Pelion Systems, the market leader in manufacturing process optimization (MPO) software, and the Lean Learning Center, a provider of training and consulting services, have joined forces to help manufacturers adopt, implement and sustain lean manufacturing processes.
Although both companies have roots in automotive, they intend to target customers for the allied product from the gamut of manufacturing, beginning with the medical device industry.
The partners will combine software with workforce education, resulting in a package of integrated products encompassing people, processes and business practices that address functionality and cultural transformation. "Too often tools to help change and tools to do the change are disconnected," says Jamie Flinchbaugh, founder and partner of Lean Learning. With this one-stop shopping, "manufacturers don't have to figure out how pieces fit together," he added.
The Pelion MPO software suite is at the core of the package and helps manufacturers visualize, optimize and design shop floor configurations and operations. "Pelion's approach starts with lean and uses software and technology to standardize and automate activities, which is a much more effective approach than starting with software and trying to inject in lean practices, as others have done," says Flinchbaugh.
On the education side, innovative instructional tools, such as learning lab simulations, help students do what Flinchbaugh describes as "learn, apply, reflect." Not only do managers understand and work according to lean principles, but they also review what could be done better. The pause to reflect is how lean manufacturing is sustained, he says.
This story was repurposed from the May 2005 issue of Managing Automation magazine.