Just after CoolPac’s successful ISO 9001: 2015 accreditation, the momentum keeps rolling on with the staff at CoolPac moving into another phase of improvement: Lean Manufacturing!
Lean Manufacturing is defined in Wikipedia as the “…systematic method for waste minimisation within a manufacturing system without sacrificing productivity…”. This management philosophy is derived mostly from the Toyota Production System (TPS) and focuses on what CoolPac’s customers value and minimises the rest.
In November 2018 CoolPac started Lean Manufacturing Program with the help from consultant Michelle Brown from TXM Lean Consultants. “Even before Michelle started the project, we noticed improvements!” Just by talking about the upcoming project got people started to experiment and change things around which had an increase in productivity.
There are a number of tools that typify Lean Manufacturing. Many of them have been around before, but the Toyota Production System has really fine tuned them. Last week, Michelle coached and trained our staff in:
- Visual manufacturing
- Value Stream Mapping
- 5S
- Process walk throughs
After the Value Stream Mapping all the staff were surprised how many tasks we all did with out recognising it. “I thought we just moulded containers and put them into cardboard boxes, but … we do so much more!” was heard from the assembled staff.
Theres more to come … this won’t be a quick project, so there’s plenty of time for more tools and techniques to learn.
CoolPac were recipients of the Victorian Government’s “Boost your Business” voucher scheme.
TXM was formed in 2004 with the aim of helping Australian manufacturing companies transform their operations. TXM has grown to become a leading international Lean consulting company with offices in Australia, China, the UK and US and projects in more than 15 countries globally.
CoolPac is Australia’s largest designer and manufacturer of cold chain Packaging Systems, which are used in the Pharmaceutical industry for transporting cold chain medicines. CoolPac is ISO 9001 accredited and supports the principals of PSCI.
