Daniel Penn Associates (DPA) is helping a large components producer apply a Lean lens to the production challenges that accompany their explosive growth.

Printing operation employees dramatically boost output and reduce scrap with set-up reduction events that improve flow, standardize work, and slash waste.

Inventory control plays a critical role in manufacturing facilities. Proper spare parts management can reduce downtime, and increase profit margins.

Why employees really reject change? DPA consultant Peter Harlamon shares strategies and tactics from his involvement in challenging labor-management negotiations.

Daniel Penn Associates recently asked members of LinkedIn’s Association of Asset Management Professionals Group “What is the maintenance strategy that you use the most with your organization?”

Many senior leaders and senior staff do not understand the fundamentals of lean. It’s one thing to recite knowledge of lean, and another to live lean every day—both on the floor and in the executive suite.

In a social media and email survey, Daniel Penn Associates asked operations experts why lean efforts fail. Here are the seven most common reasons cited, with a sampling of participants’ comments.

Lean is successful when we empower people to improve how they work together. DEI is successful when people understand and set aside preconceptions that pose barriers to teamwork. In today’s organizations, DEI supports Lean, and Lean supports DEI.

How an international manufacturer of materials for construction applications was able to improve operational excellence by 66.5%.

Original equipment effectiveness (OEE) is the product of availability, performance and quality. Knowing how to use these elements can help manufacturers improve operations.

Filling in the missing pieces is not all that difficult. But the emotional content of these issues, a history of inequity and the inertia of organizational culture have exacerbated our challenges.

Daniel Penn Associates helps manufacturers implement Lean techniques that result in significant energy savings by reducing cost per unit produced.

A machine spare parts inventory system is every bit as important as inventory control for your manufacturing goods and materials.

Loss in your machine spare parts inventory will shut down your production every bit as fast as not having the goods you need to produce.

Stay on track with your asset maintenance program. Stick to a step-by-step task list.

Streamline supply chain processes, develop alternate suppliers – and have somewhere to put the higher volume of goods.

Often overlooked questions to help your teams improve and support your organization’s asset maintenance program.

Even with promising vaccines expected to be available, your organization’s focus continued vigilance, and rapid response is critical right now!

Even with promising vaccines expected to be available, your organization’s focus continued vigilance, and rapid response is critical right now!

without a ‘lean first’ planning approach, hasty investments in government automation and IT can increase waste.

without a ‘lean first’ planning approach, hasty investments in government automation and IT can increase waste.

Free worksheets to guide your facility’s practices and protocols as you continue or ramp up production for our ‘new normal’ under COVID-19.

U.S. supply chain experts are weighing in on what can be done to make our supply chain more resilient now and after the COVID-19 pandemic abates. How will your company adapt its supply chain to respond to future global shocks?

The COVID-19 pandemic will continue to affect every part of society. While governments are rushing to contain its spread during this global crisis, manufacturers must satisfy customer demand while ensuring health, quality, and safety.

Government entities that truly apply lean thinking to their operations and processes can realize significant and sustainable benefits.

If you ask ten people what their definition of Preventive Maintenance is, you will get ten different answers. The tasks range from very simple to fairly complex. What’s more, the manner in which they are performed and the depths to which they are carried out vary considerably.

In a world of rapidly changing customer demands, your organization’s lean daily management activities and the game of soccer have much in common.

If you’re responsible for pharma manufacturing operations – examine these six factors in your pharmaceutical facility’s process definition and controls.

“Baseball is a simple game. You throw the ball. You catch the ball. You field the ball.” – Durham Bulls coach Larry Hockett, from the movie Bull Durham.

Technology should be deployed wherever it can create efficiencies and assist in the customer experience.

Sometimes operational lessons get reinforced by unexpected players. This one begins with a story surrounding the late great Anthony Bourdain.

Regardless of the industry, you’re in, effective planning and scheduling can have a profound impact on your maintenance organization‘s productivity.

Facilities maintenance organizations must create and actively manage a comprehensive plan to reduce unnecessary costs and maintain quality.

The rising cost of doing business is challenging us all to find ways to work more efficiently. Lean programs usually begin with good intentions…

Is your business contemplating operational change? Most organizational change programs fail is they don’t take thoughts and emotions into account.

Maintenance strategy doesn’t enter our non-technical brains unless it directly affects our productivity and well-being. The 5 basic maintenance strategies.

Organizations that apply lean thinking to their operations and processes can realize significant and sustainable productivity benefits.

A pharmaceutical plant I worked with excelled with their preventive maintenance program. What were the key drivers of their success?

There are two things are essential to product quality and customer satisfaction: employees’ work and your equipment’s performance.

Will robotic automation be part of your company’s transformation? If your assembly operations are light, cobots should be part of its future.

It is listening intently to employees’ ideas. Converting them into doable alternatives. Then, helping everyone own the new process and move as a team.

What’s holding your maintenance organization back from making process improvements? The dos and don’ts for organizations that want to implement change.

The optimal manufacturing setup for each product line drives the case for single part operations versus multiple parts or gang operations.

Reliability Centered Maintenance (RCM) is the most cost-effective method your plant can use to develop an appropriate maintenance strategy with takt time.

Much has been written about Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE) but it is too useful not to revisit some of the key points.

What’s Your Maintenance Strategy? Maintenance strategy doesn’t enter our non-technical brains unless it directly affects our productivity and well-being.

Lean manufacturers have a leg up on speeding products to market, reducing costs and keeping customers happy. In this overview, I’ll share how to engineer, set up and manage the project for a lean factory that works for your specific requirements.

Facilities maintenance (FM) is often treated as a weak sister by healthcare facility management and doesn’t always get the respect or funding it deserves. Is your FM department properly configured to deliver its full value to your facility’s environment of care and its bottom line?

By optimizing your pick area for shipping operations you can reduce costs, speed products to market and increase customer satisfaction.

Every dollar a hospital’s maintenance organization spends on unnecessary labor, equipment or processes erodes their service, reputation, and bottom line.

Are you tired of that month, quarter or year-end crunch to get your preventive maintenance (PM) work done? Minimize the chance of this happening again.

How do you eat a chocolate elephant? Well, the answer is easy and well-known – one bite at a time. The same is true when nibbling away at reducing lead time.

Maintenance Programs – what are the potential benefits of using the IIoT for your maintenance operation?

Are pallet racks full? Do flow racks appear to be fully utilized? Do aisles contain products awaiting put away or customer orders awaiting pick up?

Preventive maintenance may seem a no-brainer, but if you make assumptions and cut corners, your results won’t match the effort. Follow these six steps and you’ll create an effective, efficient and sustainable preventive maintenance program for your facility.

Lessons from the Front – How can we make creating a value stream map, VSP, less burdensome and more relevant?

How Can a Lean Factory Tollgate Process Work? Here is a sample tollgate path for re-working your facility’s layout – or setting it up from scratch.

Why preventive maintenance fails. If developing a preventive-maintenance program is such no brainer, why doesn’t every company have one in place?

For companies that truly want to maximize their equipment uptime, productivity, and quality, a disciplined approach is critical.

Accountability and reliability go hand in hand. Both rely on effective work management. Accountability is no more a one-person job than is quality.