Manufacturers Share Stories of Going GreenLean^SM

By combining sustainability practices with lean, companies are finding better efficiencies.

Manufacturers attitudes toward the word "green" are starting to change, says Enterprise Minnesota president Bob Kill.

"Three years ago, companies looked at green as a cost," he said. "Green is the elimination of material wastes of all kind and lean is the elimination of wastes in the manufacturing process. Once manufacturers start to connect green to the eight wastes of lean, it starts to make sense."

Several manufacturers this week shared their stories about adding sustainability practices to lean at Enterprise Minnesota's Business Event GreenLeanSM Equals Business Growth.

GreenLeanSM combines sustainability practices with traditional lean process improvement. Manufacturers analyze their processes to eliminate all wastes, reduce costs, and improve efficiency.

The common eight lean wastes are transport, inventory, motion, waiting, overproduction, over-processing, defects, and underutilized staff.

Green practices look at additional wastes, such as material, water, and energy. Just like lean process improvement, sustainability practices show up as reduced costs.

Jones Metal Products, a Mankato-based contract metal fabricator used GreenLeanSM to cut lead times from its first operation to its welding process at the end. The processing time took 46 days, with built up inventory and wasted machining time.

With help from Enterprise Minnesota, Jones Metal set up value stream mapping of its process. The VSM included green wastes, and identified three areas for improvement in the lighting, paint process, and pneumatic air system. The company found additional savings in the project by either adding new equipment or performing general maintenance on the systems. The project justified a new paint machine to reduce the amount of solvent the company needs to purchase, and new lighting fixtures improve surroundings and use less energy.

In total, the company uncovered several areas in which kaizen events would improve work from start to finish. Jones Metal was able to reduce lead times to just under 20 days, and can do some projects in only two days now.

"We were producing parts way too early," says Jones Metal director of engineering David Olson. "They were either sitting on shelves for an extended period of time, or taking up time on other machines. We reduced energy because we aren't cutting metal as much."

On average, companies that implement GreenLeanSM can reduce costs an additional 30 percent compared to just traditional lean. That frees up money to grow in other areas and makes a convincing business case says Kill.

"Green fits dramatically into improving your operations and growing business," Kill said. "Consider going green as a business proposition."

The Best Approaches to Marketing in Manufacturing

September 21, 2011

8:00am-11:00am

Unisys

2470 Highcrest Rd.

Roseville, MN

Smart manufacturers are leveraging marketing to enhance connections with current customers and find new leads. If you're looking for new customers to drive business, come hear from our expert presenters. 

Speakers:

Tom Murphy , President, CARDSource
 
Doug Plunkett, Director, Sales and Marketing, rms Company, Inc.
 
Dave Goodwin, CEO, Reviva

Clare Scott,   Director of Marketing, Trusight

Register online at:
www.enterpriseminnesota.org/events