While Panasonic is a storied old company being around for over 100 years, Panasonic Energy Corporation of North America (PENA) located near Reno, Nevada in the GigaFactory One, does not have that history. It is actually quite new and exciting. PENA is a large-scale advanced battery manufacturing division of Panasonic Corporation. The GigaFactory One grew … Read more
The September 2015 revision of ISO 9001 formatted it to Annex SL which standardizes paragraphs of management systems. The format is quite different from the prior revision. Risk-based thinking and company self-evaluation is emphasized.
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So reads the title on the YouTube posting from Lincoln Electric. We were privileged to lead this inaugural kaizen project at Lincoln Electric Cutting Systems in Reno, Nevada. They are a newer division, since 2011, of Lincoln Electric Corporation; full of bright, energetic people who design and build CNC metal cutting machines for sheet and … Read more
The goal of Lean Manufacturing implementation and Lean Enterprise is to deliver exactly what the customer wants, exactly when the customer wants it. This helps businesses avoid such profit-killers as stockpiling inventory or parts that don’t move, or performing services and intermediate steps that the client neither wants nor needs. Lean Manufacturing Implementation Using Lean … Read more
Companies concerned about the environment are no doubt, already acting on sound and responsible environmental practices. An ISO 14001 project can formalize these practices into a more manageable framework. So you may wonder: What is ISO 14001? How does ISO 14001 relate to your company’s policy and objectives, and integrate with the current business system? … Read more
The trend in today’s global marketplace is a growing demand for registration to the internationally recognized ISO 9001 standard. Companies that are not ISO-certified may want to start thinking about getting certified. Many companies, however, view the ISO 9001 certification process with skepticism, anticipating a costly waste of time they must endure in order to … Read more
Reducing the time required to change over from one processing operation to another. Reducing lead times and lot sizes requires a fundamental shift in how a company looks at setup, which is the time required to change over from one processing operation to another. The traditional view has been that the time it takes to … Read more
Statistical Process Control (SPC) is a tool to help companies study their operations so they can continually improve. SPC uses structured statistical analysis to determine and control variance in a process. Studying the variances shows if a process is in control and capable to produce product that satisfies customers. This outline and the accompanying example … Read more
Kaizen, a Japanese word, means orderly and gradual continuous improvement. Kaizen is a broad-based philosophy through which the expectations of internal and external customers can be met and exceeded by empowering process owners. We’ve found with our clients that effective systems are rooted in clear objectives and measurements, coupled with effective application of targeted tools … Read more
With lean manufacturing machine downtime becomes an intolerable situation, requiring a different approach to maintenance. The common focus is changed from fixing breakdowns to preventing them. We use a process to help companies achieve this by transferring and sharing skills between the machine operator and maintenance people. Since operators are the closest to the machines, … Read more