On Time Delivery: A Real Lean Manufacturing Story

By Giles Johnston

Do you deliver on time?

On Time Delivery is one of those hygiene factors you get with business life. You expect your products to be shipped on time, just like you expect the quality to be right. When delivery performance is poor then a whole load of chaos can ensue, and this time depleting phenomenon can put your whole business on the 'back foot'.

Read about the improvement from a 'hands on' perspective.

This book is a true account of transforming the on time delivery performance of a manufacturing business. The book was written from the perspective of the Production Manager, which Giles was in this story. It would have been easy to write it from the consultant's perspective, but recounting the struggles and victories gives a far better account of what it takes to shake up your business and achieve the on time delivery performance that everyone wants.

This book will take you on a short journey in time, leading you through the confusion, vision, difficulties and successes of a real improvement project. If you are going through a Lean Manufacturing transformation currently and want to get some new ideas then 'On Time Delivery' can provide some new insights as well as letting you know that it is OK if things aren't working out exactly the way that you planned. They will in the end.

Read about true continuous improvement.
Highlights in the book include the 'Big Brain' award for the Team Leader who truly made 'continuous improvement' mean continuous improvement and the moment of epiphany when Giles realised what he could change in the business himself. Most sections of the book include learning points, so that the ideas that you can apply to your own business can be identified and reviewed easily.

Buy 'On Time Delivery' today and start making some real changes in your own business.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Giles Johnston
• Release date: Apr 2, 2013
• ISBN: 9781301036127

Giles Johnston

Giles Johnston is a business improvement consultant who specialises in helping businesses improve their on time delivery performance. Giles is a Chartered Engineer and uses the same principles and problem solving ideas from his manufacturing background to help businesses in all sectors. Many of the tools and methods Giles uses to help his clients improve their performance have now made their way into written format and have now been published as ebooks. Giles is thankful to his clients who have pushed him to write down his views and ideas, making these books possible. Giles lives in the North East of England with his family.

Book preview

On Time Delivery: A Real Lean Manufacturing Story

Giles Johnston

Smashwords Edition

Copyright 2013 Giles Johnston

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

Disclaimer:

The author of this book has tried to present the most accurate information to his knowledge at the time of writing. This eBook is intended for information purposes only. The author does not imply any results to those using this eBook, nor is he responsible for any results brought about by the usage of the information contained herein.

Introduction

Welcome to this book, a recollection of one of my journeys. This journey aims to give you some insight into the highs and lows of lean manufacturing. I wanted to write this book because I had a good time transforming the performance of a manufacturing business and I wanted there to be an account of what this means from the inside. I now spend my time delivering bespoke business improvement projects and it would be easy to write this book from the perspective of looking in; what levers to pull and when. What is more interesting, in my opinion, is to be able to share my point of view from having had to deal with the consequences of pulling these levers.

In short the journey I am going to share with you focussed on a 10 month period, a period where our lead time shortened from an average of sixteen weeks (peaking at twenty) down to fewer than four. Our OTIF (on time in full) delivery performance soared from the low 20s to the mid 90s during the same period. The end of this account leaves the business where it is winning new business on the back of the massively improved delivery performance (the quality of the products was good too mind you!). The business doubled its turnover (and increased its profit margin) in the period after I left the business, based on the ability of the business to deliver in a marketplace where on time delivery was poor overall.

I have decided to anonymise the story, not because I will offend anyone or because it isn’t true, but because that will play easier on my conscience as I am unable to contact all of the people who participated in ‘my story’.

The book is also split into three sections, before, during and after. The ‘during’ section is the part that focuses on the period mentioned above.

As I go through the story I will share with you my reflections, insights and learning points that I hope will help your business to undergo the same (or even a better) transformation that we experienced. The story is told in a chronological sequence as I think this makes the most sense. And, although the term Lean was unknown to me at the time I hope that you will recognise various parts of this story in relation to Lean improvement approaches.

I hope you enjoy my story.

Giles

Part One - Before

Manufacturing Engineer

When I joined the business I took the post of Manufacturing Engineer. I had worked in two other companies prior to this and had already run a production facility. The reason for this route was to achieve my Chartered Engineer status, I needed to get the proper engineering experiences to qualify and this business had plenty of projects to get my teeth into. I joined the business just over three years before the main part of this story.

Due to my background in Production Management / Production Control I think I was seen as a bit of a ‘know it all’ and certainly a pain in the backside. There