The Science of Lean

Many manufacturers are living the lean life in every aspect of their organization. It first took root on the factory floor, but savvy managers quickly recognized the ubiquitous benefit of reducing waste in every corner of the business. Now, lean practices are penetrating the IT, finance, and customer service departments. And some companies are even finding ways to lean out the supply chain.

It’s a transcendence of sorts, an evolution to the next plateau that serves as validation that lean works — if done right, that is. That’s because lean remains more art than science, dependent upon people and processes, with a splash of technology mixed in for good measure. But focus on the wrong thing and you’ll get the wrong results.

What if there was a way to systematize lean knowledge into a precise application that makes lean more science than art? According to Sciemetric Instruments, there is. And it starts, once again, on the factory floor.

Sciemetric has encapsulated lean principles into a tool used to understand manufacturing process behavior. Sensors positioned along the assembly line gather signatures that describe the quality of operation or the ‘behavior’ of a part — such as a vibration. The process signature verification software applies algorithms and mathematical comparisons to decide whether a part is good or bad. Using this database of information, the tool can identify defects previously thought to be undetectable, and pinpoint root causes. The ultimate goal is to create an assembly process that always produces high-quality products by providing a lens into the operations with enough detail to fix something before it goes wrong.

It’s not rocket science, but it is physics. And, it is leveraging lean principles, says Nathan Sheaff, Sciemetric’s founder and CEO.

“We build basic scientific ideas into measuring,” Sheaff says. Every physical manufacturing process should have repeatable and reasonable signatures based on sound engineering and physical principles. But beyond just measuring the process, Sciemetric software puts it into context as it relates to other things upstream and downstream, Sheaff says.

Humans are creatures of habit and often resist change — which is one of the stumbling blocks to creating a lean culture. But people tend to trust science. If you can scientifically prove that you only need six welds rather than 10 welds while pushing the product down the assembly line, the protests tend to go away. And, if basic scientific measurements can prove that a product is of the highest quality, you can preclude a potential product recall in the future, eliminating a major waste of money.

This idea of “the science of quality” is still in its infancy, Sheaff admits. But with so many sensors popping up around the factory floor, there is a new influx of information. At some point people will want to do something with it. “I see a transformation happening as it becomes practical to measure and analyze extra data,” Sheaff concludes.