Wausau Equipment Company has improved their operating profit a lot by introducing lean strategy. The management’s next step should be in making further Lean improvements.
As we know, “SIMPA” is widely used in Lean process. “SIMPA” stands for Specify Value, Identify Value Stream, Make it Flow, Pull and Always Improving. These phases draw a big and long-term picture to lead a team logically from detecting the problems to solving the problems and make sure that the team can sustain the achievement and keep improving. In this case, the lean project was planned to last 39 weeks, which was divided into three complete equipment-improvement-process cycles. The first cycle focused on getting tangible…show more content… They need to continue improving. What is more, Wausau Equipment should evaluate its product to balance the customers’ demand and the productivity of plants. Because lean is about more than just cutting costs in the factory. It is said that one crucial insight is that most costs are assigned when a product is designed.
Thirdly, the information system should be improved. Wausau should make not only material and people but also the information flow. It is mentioned in the case that the MSD organization did not have firsthand knowledge of the progress made. Most of the MSD organization remained unaware of what was going on in the production shops. The information gap will lead to misjudgment, improper plan and even the imbalance between demand and supply. Thus information system strengthening should be in progress as soon as possible.
There must be still many aspects that I did not realize need to be improve. A good lean manager will spare no effort to look for possibilities for improvement. Wausau Equipment should be in the lean process cycle and improve again and again.
Work cited
1. “Lean” form Wikipedia, web, 5th Mar, 2011, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lean_manufacturing#Continuously_improve 2. “Thinking of Lean Manufacturing Systems”, By Akin O. Akinlawon, web, 5th Mar, 2011, < http://www.sae.org/manufacturing/lean/column/leandec01.htm> 3. “Practical Lean
