There are plenty of tools—especially lean manufacturing— that can be used to cut waste and improve productivity. Knowing which to use can be a challenge.
In this year’s FE “State of Food Manufacturing Survey,” 40 percent of food and beverage manufacturing respondents reported implementing lean manufacturing systems to benchmark and improve their operations, while 41 percent reported having a Total Quality Management (TQM) system in place to better their processes. While TQM isn’t specifically part of lean, following a lean system rigorously can certainly improve quality. Nearly a third of FE survey respondents reported using Six Sigma practices, and nearly a third reported using Total Productive Maintenance (TPM) systems—part of lean tools—to improve their operations. While these numbers add up to more than 100 percent, many respondents reported using more than one system or strategy to hone their operations.
While both TQM and lean manufacturing aim to improve quality, TQM reaches a point where no more improvements can be made. Lean manufacturing, however, focuses on taking quality improvement to the next level. While TQM typically views quality as conformance to internal requirements, lean manufacturing focuses on reducing the number of defects and waste. Therefore, quality will improve. But, while TQM can be managed internally, implementing lean manufacturing usually requires some outside help and/or software. But, the good news is there’s plenty of help in terms of training and consulting, besides various ERP and MES software systems, that are capable of implementing some of the lean tools.