Lean is more than 5S

by Mark Graban on December 17, 2006 · 1 comment

Lean manufacturing initiatives increase efficiencies at Moyno

Here’s a glowing news report about how lean is helping a manufacturing company. Who knows if it’s just the scope of the article or if the company is ONLY doing 5S work.

Lean manufacturing initiatives at Moyno Incorporated’s plant in Springfield, Ohio, have two objectives – to ensure the cost savings needed to remain profitable in a global economy and to retain highly skilled employees.

Good goals, but what about quality? Is their lean effort completely inward facing or are they looking at what the customer values? Can they create more value using lean?

It sounds like they are getting measurable benefits from 5S… which is better than if they were just “straightening the place up.” But maybe they could be doing more. Just food for thought…

Mark Graban 2011 Smaller Lean is more than 5S leanAbout LeanBlog.org: Mark Graban is a consultant, author, and speaker in the “lean healthcare” methodology, focused on improving quality and patient safety, improving access, reducing costs, and fully engaging healthcare professionals. He is also the Chief Improvement Officer for KaiNexus.


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{ 1 comment… read it below or add one }

1 Rich Cary December 17, 2006 at 3:57 pm

I recently moved to Lexington, Kentucky after spending the last 7 years living in Springfield, Ohio. This area in Ohio is heavily influenced by the “old world” workers unions, and as a result has seen a terrible economy and negative population growth (with the worst mortgage default rate of any county in the US…I know because I had to sell a house there!). The largest employer (and shrinking quickly!)in the county is International Truck, and the union there has waged war on their lean efforts for years. The business section of the Springfield News Sun ran an article a year or so ago touting the introduction of “lean manufacturing” to several local businesses, but I recall them being very superficial transformations at best. The bottom line is a successful introduction of 5S would be revolutionary in the Springfield manufacturing economy, but it has to go a lot further if Springfield is to survive with any manufacturing base for the future.

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