Release of Groundbreaking Lean Execution System Enhanced With Kaizen and Yokoten

Helps manufacturers by focusing on problems and problem resolution in real time

Published: Monday, December 4, 2017 - 12:00

(Leading2Lean: Salt Lake City) -- Leading2Lean has released two new enhancements to their cutting-edge Lean Execution System. Based on respected lean production methods of kaizen (aka continuous improvement) and yokoten ( aka horizontal, best-practice sharing), these enhancements will allow Leading2Lean’s customers to better align their manufacturing facilities with true lean principals, increase productivity, and improve performance.

“Manufacturing is evolving quickly and the winners in this fast-changing landscape are the companies that recognize and act on the fact that true lean performance comes from leveraging not only technology, but also human creativity and problem solving,” says Keith Bar, CEO of Leading2Lean. “Our Lean Execution System has helped clients improve performance and increase production by matching state-of-the art software with the talents of their employees.”

Leading2Lean’s Lean Execution System is a simple, user-friendly software for manufacturers. The software is cloud-based and works across existing legacy systems, meaning it is lower cost, low risk, and provides high rewards. It provides full, plant-floor transparency; visibility to operations for every employee; and users are empowered to improve performance and identify problems. With full data visibility, problems are identified and resolved faster, meaning costly downtime is drastically reduced.

The kaizen and yokoten enhancements improve systemwide sharing of best practices and provide insights into how manufacturers can continually improve plant or plant-network performance.

Kaizen evolves the too-often disregarded “suggestion box” by making it easy for employees to submit ideas for system improvement. This method allows employees to receive feedback from co-workers and ensures that ideas are escalated to senior management. It enables suggestions to be more simply analyzed, categorized, prioritized, sorted, and managed, then assigns each improvement to a person/people to execute on the idea across the entire system.

“As any company’s employees are their best and most knowledgeable asset, engaging them to identify ways to reduce waste, increase safety, increase product quality, and decrease cost of product just makes sense,” says Barr. “Empowering employees to identify the gaps and inefficiencies and suggest where improvement can take place, not only leads to increased efficiency and cost saving, but also improves employee commitment, satisfaction, and retention.”

Yokoten’s primary function is to quickly share all kaizen improvements across a company’s factory, from plant floor to C-suite, or across multiple global factories. Once the improvements are shared, they are implemented horizontally across plants and networks. Simply put, one plant’s documented improvements can be leveraged across multiple plants and give companies true standardization, a goal many multiplant operators have long desired.

“Since a large quantity of improvements can be managed and shared much more easily, the likelihood of improvements being spread and benefiting the whole company is much higher,” says Barr. “For example, if one plant in China makes an improvement on a machine that improves safety, efficiency, or keeps it from breaking down, that improvement can then be easily implemented in the same company’s plants in the United States and Mexico, benefiting the whole enterprise.”

About The Author

Leading2Lean

Founded in 2010, Northern Nevada-based Leading2Lean is focused on operational-excellence solutions for multinational manufacturers. Leading2Lean is run by an executive team with extensive experience in manufacturing, engineering, and turning around failed enterprises. Its cloud-based systems provide critical real-time information to help rank-and-file workers do their jobs better and take ownership of their work.