Optimation Adding Measurable Value With Automatic CNC Nesting

Lean Idea #3 – Building on Nesting Successes | Creating Value & a Value Stream

Wouldn’t it be great to make a small, measureable fix here and a modest incremental change there and go home at the end of the day feeling satisfied you’ve handled the “fabrication crisis?”

Selecting a few ideas or solutions in the hopes of making great strides with small movements doesn’t address the whole picture, and it won’t work…in the long run.  Well, yes, you will see some changes, and maybe that will be all the solution necessary to fend off the immediate crisis – for the time being.  But Lean Manufacturing isn’t about isolated successes.

What Lean Manufacturing calls us to do is tie small, initial value-rich steps together into a Value Stream to achieve results greater than the sum of the individual steps.  Leverage the benefit of one step with another, and another to create a powerful competitive edge for your company.

What is Value?

Value is anything for which your customer will pay.  It is something that the customer believes is worth his/her money.  Your business’s value is worth the product you produce has for the customer.  It has an inherent value because it does something, solves a problem, or makes a process easier/faster/better.  Further, the market has assigned a value to your product.  It’s its price, or what the customer will pay for the value he/she gains from the product.  But there are other values in your company beyond the product itself.  Your customer pays for convenience – how fast you can deliver – because time has value.  He pays for service – how well you respond to his needs – because responsiveness has value.  He pays for quality – maybe even a premium because of your exceptional work or brand – because the assurance of usability has value.

What is a Value Stream?

A Value Stream is all the processes, information, resources and labor absolutely required to produce value (the product, convenience, service, quality) for your customer – and not an ounce more.

Creating a Value Stream

With this understanding of value, we can apply it to our own operation.  Before you reserve the conference room for an afternoon and buy a new set of dry erase markers –  Wait!  This isn’t a “Show Stopping” Project meant to take you away from the work at hand.

You can achieve a lot by breaking it down into manageable pieces.

Take one of the small, incremental projects that you’ve had some real, tangible results with, and let’s look at it in the context of your Value Stream.  For example:

Order Flow

Your customer pays you to deliver orders on time, quickly, accurately, and in the correct quantity by a certain date and time.  That’s the value.  That’s value that an automatic nesting software is designed to contribute. One value stream integral to the nesting process is the order flow or how you achieve the “on time value” from the first sales call to the order in production.  Another value stream integral to nesting  is the design process – from the first design concept, through prototyping, to final production and delivery.

Example of an Order Flow Value Stream

You may have made a single small change to impact this order process – entering orders automatically with Optimation.  Now put that improved value in context, as part of the overall value stream.

Now look at the rest of the order flow process to see how to impact the whole value stream:

• How is the order/scheduling system updated with produced part information?
• Can orders be queried faster?
• Can orders be placed in real time?
• How can order changes be handled?
• Is the “orders produced” data available for analysis? If so, what does it tell you?
• Can assemblies be ordered as units?
• Can orders be mixed in production?
• Can multiple customer orders be mixed in production?
• How can information flow better to and from production?

How are you adding value with your nesting software?  Or are you finding it challenging?  Share your experiences with us.