At Walters & Wolf, we’ve been researching the application of lean for several years. If you aren’t familiar, a good definition of lean is “the elimination of waste through continuous improvement”. Our company has always been pushing forward and improving our processes, but without a construct it is less efficient. For us, lean provides that construct.
Here are a few reasons we have decided to adopt lean thinking into our company:
- Lean was pioneered at Toyota, arguably the best manufacturer in the world. Not the best car manufacturer, but THE best manufacturer. Since we manufacture our own products, it seems logical to use techniques from Toyota.
- It fits with our culture. Our core values of “set new standards for others to follow” and “enhance our reputation through continuous improvement” are a couple examples.
- It fits with the way we manage. Respect for people is a key element of lean. We have some of the best employees in our industry. If we can harness their creativity, we can really accelerate our growth and capabilities.
- It works for our customers. The first step in lean is to understand what your customer values. Lower prices, better products, less products on the job site, etc… By truly understanding what your customer wants, you can then target everything else for elimination since by definition, it is waste.
As we’ve just started our lean journey last year, I will use this space to document some of what we are learning.
