Lean and mean on waste
College offers sessions on lean manufacturing
BY ANDREA HOLECEK
holecek@nwitimes.com
219.933.3316
This story ran on nwitimes.com on Saturday, March 4, 2006 12:04 AM CST
SOUTH HOLLAND Businesses can't afford not to use lean manufacturing techniques being taught at the Lean Academy if they expect to succeed in a competitive market, according to the program's supporters.
"It's saved us a lot of time and money," said Ron Mika, quality manager for T&B Tube. "I absolutely endorse it."
Lean manufacturing is a way to change management and workers' attitudes about their work in order to eliminate waste -- in time or materials -- during the manufacturing processes.
"Lean production is aimed at the elimination of waste in every area of production, including customer relations, product design, supplier networks and factory management," according to the Production System Design Laboratory at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
"Its goal is to incorporate less human effort, less inventory, less time to develop products, and less space to become highly responsive to customer demand while producing top quality products in the most efficient and economical manner possible."
South Suburban College and the Chicago Manufacturing Center created a Lean Academy to teach this manufacturing philosophy to businesses and individuals wanting to increase productivity and quality of product and services. New sessions begin Wednesday at SSC's South Holland campus.
"This is the second time we're running the Lean Academy," said Denise Rzonca, the college's director of economic and work force development. "It's relatively new, but kind of cutting edge."
Most of the program's participants are from local manufacturing businesses, she said.
"But it can pertain to manufacturing, service or office-related personal," Rzonca said. "It can be used any place you can apply that lean mentality into your business."
Mika, of Calumet City, has been involved in lean manufacturing for six years and wants everyone at T&B to learn its methods and understand its message. The South Holland steel tube manufacturer, owned by Jack Jones of Munster, employs 65 workers and many of them have attended or will attend lean manufacturing sessions.
"We're sending more people to classes, more shop people, operators and assistants. We'll send as many as we can afford to lose for a day," Mika said. "But we can't afford not to do it because, if you don't, it's costing you money that can be your profit."
For T&B, the process has produced tangible results.
"It's changed people's attitude about their work to make things better for them and the company," Mika said. "It's a cultural change. Everyone has to change their way of thinking and be open to new ideas.
"We send shift supervisors and shop-floor employees. They come back with a new outlook on what their areas can be. A supervisor came back and reorganized his area and saved us money on replacement parts."
