Category: Continuous Improvement
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How Johnstech Reduced Lead Times by 50%
The semiconductor industry is competitive, with efficiency and reliability being paramount for success. Johnstech International has consistently delivered results that surpass industry standards, most notably achieving a remarkable reduction in lead times to just 3-4 weeks, compared to the typical industry standard of 5-8 weeks. This achievement underscores their use of advanced planning, scheduling, and
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Strategic Prioritization: The Manufacturing Leader’s Guide to Operational Excellence
Manufacturing organizations face an uncomfortable truth: having the capacity to produce something doesn’t mean you should. Every resource allocation decision—from accepting sales orders to scheduling production runs—directly impacts your bottom line. Without strategic prioritization driving these decisions, even the most sophisticated manufacturing operations can spiral into inefficiency, missed deadlines, and diminished profitability. Strategic prioritization extends far beyond simple task management or
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What’s the Difference Between a Manufacturing Bottleneck and a Constraint?
Bottlenecks and constraints are two terms that are often used interchangeably in Demand-Driven Manufacturing as well as in discussions on Lean Manufacturing and flow. It’s easy to use one term when you actually mean the other. However, since these two limiters on throughput need to be addressed differently, it’s important to understand the distinction. What
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The Best Time to Kick Off a Continuous Improvement Initiative
Prosperity is perhaps one of the greatest obstacles to continuous improvement in manufacturing. When things are going well, we don’t feel the need to make improvements quite as keenly. For example, instead of focusing on removing waste in our factories to become more cost competitive, we might opt to add capacity so we can keep
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Kaizen vs. Kaikaku
Kaizen vs. Kaikaku: 2 Approaches to Lean Manufacturing That Can Transform Your Factory The Lean Manufacturing world is littered with new terminology, and given the discipline’s origins, it’s not surprising that some of these words and phrases are Japanese. Being “fluent” with these words to the point that you can bring them up in
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Three Ways Leaders Create Lean
Three Ways Leaders Create Lean “Relentless” leadership and team empowerment drive lean change For those of you who have heard this before, it bears repeating. For those of you who have not, this is important – leadership is the single most important component to lean success. It is exciting to talk about bottom-up change and