Several weeks ago we wrote about lean manufacturing. Hopefully it was an insightful blog which all of us in manufacturing can aspire towards and learn from.
This week we are going to give you some basics on 'Agile Manufacturing', another term which although has been around for a while now, many people working in manufacturing are just not aware of.
What is Agile Manufacturing?
Agile is focused on responding to changing customer demands quickly through flexible production design. Here at Central Conveyors Ltd we pride ourselves on working closely with the customer throughout all stages of the manufacturing process, to ensure we can respond to any changes in requirements, both swiftly and comprehensively, ensuring we are doing the right thing for our customers time and time again.
What are the benefits of an Agile mindset?
There are many:
You place yourself in a position where you can respond to change, quickly and effectively
You deliver value and solve complex problems in a predictable way, and handle ambiguity
You reduce risk and waste, control budgets, and improve governance and accountability
You increase trust, collaboration, engagement and transparency
You use all the brains in the organisation
The key to being agile is to think agile
What are the principles of Agile manufacturing that could help improve our business?
One of the key principles of Agile manufacturing is leveraging the impact of people.
This sounds straight forward, otherwise why would we employ people? we employ them to do a job..Yes this is true. However all of your employees are more than their job title. The team collectively (not just leaders) can introduce new approaches, make existing approaches obsolete, help with out of box thinking. It also useful to gauge your workforce for any understanding they may also have in regards to cutting edge technology, approaches or resources that they may have experience of, in previous roles, or through their own research.
This blog just touches the surface of what Agile Manufacturing is and how it can help to have an Agile mindset.
We will continue to explore this area of work and how it connects to us here at CCL, and maybe yourselves in future blogs.
Let us know how agile has helped your business develop and grow.
As usual if Central Conveyors Ltd can help you with any of your conveyor system needs, don't hesitate to get in touch. We hope to hear from you soon.