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Effecient Manufacturing During a Pandemic
- by Matt Stevenson

Having endured 2020 and the worst part of the global Covid pandemic, one manufacturing philosophy became abundantly imperative to Sunstone surviving and excelling during that time, Lean Manufacturing.  Due to unpredictability in employee availability, increased distancing, decreased sales, increasing demands from essential businesses and the overall uncertainty, these philosophies had an accelerated and a renewed purpose.  It wasn’t enough to simply cross train employees in all aspects of the manufacturing process and hope to maintain quality and on time expectations.  Something bigger and more powerful was needed.   

Lean manufacturing is a set of guiding principles aimed at improving efficiencies and productivity while reducing waste in the process.   The five core principles of lean, as defined by the Lean Enterprise Institute (LEI) are 1) defining value, 2) mapping the value stream, 3) creating flow, 4) using a pull system, and 5) pursuing perfection.  At the core, lean is the process of determining the true value of any given process, manufacturing step, inspection, handling, etc and trying to eliminate those things that have been added to the process that do not add value and are considered waste. By eliminating waste (time, labor, materials, supplies, etc.) from the process, the outcomes will inevitably be added profitability, increased actual productive time by employees, increased job satisfaction and improved overall product quality.    

At the time we didn’t set out with a plan to reinvigorate all five of the lean manufacturing principals to help us adapt to the drastically changed times.  We needed to take what we were doing and amplify it to meet the challenges that Covid brought. We needed to focus on the immediate needs, how do we continue to satisfy customer, employee and management needs in the face of these changes?  Lean was not the charge for our journey, though looking back on what we did, it was exactly lean that we used.  Through our adaptation to our new reality, we did rely on our experience with lean and though it wasn’t a classic lean project, we did use many of the principals, in a non-structured manner that got us through the hardest times and put us on a path to come out of 2020 stronger than we went in.  We were able to maintain operations, keep all of our employees healthy and employed, continue to satisfy our customer needs, and react very quickly to changes in staffing, product mix, volume and complexity. 

The Lean Manufacturing culture is a key cog in that success. 

How have you used lean in your business?  I would love to hear about it.