Somta LEAN Transformation Journey (solo en inglés)
Whilst Somta has been using LEAN initiatives for some years, the company officially began its LEAN Transformation journey on 2 March 2015, having been trained and prepared for this since the beginning of the year.
The purpose of the LEAN Transformation Journey is to create a LEAN culture in every part of the company that will be focused on continuous, daily efforts to remove all aspects of waste within every department.
A key focus of this effort targets the “Value Streams” within the company i.e. the places and processes within the organisation where we add value to the product. The goal through these efforts is to enable the value to flow quicker. If we can produce tools consistently within a much shorter lead time, then we can service the customer better.
For this to happen however, it will require the efforts of the entire team finding small ways to do things better every day – this is what is called “Kaizen”. The idea is for every department to have a Kaizen board where the teams will regularly meet to drive improvements. A Kaizen office has been created, run by Somta’s Industrial Engineering team, which will provide support for the Kaizen initiatives in each department.
Other companies who have embarked on this journey over a 3-5 year period have achieved some very exciting results.
Here are a few examples ….
- Lead time – reduced from 4 weeks to 2 days
- Productivity – improved by 162%
- Number of set ups – from 3 per week to 20 per day
- Stock reduction – reduced from 4 months of stock to 2.5 weeks
These companies started in the same place as Somta, facing similar challenges. If other companies around the world can do it, then so can we – ONLY IF …. We all are committed to this!
This is an exciting journey and together we can tell a story that no one thought possible. Maybe someday there will be books written about what the Somta team accomplished on its LEAN Turnaround journey!
Somta’s LEAN transformation journey started on Monday with a warm welcome for all from Allan Conolly (Managing Director).
LEAN signs had been placed throughout the Somta premises for all staff to view.
A tree planting ceremony was then held to mark the launch of Somta’s LEAN Transformation journey. Here the heads of departments who were part of the Lean Training sessions along with the shop stewards, all put some soil into the hole as a symbolic gesture that the entire company is involved in this new journey. A Nuxia Floribuna evergreen tree was chosen to signify that the LEAN Transformation Journey will not be a seasonal change but an everyday continuous change.
Every person committed to continuous improvement… every day.
We look forward to the support of the entire team.
