Yes, You Can Keep Your Consumables in Check

Despite what I heard the other day from an Ops VP who said, “what Lean experts don’t tell you is that consumables at point of production leads to over consumption,” the truth is you can keep your consumables in check. It’s not uncommon for top management to worry about reckless use of consumables and even the disappearance of expensive tools. Proper analysis and planning will prevent this from becoming a problem.

While I don’t know what Lean experts that VP of Ops was dealing with, I can confidently state that a thoughtful implementation of a conservation process will keep consumable consumption in check and expensive tools in-house. To start on this process it’s important to obtain accurate and complete consumption data, which means what, where, and how much is used? If this data is not readily available, it can be gathered through surveys, intra-department focus groups, or one-on-one interviews. When you combine data collected this way with spend data gathered through invoice crawls you can expect a high rate of useable data.

With good data in hand, the first step is to build a budget based on work centers and account codes. Then, tie each consumable supply and tool to the cost center and account code where it is used. You can tie consumable spend to production level as a way to gauge rate of use per unit produced by work center. Prepare and review weekly or monthly activity reports by cost center and account code to measure progress toward goals.

Finally, use positive reinforcement toward employee compliance, as part of a plan to raise awareness about the consumable spend issue. It is a well proven fact that positive recognition tends to produce repeatable behaviors. Also, tie consumable spend reduction targets to your overall Lean recognition program. Over consumption of consumables is not something that anyone should believe is an automatic unwelcome consequence of Point of Use Solutions in Lean initiatives.
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The iPower Distribution Group of New England is a leader in VMI programs. iPower delivers the widest breadth and deepest supply of Tier 1 commodities in the Northeast. Our supply chain provides $800m annually of industrial components, supplies, and packaging materials. To learn more visit us at http://www.ipowerne.com.

Do Your Lean Initiatives Short Sheet Materials Management?

A heads up to those of you that might be in the planning stages of a Lean Manufacturing initiative. If you intend to use outside professional resources make sure the scope of the engagement includes materials management and that the consultants have the chops to do it.


Here’s why: I find the Industrial Engineering end of the engagement (i.e., cellular manufacturing, standard work, production leveling, reduction of batch sizes, SMED, and visual controls) consumes 80 percent of the focus, energy, and project time leaving materials management holding the short straw. It is human nature for consultants to want to burn calories on what I would equate to the show holes of a golf course. The show holes are those holes that run along whatever access roads lead you to or by the Country Club. Country Club owners know if the show holes don’t grab the public’s attention it is unlikely it will call for a tee time. And so it goes with consultants (for the record, I was gainfully employed as a consultant for many years) building show holes makes a good, big first impression. Unfortunately, when it comes to complex company-wide engagements many times strong starts are not followed by strong finishes.

Here is a good case in point; recently a team of lean consultants redesigned a modest work cell to create the obligatory U-Shape, conducted time and motion studies, balanced the line, established work standards, created work instructions and added visual controls. All very good stuff! Toward the end of the engagement they assembled shelving and established a 4 Bin Toyota Kanban system at Point of Production for a handful of A items used in the new cell. When the team was confronted with the reality that there were hundreds of B, C, and Expense items unaddressed they dutifully took notes and thanked the team for sharing this with them. What the team didn’t know was later that day the consultants brought the project to closure and moved on. When these good folks departed the scene, there were boxes of material and racks of parts literally jammed at the back of the cell. In the consultant’s mind, the show holes were complete, the breadcrumb path paved, and now it was time for others to pick up the torch and finish the job.

If you find yourself in this position, do the smart think and call us. We are experts at bringing thousands of production parts and supplies to the point of production. We not only design and implement solutions, but we also stay behind and do the day to day management with our people, processes and enabling technology.
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The iPower Distribution Group of New England is a leader in VMI programs. iPower delivers the widest breadth and deepest supply of Tier 1 commodities in the Northeast. Our supply chain provides $800m annually of industrial components, supplies, and packaging materials. To learn more visit us at http://www.ipowerne.com.