We have been implementing Lean manufacturing for more than a decade, fostering a Lean culture among our Leonians. Since April 2019, we have been kicking off an ongoing self-learning improvement program, Jishuken. In Lean terms, the primary purpose of the Jishuken program is to build front line capability to sustain continuous improvement through cycles of intensive team learning. Jishuken is a structured multi-week program focused on improvements to the gemba (the factory floor) and based on defined business targets with intensive efforts made to drive individuals and the organization to a higher level. After satisfactory results were achieved in our Lean pilot workshop, we were pleased to set up the entire Jishuken program at our factory this year.
In addition to aligning with our Group’s long-term goal to upgrade and transform into a Smart factory, at Leo, Jishuken is an important talent nurturing program to nurture our Leonians to possess the mindset, know-how and capabilities of applying various Lean Gemba Kaizen tools, to create value for supporting our sustainable development needs in the long run.
After three rounds of Jishuken were held at the selected shop floor, remarkable progress and achievements were made in streamlining production workflow and improving the performance of printing presses. To name a few, these achievements included improved quality, productivity, production scheduling and turnaround, single minute exchange of dies (SMED) and factory logistics. At the same time, progress showed the reduction of unnecessary defects and errors by applying various Lean tools such as visualization, 2S/4S improvement, PDCA+F, and more.
For example, after Jishuken was held, improvements were made to the management of raw materials and semi-finished product logistics within factory areas, as it was no longer necessary to keep a temporary storage area and effectively eliminated unnecessary time used to move the raw materials. This helped save overall factory space of 780m² while also achieving zero machine idle time for workers no longer taking time to find required production materials. After implementing the continuous flow in prepress production line, overall prepress manufacturing turnaround time has improved.
Adoption and application of these improvements will be spread horizontally to other factory sites after we receive satisfactory results from our internal audits. In other words, standardized procedures and quality control checklists can be applied to streamline current operational workflows while also improving production and workers’ performances and overall kaizen capabilities.
Looking forward, we expect to have more cycles of self-initiated co-learning, applying Jishuken horizontally to the whole factory in 2020 and thereafter.