Your factory is busy.

People are working hard. Machines are running. Departments are hitting targets.

But orders are still late.

Lead times are too long. WIP keeps growing. Overtime isn't delivering enough additional output and managers spend too much of their time chasing today's production.

It looks like you need to improve your processes.

You probably do.

But the first question shouldn't be:

Which process can we improve?

It should be:

What is currently restricting the flow of orders through the factory?

Because improving the wrong process can make very little difference to the performance of the factory as a whole.

A faster process can create a slower factory.

Levantar works with UK manufacturers to identify what is really limiting output, improve the processes that matter most and build the management systems needed to sustain the improvement.

The objective is straightforward: increase capacity and reduce lead times without automatically adding more people, equipment or space.

Process improvement should improve the factory, not just the process

Most factories have plenty of opportunities for improvement.

You can find:

• long changeovers
• unnecessary movement
• duplicated work
• waiting
• rework
• poor workplace organisation
• excessive batching
• old standard operating procedures
• inefficient layouts
• manual processes that could be automated
• machines that could run faster

All of those may be real.

But they aren't necessarily equally important.

If a process has four hours of spare capacity every day, making it another 10% faster may produce no more finished product.

If the next process is already overloaded, making the previous operation faster may simply create a bigger queue.

And if jobs are being released before materials, information or capacity are ready, improving the machine itself may not address the real problem at all.

Process improvement should start by understanding how the whole manufacturing system performs.

Not by choosing a Lean tool.

Not by buying software.

Not by automating the easiest process.

And not by assuming the busiest machine is automatically the problem.

What manufacturing problems can process improvement solve?

Manufacturers normally contact Levantar because they are experiencing one or more of these problems:

Orders are regularly late

Delivery dates move, priorities change and production spends too much time expediting jobs.

You need more output

Sales have grown but factory capacity hasn't kept pace.

The immediate answer seems to be more people, another shift or another machine.

It may not be.

Lead times are getting longer

Work spends much more time waiting between processes than actually being worked on.

WIP keeps increasing

There is plenty of work in the factory but not enough finished work coming out.

Overtime isn't delivering enough extra output

People are working more hours but the increase in finished production is disappointing.

Production priorities continually change

The schedule exists on Monday but by Tuesday the factory is already operating from emails, meetings, red pen and whoever shouts loudest.

One department appears permanently overloaded

Work builds up in front of it and every other department is affected.

Your managers are constantly firefighting

They are spending today trying to recover today's production instead of managing what the factory needs tomorrow.

These can look like separate process problems.

Often they are connected.

How Levantar approaches manufacturing process improvement

1. Understand the factory you are actually running

Before changing a process, we need to understand the production system around it.

A high-volume repetitive production line does not need the same operating rules as a low-volume machine builder.

A make-to-stock manufacturer does not need the same planning, inventory and scheduling rules as a make-to-order business.

And an engineer-to-order operation with multiple levels of sub-assembly behaves differently again.

The order may be bespoke. The processes aren't.

The first stage is understanding the operating model, demand and how work is supposed to move through the factory.

2. Follow the order through the whole Manufacturing Process Cycle

A production problem rarely begins at the machine where you finally notice it.

Levantar looks across the complete Manufacturing Process Cycle:

Enquiry & Quote → Planning → Purchasing → Scheduling → Work Order & Kitting → Production & Inspection → Test, Pack & Dispatch

Levantar Manufacturing Cycle Diagram

We look at how work, information and materials move through the system.

That includes questions such as:

• How is customer demand translated into capacity requirements?
• How are delivery dates set?
• Is there a realistic production schedule?
• When is work released?
• Are materials available when work starts?
• Where does WIP accumulate?
• Where are jobs waiting?
• What determines production sequence?
• Where are batches created and why?
• How are changeovers managed?
• Which resources are shared?
• What actually determines finished output?
• How far ahead are managers looking?

This helps distinguish the symptom from the underlying cause.

3. Find what is really limiting output

The constraint isn't always obvious.

It might be:

• one machine
• one process
• a team with a particular skill
• changeover capacity
• engineering sign-off
• material availability
• kitting
• inspection
• a shared resource
• production scheduling
• or even the way work is released into the factory

One of the most valuable questions we can ask is:

If we improved this process tomorrow, would more finished orders actually leave the factory?

If the answer is no, it probably isn't the first thing to improve.

The aim is to focus improvement effort where it can change the performance of the whole manufacturing system.

4. Improve flow, not busyness

Manufacturing improvement often focuses on making individual departments as efficient as possible.

That sounds logical.

It can also make the factory worse.

If every process produces at maximum speed regardless of what the next operation requires, WIP grows.

Queues increase.

Lead times become longer.

Priorities become harder to control.

And management spends more time expediting work through the system.

A factory doesn't make money because every machine is busy.

It makes money when finished orders leave the factory.

That means we look at:

• flow
• bottlenecks and constraints
• WIP
• buffers
• batch sizes
• production sequence
• changeovers
• work release
• scheduling
• takt and demand
• labour and skills
• material availability

rather than simply trying to maximise individual utilisation.

Which process improvement techniques do we use?

There is no single Levantar process improvement tool.

The technique depends upon the problem.

We may use:

The important point is:

The tool comes after the diagnosis.

Not before it.

What results can manufacturing process improvement deliver?

The aim isn't to create more improvement projects.

It's to improve factory performance.

Recent Levantar manufacturing work has included:

10% → 90%+ On-Time Delivery

Yorkshire machinery manufacturer.

The improvement programme increased control of production and significantly improved output without simply adding more resource.

47 → 20 day production lead time

Cambridgeshire machinery manufacturer.

On-time delivery improved from approximately 20% to 95%.

£120k → £190k weekly output

Fabrication manufacturer.

Output increased within a month while the factory recovered its production backlog.

In each example, the answer wasn't simply:

"Make everybody work faster."

It was understanding what was stopping work flowing through the factory and changing the system around it.

Which manufacturing processes can we improve?

You might not think of these as Manufacturing processes but if you look at the Levantar Manufacturing Cycle These may include:

Demand and capacity planning

Can the operation realistically deliver the demand being placed upon it?

Production planning and scheduling

Does the schedule genuinely control what should be produced, when and in what sequence?

Purchasing and material planning

Are components arriving in line with the production requirement?

Stores, kitting and work release

Is work reaching production ready to build — or are people hunting for missing parts and information?

Manufacturing and assembly

Are cycle times, batch sizes, changeovers, layout and working methods supporting flow?

Inspection and quality

Where are defects being discovered and what disruption does rework create?

Factory layout and material movement

Does the physical arrangement support the way products need to flow?

Engineering and design release

Is production waiting for drawings, approvals, BoMs or technical decisions?

ERP and production information

Does the system help control production or simply report what has already happened?

Daily management

Are managers looking far enough ahead to prevent tomorrow's problems?

Process improvement isn't finished when the process changes

This is one of the most common reasons improvement programmes fade.

A team changes a process.

But nobody changes how the process is managed.

The KPIs stay the same.

Meetings stay the same.

The production schedule stays the same.

Managers continue asking the same questions.

And gradually the old behaviour returns.

If you change the process, you normally need to change the management system around it.

That could mean introducing:

• clearer production schedules
• daily management routines
• short interval management
• constraint measures
• WIP controls
• look-ahead meetings
• visual management
• escalation rules
• standard work
• clearer ownership
• coaching for supervisors and managers

The objective is eventually to enable management to manage by exception, rather than continually chase every order.

How does a Levantar process improvement project work?

Step 1 — Diagnose

Understand the operating model, demand, processes, data, flow and constraints.

Determine what is really creating the current performance.

If you're not yet sure what needs improving, the Factory Performance Diagnostic Review is usually the best place to start.

Step 2 — Prioritise

Not every problem needs fixing at once.

We identify the improvements most likely to change output, delivery and lead time first.

Step 3 — Design the improved flow

Develop the future operating method.

This might include changes to scheduling, buffers, batch sizes, layout, work release, standard work, changeovers, labour or management routines.

Step 4 — Implement

Work alongside managers and teams to put the changes into practice.

Step 5 — Build the management system

Create the measures, routines and management behaviours needed to sustain the improvement.

Design the flow first. Then manage ahead of time.

Process improvement consultancy for UK manufacturers

Levantar works primarily with UK manufacturing SMEs.

Typical clients include businesses involved in:

• machinery and equipment
• engineering
• fabrication
• assembly
• food and FMCG
• electrical and electronic products
• batch manufacturing
• make-to-order production
• engineer-to-order manufacturing
• multi-stage production and assembly

The manufacturing process may be different.

The underlying questions are remarkably similar:

What does demand require?

What can the factory really deliver?

Where is the flow being restricted?

What should we change first?

Do you need a Process Improvement Consultant — or a Factory Diagnostic?

Sometimes the improvement required is obvious.

A particular changeover takes too long.

A layout creates unnecessary handling.

A process varies between shifts.

A production meeting isn't controlling the day.

In those cases we can work directly on the improvement.

But if you have several symptoms at once — late delivery, backlog, overtime, high WIP, capacity concerns and constant firefighting — I wouldn't start by choosing a process improvement project.

I'd diagnose the factory first.

Levantar's Factory Performance Diagnostic Review examines the whole manufacturing system and identifies what is limiting performance, what should be fixed first and what can wait.

That prevents you spending the next six months improving something that was never your main problem.

Speak to a Manufacturing Process Improvement Consultant

If your factory needs more output, shorter lead times or better delivery performance, the first conversation is simply about understanding what's happening.

You don't need to know which Lean tool you need.

You don't need to have already identified the bottleneck.

And you don't need to arrive with a list of improvement projects.

That's what the diagnosis is for.

Call Mark Greenhouse on 07712 669396

Or contact Levantar to discuss what's happening in your factory.