LEAN TRANSFORMATION

PRACTICE PROFILE
Spry's lean facilitators have deep industry knowledge and extensive experience in working with large commercial businesses and governmental agencies. Our lean transformation projects have enabled us to shape and foster a continuous improvement culture at leading organizations like the Federal Housing Administration, General Motors, the Boeing Company, American Airlines, the National Institutes of Standards and Technology, Dupont, and WR Grace & Co. By working hand-in-hand with the actual process owners and leadership, we have helped our customers: 1) increase sales and profit; 2) improve productivity, quality and consistency; 3) create capacity while simultaneously reducing delivery times; 4) streamline operations to increase speed and efficiency; and ultimately 5) foster a culture that embraces Lean thinking.

METHODOLOGY
Spry's success is largely based on our exceptional facilitators, who leverage not only their skills but also their dynamic personalities to effectively work with organizations to achieve the ultimate goal of delighting their customers. In fact, the growth of our practice has been fueled by satisfied customers who engage us for follow-on work and provide referrals for new projects.

3 Stages of Lean Transformation

Planning: Each engagement starts with a high-level review of the principles of Lean. Our facilitators work closely with the leadership to perform an enterprise-wide analysis focused on identifying and prioritizing those value streams that will benefit the most from a Lean transformation.

Gap Analysis: After agreeing upon a charter and schedule, Spry facilitators embark upon a series of Value Stream Mapping (VSM) events. A VSM event starts with Lean training and a review of the charter.In the course of 3-4 days, our facilitators lead the team through the arduous process of documenting the current state, identifying process wastes and developing the future state detailing how the new process will delight the customer and empower the process owners. On the last day, the process owners present to the leadership their findings along with an implementation and control plan.

Implementation: Getting from the current state to the future states requires a commitment to continuous improvement and the appropriate allocation of the resources. Spry facilitators actively participate and mentor our customers in the application of specific tools and/or concepts to help them transform their organization into a Lean enterprise. Implementation events generally fall into three categories: 1) Just-Do-It's (JDI's); 2) Kaizen, a short 1-5 day session with a plan of action, an immediate execution (do) of the plan, followed by a check to see if the desired results and targets have been achieved, followed by a quick adjusting of the process. 3) Business Process Improvements (BPI's) which are longer term solutions with periodic alignment checks.

Examples of the tactical Lean Concepts used by our facilitators include:


RESULTS
Although the outcome of applying Lean principles vary from case to case, the trend is clear. Obliterating waste boosts morale and improves the bottom line. We have helped our customers increase productivity and efficiency by 30%, reduce defects by 25%, reduce lead time by 70%, reduce inventory by 75%, reduce space utilization by 70%, reduce order processing time by 70%, increase OEE by 90%, and increase on-time delivery by 100%.