Made-to-Order Lean

6

 

Making Improvements When You Have Excess Capacity

When your capacity (equipment and staff) exceeds your customer’s demand, and you are unable to sell the excess capacity profitably, you need quick actions to reduce your costs and stay competitive. Your options are based on the following parameters:

• How long you are forecast to have excess capacity

• The skill level required in your industry

• Labor laws

• Union relations

With any luck, when you find yourself in this situation, you have the following in place and up to date:

• Standardized work for office processes

• Standardized work for operations in production

• Visualization to show workload in the office

• Visualization to show workload on the shop floor:

  • - Day-by-hour or FIFO ...