Should you hire a lean manufacturing consultant?

Lean manufacturing provides you with a chance to lower costs and improve the overall production of your business. A number of businesses are turning to lean manufacturing as it is easy to implement it with just about every type of business entity. Smaller companies (like a dental office) may not need to hire a lean manufacturing consultant to come in and provide training to implement lean manufacturing. Larger companies should contact a lean manufacturing consultant to come in and train your employees.

A lean manufacturing consultant will provide you with the right type of execution and implementation for your new lean manufacturing program. One thing you need to worry about is the cost, can you afford to implement lean manufacturing and pay for the costs of the lean manufacturing consultant?

Training employees to chance their mindset and think lean can be hard. Your management is responsible for setting the example for the rest of the staff. You must be committed to lean manufacturing in order to show your employees why you believe in it and why it will work. If they see that you are following it and that it's providing you with results, they will have an easier time implementing it as well.

A lean manufacturing consultant will need the help and support of management in order to properly implement lean manufacturing. They will need to train you on your role within the organization and how you will be able to then train your employees.

In-house training and implementation is much more challenging than most businesses realize. You will need an expert to come in and explain what lean manufacturing is and how it will benefit your business. Then you are asking this person to show the employees what they can do to change the way they currently work into a method that will make their jobs easier and provide the overall company with a stronger team and greater productivity.

Quite often the firms that do not fully understand what lean manufacturing is all about will hire the consultant to come in. Before you hire someone else to come in and train your staff, you need to attend seminars and trainings to learn all about lean manufacturing in the first place. This will help the lean manufacturing consultant as they will be able to use you in their implementation phase and it will make the entire process easier on everyone.

Before hiring a lean manufacturing consultant to come in and train your staff, take a look at the value they will add to your company. Do you honestly feel like your company is in a position to change for the better? You must be committed to improving your performance and eliminating waste from the company and this must be a mindset that everyone shares, not just management.

The problem with a consultant is that they will come in with a lot of strength and they can motivate the company but the second they leave this strength and motivation they brought to the plate is gone as well. Your staff must find a way to continue on with this motivation and to make the most of their training.

Hire an in-house lean manufacturing manager. This person will focus on only lean manufacturing and to make sure the employees are following it. Their job is difficult at best but it can provide valuable resources for the company and you can eventually move them to part-time or contract them out to smaller organizations that are looking to implement lean manufacturing. Here are some of the wastes you will eliminate and the processes that you will strengthen by implementing lean manufacturing:

• Shipping


• Purchasing


• Sales


• Administration


• Engineering


• Maintenance


• Inventory