In the end of October a seminar graduation was held in “Lean Production” (7.5 p) at Karlstad University. The course was held by Dan Carlsson from Chalmers Professional Education, a wholly owned subsidiary of Chalmers University of Technology that offers customized training and seminars. Fredrik Berghel, CEO of Inission, was invited to speak about why Lean has become such a success for Inission.
Among the participants there were representatives from Vattenfall, BAE Systems Bofors AB, Stora Enso, Munkforssågar, Uddeholm Machining and Effect Management.
What is lean?
Lean is a continuous and long-term process of improvement. It is about identifying and eliminating activities that do not create value for the customer. You have to work smarter, not harder. Be flexible and have an overview and understanding of the production chain. It is also a culture where everyone should feel involved and respected. Being able to collaborate and communicate with each other is a prerequisite.
As we have mentioned before, we have for a long time been using Lean as a tool to achieve our goals and visions. But it takes time and requires patience. Something Fredrik pointed out to the listeners during the lecture. It is only in recent years, after several years of training and development, including in collaboration with Produktionslyftet, we felt both credible and confident to be able to lift our improvement a few more levels. This has resulted in Inspirit, the book that Fredrik holds in his hand in the picture. Inspirit is Inissions production system that describes our vision, goals and challenges, and how to reach them. Earlier this year, we also launched one of our major challenges externally to push us one step further. 2×2 2017 we call it and it´s a five-year improvement program which means that by 2017 we should be able to produce twice as much, at twice the speed, with as many employees as in 2012. This is to get the most satisfied customers.
During the lecture, Fredrik also reported about how we actually are doing, now that half the time has passed, and on the whole we are on track, even if it varies from factory to factory. Fredrik also talked about how to use Lean practical at Inissions factories, not only in production but also on the sales and purchasing departments. Finally, he concluded with some comments to companies that recently started to implement Lean as corporate culture:
– Start to engage everyone, including management. Ideally, everyone would not just participate, they would WANT to participate. Also remember that change takes time so be patient and do not give up. It can only get better, just do it!
