program and are now undertaking a number of actions including- Material Wastage, Waste Trim, Old and obsolete stock.
In 2006, the company began its journey towards "Lean Manufacturing", a process focusing on the elimination of wasteful practices. |
In 2007, Huyck furthered their lean journey by participating in the ‘Productivity through materials efficiency’ program.
Some of the key areas presented at the visit included:
-
Huyck’s program approach to Lean Manufacturing, and
- Key program successes such as safety, materials efficiencies (particularly fabric efficiencies), water savings and cost savings achieved as a result of Lean and Kaizen events.
A case study is currently being developed further detailing Huyck's achievements and will be available on the GMC website soon. |
The Geelong Manufacturing Council was established in 1998 through a partnership between the Australian Chamber of Manufactures, (now the Australian Industry Group), the Geelong Development Board and the City of Greater Geelong.
The GMC is a non-political not for profit group supported by its industry partners who have shown confidence in the region as a manufacturing centre. The GMC lobbies on behalf of the region's industry and undertakes a number of strategic programs including facilitating industry networks.
|
