We believe a Lean enterprise embodies eight fundamental aspects.

eta’s work in industry seeks to realize as many of these eight fundamentals of lean as possible in each project.

While most projects involve only a subset of these fundamentals, we always keep our work consistent with a larger goal, declared or not, of realizing all of them.

1–Workplace Order, Safety and Cleanliness

 

5S (Sort, Shine, Straighten, Standardize and Sustain). This is where most companies start their lean journey.

2–Just-In-Time (JIT) Production

JIT/One-Piece-Flow, kanban/pull systems, and rapid change-over.

3–Quality

The use of FMEAs in design and process, standard work in manufacturing, mistake-proofing and allowing operators to stop production to fix defects (andon).

4–Empowered Teams

Bringing operators into the product development process early will uncover issues hidden in manufacturing work-arounds.

5–Visual Management

Visual management is a way of being transparent with information, and leads to increased workforce participation.

6–Continuous Improvement

Tools to secure, process and implement suggestions for improvement and training in the identification of waste provides ideas for improvement.

7–Management Style

We are deeply interested in the development of corporate culture, and our blog documents our ongoing research in this space.

8–Company Services

Workforce training, collaborative supplier development, kanban-driven purchasing are lean company services.