Enterprise Transformation

Lean transformation is all about eliminating waste, streamlining value creation, and reducing cycle time and inventory to generate more working capital. USC Consulting Group (USCCG) believes that companies must do four things to improve business performance in order to get “lean:”

1. Generate value, operationally and financially;
2. Engage the entire organization at all levels;
3. Fundamentally change business processes, principles, and behaviors; and
4. Employ enabling technologies to cause and sustain desired outcomes.

USCCG has developed a five-stage Lean transformation process to help companies reach far into their organizations to identify opportunities and make changes that will positively influence bottom line performance:

1. Generate a vision and a Concept of Operations (CONOPS);
2. Lean the value stream;
3. Employ Lean enabling technologies;
4. Lean the organization both structurally and capability-wise; and
5. Lean the extended enterprise and supply chain.

These five stages do not have to be implemented sequentially; they can be implemented concurrently to more quickly identify and harvest opportunities to drive value. Lean transformation doesn’t happen overnight, but it can happen in as short a time as 18 months.

We develop a baseline Lean assessment to understand an organization’s current state by doing:

• Financial and operational performance evaluation;
• Value stream analysis of current operations;
• Potential value recovery, corrective action plan, and priorities; and
• Assessments of cultural and organizational readiness for Lean transformation.

These business diagnostics allow us take a broad, deep look at the organization’s health to understand the opportunities that will help define potential operational, financial, and structural benefits.

We conduct business diagnostics in three ways:

• Across the total enterprise;
• By comparing facilities within an enterprise; and
• By assessing individual facilities.

Finally, we perform an Enterprise Assessment and Intangibles Evaluation that includes such information as:

• Current state of the organization summary;
• A Lean assessment (a 60-question evaluation completed by client staff);
• Training requirements;
• The elements of Lean that are to be enforced or reinforced; and
• A manufacturing simulation.

With our client’s assistance, we collaborate on a plan to drive the improvements. USCCG begins the Lean transformation process in those areas that ultimately represent the greatest opportunity for operational and financial improvements.

The value stream analysis is the catalyst for leaning operations toward the organization’s future state. USCCG brings an entire toolbox of methodologies to this exercise, including OSGI’s LeanView™, built on Microsoft Visio, along with Six Sigma and the Theory of Constraints, among others. Because USCCG is so well equipped with a variety of approaches and methodologies, we can deploy the tools that will produce the best results in any give organization or situation.

USCCG uses five levels of value stream mapping hierarchy to help define the current and future states of an organization.

1. The enterprise map looks at the entire organization.
2. The end-to-end process map looks at processes within the enterprise map.
3. The value stream map looks at the value stream within individual end-to-end processes.
4. The system review looks at all tools, systems, and procedures used to execute the service or provide the product within the value stream.
5. The process task analysis offers a detailed view of every activity within the value stream to locate improvement opportunities and define their magnitude.

Coupled with historical analysis and actual floor observations, we determine the key performance indicators of the current state. We employ LeanView to convert process and financial data into operational intelligence via MS Excel to establish a baseline. We then use LeanView’s modeling capability to simulate potential future state improvements in capacity utilization, material conversion, and overall cost per delivered unit (or service).

Engaging people to create value is paramount, but it is also essential to provide enabling tools to help them in the process. We believe that technology is a key enabler of any successful Lean transformation. So, we have developed and/or researched the best available technologies and are well equipped to provide the most appropriate tools for any given situation across the entire supply chain.

As one of only 200 Microsoft Managed Partners, USCCG provides solutions that are Windows-compatible, integrate easily with most legacy systems, and are readily accessible to almost everyone in an enterprise. And our Business Intelligence Portal, Proxim-IT™, can provide the convenience of one-stop shopping for continuous improvement at all levels of an organization.

We help our clients work smarter by assimilating their data and transforming it into business intelligence that promotes fact-based decision-making using a number of solutions.

Our solutions include:

LINCS®, our Lean Information Control System, is a powerful tool for detailed performance analysis. It is designed to manage processes from start to finish. This technology is fast, reliable, scalable, and easily deployed to:

• Create visibility;
• Define opportunities in areas that are not performing to plan;
• Identify the total value of opportunities, from the daily run all the way up to an annualized perspective; and
• Highlight actions required using scorecards or dashboards for leadership review.

LINCS provides the right level of detail for the right level of the organization.

Manufacturing Execution System (MES) enhances process performance through automated data collection, analysis, decision-making, and returning corrective action signals to the equipment. A total MES installation is often capital-intensive and lengthy. LINCS can complement our client’s efforts when implementing an MES. It is highly scalable and easily deployed, rapidly driving savings to potentially fund some of the MES requirements.

Inventory Analyst delivers an extraordinarily detailed view of inventory by classifications to identify variances and opportunities for inventory reduction.

Advanced Planning and Scheduling, developed by our strategic ally Quintiq, specializes in rapidly solving very complex scheduling and planning problems which can impact capacity, material availability, and resource utilization.

Advanced Planning and Scheduling PDF

Simulation uses our strategic ally FlexSim’s™ technology, in conjunction with other tools and methods, to model the impact of alternative decisions by creating future state simulations. FlexSim is so scalable it can be used for a particular value stream or to represent an entire supply chain within an industry.

Flexsim™ Process Simulation Technology

Reliability Centered Maintenance uses our strategic ally Ivara’s EXP™ software to identify where equipment failures will occur and how to most cost-effectively prevent them and their consequences in a very proactive way.

Knowledge and Skills Transfer for operational excellence is based on USCCG’s concept of integrated methodology. We combine the best of proven and emerging methodologies to create and deliver a fully integrated solution that’s right for our clients. And we help sustain the improvements achieved during the course of an engagement through knowledge transfer facilitated by classroom and on-the-job training, and a set of enabling tools.

One of these tools is M-Abler®, a complete, interactive learning system we make available to support the continuous improvement process. It is also appropriate for clients who want to train or educate their organizations as a separate initiative, outside the course of a traditional consulting engagement.

M-Abler Blended Learning Solutions PDF

Its current Lean operations curriculum can be supplemented with additional course topics and design tools featuring the best methodologies for, and approaches to, a wide variety of operational problems and opportunities. M-Abler can also be used to create any new curriculum from a combination of printed and electronic educational materials using its built-in course builder functionality. The system also comes with instructional consulting to maximize its effectiveness.

For more information on USCCG’s enabling tools or to obtain a demonstration of M-Abler, please call us at (800) 888-8872.

Building a Lean team is paramount to a successful Lean transformation and training is a key element. USCCG delivers Lean concepts and principles across an organization via our web-based M-Abler® blended learning solution. This is an excellent vehicle for getting everyone ’on the same page‘ with consistent, custom-tailored coursework that can be objectively monitored.

USCCG’s core competencies and methodologies capture value throughout the supply chain. We drive value by using the SCOR (Supply Chain Operation Readiness) model as our fundamental building block for demonstrating how to plan, source, make, and deliver work more effectively. This allows us to determine the bottom-line impact of specific supply chain metrics; evaluate the success or failure of the operations which drive those metrics; identify the solution(s) that will enhance the performance of those value drivers; design implementation plans; and monitor results.

By evaluating the various supply chain drivers at this level, we can link operational metrics directly to the financial value they generate.

USCCG has proven to be a valuable resource for numerous organizations. We have the capability, methodology, and experience to not only accelerate your team’s transformation, but to sustain its performance at a higher level.