How Corporate Kiosk Addresses the Seven Wastes Identified in LEAN and Helps You Beat Your Competition
All companies search out ways to improve their business, and one of the most common goals of beating the competition is cutting expenses through waste reduction. This can be best achieved with a management concept and philosophy that supports a zero waste policy called LEAN manufacturing. The wastes in question pertain to the seven most common reasons for under-productivity and delay identified by a majority of companies around the world.
The best lean strategies are the ones that effectively combat all seven of these widely recognized wastes, which is why we’d like to introduce you to a solution which requires no new capital expenditures, Corporate Kiosk, our lean e-procurement solution, and how it answers the waste issue.
The Seven Deadly Wastes
Waste #1 – Waiting: “Time is money,” that old aphorism from Benjamin Franklin hasn’t changed a wit since the seventeen hundreds. So cliché by now, it probably goes without saying, but the question can’t be disregarded: Can some tasks be done parallel rather than in a series?
The answer: Corporate Kiosk allows approvals to happen in parallel to reduce Cycle Time.
Waste #2 – Transportation: This is an age of transportation-related questions, and the waste involved in shipping brings up a whole new set of issues. But if you could save the manpower, the fuel, the maintenance, the time? Can the process be configured to move a product to the next operation, rather than have people do the moving?
With Corporate Kiosk’s XML Integration, the order can move directly into and through the ERP system to eliminate re-keying at the order entry, production, shipping and reconciliation steps.
Waste #3 – Processing Itself: The assembly line can always be reshaped and improved. The trap is that change is uncomfortable, but if a company asks itself if some tasks can be combined or eliminated, it will probably find that they can. Corporate Kiosk can be configured for replenishment as well as for new orders, combining the two into one.
Waste #4 – Motion: What aids, such as fixtures, new equipment, or special tools, could speed up your process? The question requires foresight. Sometimes it requires more money spent upfront to save on other waste issues later on. But apart from new and expensive hardware, there’s one easy answer: Corporate Kiosk can be configured to allow multiple shipping locations for a single order. It’s available on-demand from anywhere, always.
Waste #5 – Poor “Quality”: Where can mistake-proofing be used to eliminate or reduce errors or rework? This is often a very subtle process where small changes might eliminate small errors. But small errors add up and can cause big problems if left to accumulate. Corporate Kiosk eliminates re-keying, which has been proven to reduce errors. In addition, the visual approval process removes the time and errors associated with phone, fax and email-based approval systems.
Waste #6 – Inventory: Sometimes the concept of lean manufacturing leads to questions that imply broad changes across a company’s this-is-the-way-we-do-things mentality, but those who adapt survive. So, can we operate without WIP (inventory)?
The answer: Yes. Corporate Kiosk allows an organization to display inventory available and to set thresholds for re-order. Thumbnail images of products eliminate the practice of “ordering just to see what it looks like.”
Waste #7 – Overproduction: Safety stock is tempting, but unnecessary and potentially wasteful. With Corporate Kiosk the operation can produce to order rather than for inventory because of reductions in cycle time and improved demand visibility across the entire ecosystem.
Finding LEAN and Beating the Competition
Anytime you can kill two birds with one stone in the manufacturing process, that’s LEAN, and Corporate Kiosk is the slingshot master solution. You’ll begin to see ROI (not to mention environmental benefits) almost instantly with these waste reduction methods, so take on a LEAN mentality and check out Corporate Kiosk. Feel free to contact us with any further questions you might have.
