Page 30 - CMA PROfiles Spring 2020

2020 VISION: HINDSIGHT

In reality, there’s a lot of opportunity for streamlining because The only one that needs to be separate is painting because you
cabinet makers are more standard than they believe they are. have to keep it away from dust. But other than that, employees
There’s nothing custom about a cabinet; you perform the same could blend things together if they could get the pieces to make
actions whether it’s 8 inches wide or 8 and 7/16. The cabinet the assembly faster.
industry has a lot of standards; there’s a standard door and Here’s a great example: Let’s say I’m making drawer boxes. I have
drawer width and counter depth, for instance. You add or to cut four parts. If I’m going at it the traditional way and cutting
subtract things, but the motions and equipment and processes a batch of each, I make many, many pieces before I’ve assembled
are identical. the first drawer. But if I cut parts one, two, three and four in

Instead of looking at your business as something that creates succession and then deliver it, I’ve made my first drawer box in
products, you need to begin thinking of it as an operation that under five minutes.
executes these motions on a continual basis at an optimal pace.
In a nutshell, if you can’t hire a Lean consultant, how do you
When you’re rowing a boat, if everyone’s rowing at the right pace get started on your own?
in unison, the boat moves faster and faster in the water. Whether Getting back to the theme: Use your hindsight to look at what
you have two people or 100 people, the steps in the process need you’ve been doing through a critical lens. Focus on those
to be moving at the right pace and in unison to drive profits.
intervals when your machines are not running. What are those
Be willing to shake things up – because compartmentalizing “just a few minutes” things that you’re doing a hundred times a
slows you down. day? Change your assumption that you should only be looking
People have a tendency to look at things by section. “Oh, this for big things to fix.
department does this, and that department does that.” Instead You might get an extra 10 pieces through in a day by doing
of looking at your set-up as a department process, look at it as a something as simple as moving that pile of wood closer to the
sequence of operations. operator. Look at those things first. Then you’ll see the returns

You can finish things faster if you start tying things together. start to amplify and get proof that little changes can have a
I ask clients why they have all of these different departments. profound impact on your business.

28 PROFILES SPRING 2020