Reduced costs - lower material costs with less: inventory, waste, space or facility requirements and processing time

Lower costs - product & delivery

Efficient operations, reduced setup time & increased capacity potential

Excellent and consistent quality

Reduced error

Reduced lead time

Happy & adaptable employees with improved safety

Speedy deliveries

More staff options with cross-trained employees

Flexible and responsive results

Improved supplier performance

Agile product development

Greater strategic focus

Clear communication

Increased market share

Where Do I Begin? - LEAN Enterprise Assessment

This top-level assessment reveals how your company’s current processes compare to world-class LEAN manufacturing practices. It is the first step in determining how and where LEAN thinking can be applied to your operation. FVWDB's LEAN Team evaluates and rates a range of functional areas against LEAN principles. The result is a comprehensive implementation plan for becoming a LEAN enterprise.

Strategic Policy & Deployment

Successful LEAN implementation means involving your entire organization starting down the path to a LEAN thinking culture. The purpose of Strategic Policy Deployment is to align every employee’s daily activities to pursue the goals of your organization. FVWDB's LEAN Team offers a variety of training courses designed to ensure that participants know what LEAN operations strategy is, why it works, and how to apply LEAN principles in their operation.

Team Building

In this course, we define teams: their styles, stages, activities, rules, goals, and benefits. We will teach you how to pave the way for a culture of team empowerment and satisfaction for contributions to success in your organization.

Value Stream Mapping

Learn how to identify business waste, understand and map steps of the value chain throughout the process, overcome roadblocks, create a vision for the future and improve organizational agility & productivity.

Metrics & Measurement

"You cannot improve what you do not measure" - in order to implement a successful lean program the critical operating metrics for the process needs to be established with performance targets and 'review-and-action' systems to drive continuous improvement. FVWDB helps Customers benchmark their processes, set practical targets, and supply tools to monitor and improve performance.

A3 Problem Solving

One of the goals of a LEAN Operational Strategy is to create a community of problem solvers in an organization who use scientific principles to solve problems and improve processes that people work in. A3 documents provide a framework and consistent format for problem solving methods and communications throughout the organization.

Plant & Office Layout / Cellular Design

Cellular Design is the linking of people, products, services and machines to produce a workplace layout using the most efficient methods possible. The goal for developing cellular workplace is to physically locate all of the required resources to create a product/service in close proximity to each other — within reach if possible. Only by doing this can a product/service be delivered in a batch size of one - even if demand for the product fluctuates. Learn how to improve your organizational process, flow, & layout to improve throughput, reduce cost & lead times, and maximize productivity.

Creating a Kanban/Pull System

A pull system is a means of controlling the flow of resources by replacing only that has been consumed. It begins with the shipping of an order to a customer that generates an order to the last operation in the plant or office. When that process step pulls WIP from the next upstream operation, the empty kanban (card) signals that station to replenish the location. This occurs for all operations up the line, including the suppliers of raw materials. A pull system strictly controls inventory and makes finished products based on actual demand rather than forecasts.

5S Workplace Organization

This course will change the way that you do business as well as your fundamental approach to organization. (It's contagious!) Learn how to reduce search time & space, improve flow through stable processes, standardize work, and to sustain lasting organizational improvement.

Visual Controls

Visual controls are simple signals that provide an immediate understanding to everyone of what needs to be done. A work place that uses visual controls can reduce the chance for miscommunication among employees and supervisors alike. The key is to keep it simple, standardized and effective.

Setup Reductions & Workflow Improvements

This course is equally beneficial to office settings as it is for manufacturing. We discuss traditional approaches, changing paradigms, the separation of internal activities from external ones, streamlining activities, tools, and experiments to reduce workflow time across your organization.

Mistake Proofing (Poka Yoke)

Learn how to use inexpensive but very effective methods to identify & prevent root-causes of errors, costly defects, and their negative impact. Set the stage for continual improvements in your organization.