Lean manufacturing
All businesses are constantly looking for continuous improvement opportunities. By adopting lean manufacturing principles, food businesses can achieve notable results.
The main focus of lean manufacturing is to relentlessly reduce waste and hasten the flow of the product to the consumer. The food industry, because they work with perishable products that cannot accumulate, is no stranger to continuously flowing product out the plant door and into the hands of the consumer.
Lean thinking offers a fundamental shift away from traditional manufacturing towards a more systematic approach, focused on reducing any non-value adding or wasteful activities.
Because lean manufacturing reduces waste across processes in the business, it is also good for the environment.
Lean manufacturing improves the productivity of a business while increasing the performance across the four key areas of quality, cost, delivery and flexibility.
Other factors which support the adoption of lean manufacturing include:
- Benchmarking performance across industries and business
- Waste identification and elimination
- Strategic planning and implementation
- Business process re-engineering
- Centralisation
- Supply chain optimisation
- Training and certifying your staff
- Optimisation and creating work flows
Need advice?
Value Stream Mapping Workshops
Innovate SA has developed a Lean Program with a structured pathway designed to help implement lean principles. Value Stream Mapping (VSM) aims to ensure that businesses understand the basics of ‘lean’ and are able to move through each stage of implementation based on their own needs and circumstances.
How has the SA Food Centre helped others?
Through the SA Food Centre, businesses can access Innovate SA, which runs workshops, helping businesses learn more about lean manufacturing. Several South Australian businesses have already provided a case study about the advantages of this approach to business improvement.
- B.-d. Farm Paris Creek - Achieving in-full, on-time deliveries
- Cocolat – Lean manufacturing
Innovate SA can help you find opportunities to use innovation to improve your business or take a unique new product to market. It can provide you with the tools and help you form the networks you need to meet the challenges of being a successful innovator.
If you’re running your own business or are part of an organisation that is demonstrating solid business growth with the potential for export and innovation, then the experienced team at Innovate SA can help you.
Accent Wine Packaging (PDF 181KB)
Working with the SA Centre for Innovation opened the door for SA business Accent to accept additional and larger contracts and leaner production.
Lean manufacturing (PDF 173KB)
The team at Cocolat have learnt that lean manufacturing is about the little things that add up to make all the difference.
Who can I contact?
The SA Food Centre can assess your business needs and how lean thinking can be applied to your business.
- Page last modified: July 27, 2010, 12:53 pm
- Welcome URL is http://www.safoodcentre.com.au/
- This page: http://www.safoodcentre.com.au/processing_and_manufacturing/lean_manufacturing
