Lean Six-Sigma – Business Excellence/ Transformation Consulting and Training

We have worked with organizations large and small to deliver organization efficiency while engaging employees and creating value for their customers.

We bring systems thinking to drive Improvement Journey to Operational Excellence (IJOE)

 

• Customer first /responsiveness
• Employee engagement and Training
• Standardization and consistency in execution
• Policies, Standards and Procedures
• Align process owners and organize by processes
• Establish Tools (CI) and Training
• Collaboration /Communication
• Prevention and Compliance culture
• Problem solving and Improvement culture
• Lean Enterprise
• CONC-Cost of Non-Conformance reduction
• Best practices and lessons learned

We believe in continuous problem solving and creating a culture of employee engagement to achieve  business excellence. Our team of highly skilled and motivated problem solvers teach and mentor our clients how to solve problems themselves. This is where true transformation happens. Involved workforce produces many more ideas to reduce waste and improve their lives and processes. Transformation happens everywhere from front line to top management. Engagement of the entire organization as problem solvers and in improvement produce changes that delight the customers and shareholders.

We engage with the organization to find the right approach , tools to allow the achievement of the strategic goals.

Approach

Strategy and Alignment for transformation.

 We work with each client on their strategic plan and develop a program with them to fit the goals and culture of the company. Alignment and buy-in creates necessary impetus to drive change to achieve results fast and continue to do so.

Gap assessment and capability.

We work with clients on assessing their needs, improvement and problem solving  methodologies and work to uncover new opportunities to grow your capabilities.

Transformation Tools.

 Kyzen consultants are experts in applying Lean, Six Sigma, project management, Design for Six Sigma, Process design, Business Process Automation, Hoshin Planning and Daily KPI Management to achieve business transformation.

Build problem solving capability at all levels.

We believe in teaching people to apply a continuous improvement approach to any task they’re tackling. Even simple tools designed to recognize process inefficiencies, such as waste, variability or a process that’s overburdened, are incredibly empowering to your entire organization.

Education and Training.

Empowering employees with right tools is key. Kyzen delivers training for LSS Yellow Belt, Green Belt , LSS Black Belt, LSS Master Black Belt, Lean Master. There is a balance of real life experience alongside the theory and tools, so students/employees gain direct application to their business.

Deployment and Mentorship.

We work with clients on appropriate engagement models to deploy best suited programs for their organization to achieve their goals. We identify your improvement opportunities and  work alongside your team as we coach them through projects.Governance and Tracking. We establish necessary structure to ensure projects are aligned , progress reporting and associated savings are captured.We have partnered with companies with mature programs and those that are just starting out in the Operational excellence journey. We have helped improve employee engagement , ingrained problem solving and improvement culture and effected change at fortune 500 companies.We have constructed and deployed numerous lean programs. We have worked in OEM’s Oil and Gas Manufacturing and services, Medical Device, Software Quality, Telecommunication, Aerospace, Construction, Finance companies.

Some high level results:

•Trained and Mentored LSS Black Belts, Lean experts and Green Belts delivering $300 Million in EBIT savings

•Implemented lean improvements at various manufacturing and service companies resulting in OTD delivery improvement by 100%, 40% improvement in assembly time and reducing cost by 30%. Compressor and Engine manufacturing and packaging

•Designed quality reporting and preventative systems reducing cost of nonconformance (CONC) at global manufacturing companies resulting in 200% improvement in CONC%. and preventative over $5M in Cost of Non Conformance projects

•Warranty Process and control- Set up a work flow system with hierarchy approval and warranty broads across divisions for approval

•Strategic planning through Hoshin (x-Matrix) deployment at multiple companies. Program Management and governance of linked strategic initiatives.

• 35% reduction in engineering errors

• Improved sales visibility – designed database and workflow –leaned out Enquiry to order system

• Coal Generation for Machine Uptime and Operator Standard Work

• Wind Power Turbines for Mean Time Between Failure, Inventory Management of Maintenance Parts

• Potash Mine for logistics of Development Mine versus Production Mine

• Inventory and Kanban management of Underground Mining equipment

• Established supplier quality programs and monitoring: Supplier reports, scorecards, reviews- Improved communications, increased accountability and supplier recovery of $3M/year

• Scrap reduction: Categorization, cause codes, root cause, supplier six sigma education, BB teams to address casting and forging issues- Impact $2M/year.

• Capital Approval- Workflow web based to speed up review and approval; increase accountability and faster completion of capital programs

• Quality Dossiers- Organized achieved data for ready retrieval worldwide via ERP and web based implementation

• Logistics of Rail Cars to move Potash

• GB and BB training of Union and Non-Union mining plant workers

• Some Projects

• AP Payments process improvement

  Problem: PO errors, Lack of attention to maintenance Errors, receiving errors, invoice input time, vendor non-conformances to PO result in late or delayed payments. This creates a lot of inefficiencies and sometimes results in vendor placing us on credit hold. Current process prevents us from taking advantage of discounts.

  Improved process to take advantage of discounts and prevent credit hold/supply issues die to payment issues.

  Scope: AP, Purchasing, receiving ; Start - PO Issue; Stop - Invoice Paid Impact $300K to Ebitda.

  DSO- Aftermarket Parts

  Problem: Mean DSO for the last year is 61 days. Branches are not spending much effort in collections and there is variation between the branches on this effort.

  Reduced Domestic parts DSO to 47 days. Impact - $2M in working capital

  Scope: Accounts receivable ; Start - Invoice Aging ; Stop - Invoice cleared

  A/P -Eliminate Duplicate payments

  Eliminated duplicate payments will directly impact EBITDA. From July 1 2006-May 30 of 2007, Company XX had identified $280K of possible double payments. There is no way of knowing how much was missed and let slip through, Error rate is based on 150 errors/100,000 invoices processed/year.

  $80K in Ebitda credit.

  WIP- Inventory process improvement

  Studied reasons for WIP, established reports and visibility – Impact $3.6M in working capital

  Supplier Communications and quality improvement

  Established Supplier scorecard, Supplier quality plans, monthly performance with NCR and detailed supplier reviews. Benefits: Removed “ we did not know” from supplier vocabulary and improved accountability and Corrective action response. Improved overall Cost of Non Conformance.

  Scrap reduction

  Multiple scrap reduction efforts: Casting supplier, Machining operations, forging suppliers

  Impact - >$3-5M

  Pareto: Documentation/BOM errors, Engineering changes, Equipment maintenance, Operator error, etc. Most are solvable.

  Safety Stock – Inventory

  Established family, stock and non- stock criteria- Pushed to ERP. Planning and EOQ allowed for savings

  in purchased cost, inventory carry and more of the shelf sales.

  Multiple inventory projects across many product lines.

  Vendor Credit Recovery

  Problem: Cycle time for credit recovery has been excessive and has led to write-offs of credit receivables.

  Recovered unrecoverable monies - reduced cycle time to less than 60 days and monthly total of credit dollars outstanding to under $150,000.

  Scope: Take credits and CRP faster. Monitor and recover monies faster. Start - CRPs or CM’s received in A/P and booked as credits; Stop - Collection of credit

  Capital Expenditure:

  Problem: Loss of planning and visibility of requests and execution spending

  Implemented Workflow to route and eliminated paper processing. Review and approval moved to web based allowing for expedient approvals and timely start to projects.

  Divisions spent the $ budgeted and tracking metrics automated to tie to financials. Automated reminders on open projects.

  New Product Introduction

  Problem: Resource Limitations, costs and lack of communication Low cost quality outsourcing resources on-site and off-shore were developed. Off shore resources assist in design, modeling, and analysis of new compressor design. High Value engineers concentrated on core design. Team centers assisted with information transfer and communication within teams.

  Product to market when in 6-8 months- projects would have not got of the ground with current resources tied up with sustaining work.

  Document/information Management System:

  Organized achieved data for ready retrieval worldwide via ERP and web based implementation.

  NCR process and Credits

  Problem: Losing track of NCR parts, losing ability to recover from suppliers for rework, scrap, returns Set up process from receipt to AP credit with SAP QM system. Rework orders, RTV orders, pick and delivery with system to allow for tracking.

  Improved speed for vendor returns.

  Impact: Over $5M in recovery for returns and $2M in rework recovery

  Use KIT Inventory to reduce backlog

  Slow moving KIT inventory may contain parts that have active demand and could get consumed if the kits were broken down .Goal: Reduce KIT inventory.

  Identified KITS that could be broken down and parts that can be consumed based on current and historical demand. Impact $50K.

  Start - KITS in Inventory ; Stop - Identified Kits broken down for individual parts to be consumed to meet demand or backlog.

  Warranty Process

  Problem: No warranty process and too many individuals approving warranty /concessions.

  Set up a work flow system with hierarchy approval and warranty broads across divisions for approval.

  Impact : Warranty reduction by 25% and proper categorization of the event. Suppliers recovery for parts issues.

  5S/Lean/Visual Management

  Problem: Disorganized factories and lack of communication Designed and implemented Visual management and plant specific metrics, production boards, machine metrics, visual indicators for issues, 5S kaizen events with audit check lists, Kanban in/out, Maintenance boards ,etc.

  Impact : Increased visibility, cleanliness and organization, early bottle neck indicators, metric driven and improved FPY.

  Product cost reduction and value Engineering:

  Experience in addressing numerous new products with low margins (low/middle single digits) and improving to 35-40%. Challenge design; make vs. Buy, EOQ, new supplier development and approval, project management and communication.

  Contract Review process:

  Problem: Cycle time for RFQ/ contract review was long leading to dissatisfaction, loss of opportunity and Designed and established a web based workflow with stakeholders, pertinent review questions and feedback mechanism.

  Problem: Excessive amount of time taken to turn a requisition to a PO. Reduced time taken to PO placement by 40%, by using reports to aggregate demand, and setting short term contracts for common products.

  Problem: Excessive amount of time taken to process manufacturing shop orders.

  Reduced time by 50% by streamlining processes, and moving departments closer.

  Stage gate process implemented for project review with all constituents.

  Problem: Excessive amount of time taken for Changeovers of parts on machine tools. Reduced changeover time by 70% with efficient processes and dedicated tools etc. Savings -35K annually.

  Problem: Excess inventory, 2MM lbs in stock, weekly requirement was only 700K lbs.  Reduced Inventory using better freight scheduling, and a new technology called Log Shears, savings of about $140K annually.

  Problem: When shipping product, weights on labels did not match actual product weight. Implemented bar code system which increased shipping and billing accuracy, Savings -$98K annually.

  Problem: Paint wastage while changing colors on paint line. Reduced paint wastage and improved changeover efficiency by improved scheduling and new paint saving techniques. Savings - 135K annually.

A sound business strategy is essential to success. Sound implementation and execution ensure success. We advise on and execute your most complex initiatives so that you realize your desired results.  With our advanced Global360 PM tools, projects are managed seamlessly to ensure OTD and customer satisfaction. We have expertise in improving operational performance, transactional processes, engineering and IT.

We approach every project with a fresh, objective perspective to meet the needs of your project — and your company. After we're gone, you'll have processes and tools to keep things running smoothly. 

We help customers with strategy development, Hoshin, establish STO tools, training, KPI’s and Governance to deploy/roll-out the transformation effort. We coach and mentor the improvement agents to accelerate the change.

Approach

Alignment

 We work with leaders, stakeholders and teams to ensure alignment of strategic vision with operational execution and have agreed upon program success factors.

Define

Define the problem you face and define the vision for a solution. This process is critical to ensure all team members share a common understanding of the project and agree upon its specific goals.

Scope and boundaries

 Together we define your beginning and end points. We analyze options; develop resources, time, and cost estimates; and agree on deliverables, of which help prevent costly scope creep.

Business case/tracking:

We proactively track results and ensure objectives are met and value is created in cost savings, increased sales, faster delivery /development of products.

Plan, Schedule & Risk:

Comprehensive plans serve as a roadmap for your entire project. These plans link interdependent activities and personnel, internally and across third parties. Such precise input enables us to coordinate interconnections and identify bottlenecks or other obstacles that need to be addressed. We identify risk in risk registers and have mitigation plans.

Safety, Quality and Communication Plans

Plans ensure that all aspects of personnel, product, process are addressed and monitored through the execution. We ensure transparency in all phases of execution.

Execution:

Our project leaders work on-site and accept direct responsibility for managing schedules and budgets, proactively tracking and resolving issues, and capturing project metrics.

Project Controls

framework is established with cost and schedule completion plan

Teams

Teams are essential to success, we use well-honed facilitation skills to work through conflict and help teams to consensus.

Progress

Progress is reported per the communication plan and all open actions are tracked through completion.KPIs’ are reported to appropriate levels of the project and leadership.

Close out and transition:

We ensure proper documentation is maintained and stored, lessons learned,train/knowledge transfer to the process owners and project cost benefit are achieved.