Increasing our competitive advantage with Lean Production
- Renate Meier, Paul Altmann und Marc Rohleder – the Lean Managers at katek. Foto: Dr. Zensen
The term "Operations Excellence" has left its mark in recent years in the professional literature and the management levels. This has created numerous methods with concrete recommendations for action aimed at companies to establish a philosophy of continuous improvement. One of the most holistic approaches is the Toyota production system and its defined methods.
The competitive situation particularly in the electronics sector is very intense and the production of "only" superior products is no longer sufficient. In today's service market one has to be exactly on the ideal line for production and logistics to move to sustainable success.
The target-oriented method for "Operations Excellence" is the EMS "lean production". This means basically to avoid above all, a waste, such as overproduction, waiting times and high inventory levels, of course, complicated manual operations and long distances.
This, however, can create a sustainable competitive advantage, all the methods to be tailored specifically to the company.
"We only perform operations as a standard when we have tested these methods in the lab (experimental manufacturing sector) and proved these positively in practice" says Renate Meier (LPM).
Paul Altmann (LPM), added that all departments of the factory are now on the Lean train and adapt their thought processes seamlessly to the subject. We are much closer to approaching the goal of the current value-optimized factory."
Marc Rohleder, Lean Production Manager (LPM) emphasizes in that at Katek GmbH much has already been achieved and there are measurable results. "We live now in a comprehensive lean culture that makes it possible for us to find the the way to operations excellence."
Especially for electronics manufacturers "lean production" is a special challenge, since different industries are served with a variety of product variants. Often several products can be produced with significantly different requirements on one and the same production facilities. This requires a very high flexibility of processes, automation technology and above all highly qualified staff.
Armin Stangl (Operational Manager) summarizes: "We pay very special attention to the strategic positioning of the company in the market and thus on long-term success. This requires on the one hand, the alignment of processes and value of each step to the requirements of the customer benefit. On the other hand, we then apply the processes and value-added steps in an innovative way to, with aim to clearly differentiate us from the competition in a positive way. A product that is consistently made under the terms of the "lean production" is attractive for the customer and in turn, is the guarantee for continued success. "
