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Ford Motor Making the Right Move Claims Editor of Lean Manufacturing Book

Ford Motor Making the Right Move Claims Editor of Lean Manufacturing Book

By Jan 24, 2006

In the wake of the announcement Ford Motor company will cut 25,000 to 30,000 jobs and idle 14 plants in North America, Stephen H. Martin, publisher of The Oaklea Press said, “This is definitely a move in the right direction. American automobile manufacturers have tried unsuccessfully too long to compete with the Japanese using the old mass manufacturing model. It cannot be done. They need to fight fire with fire and this means adopting the lean manufacturing model.”

Martin is the editor of two books that tell how to successfully compete in the global marketplace: “Lean Transformation: How to Change Your Business into a Lean Enterprise,” and “Billion Dollar Turnaround: The 3M Spin-off that Became Imation.” The former explains how manufacturers can transform from mass manufacturers to lean manufacturers such as Toyota.

The second tells how a U.S. company, Imation, was able to beat the Japanese at their own game and become world leader in digital storage media, now with twice the market share of either Fuji or Maxell––its closest competitors––which are both Japanese companies.

Martin said that for a variety of reasons, a lean operation typically turns out higher-quality products than a mass manufacturing cousin. It almost always requires 25% to 40% less direct labor. It uses about half the floor space because no room is required for work-in-progress. Warehousing costs are cut to the bone because finished-goods and parts inventories are normally reduced from several months’ to only a few days’ supply.

Many American manufacturers caught onto this in the early to mid 1990s and have now adapted to the new way. These companies are able to compete in the global marketplace no matter in what country or location their products are assembled. Dell Computer, for example, builds products all over the world, including the United States, as does Toyota. [PRWEB]

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