Implementing Lean Portland ME

An increasing number of body shops are eyeing lean manufacturing processes as a solution to their business woes. How do you implement such processes in a collision repair setting and break out of the "old way"? Here's a step-by-step guide.

By John Sweigart
5/1/2008


More and more shop owners are looking at “lean” as a possible solution to their business issues. But as always, practical application isn’t easily understood. The basic concepts of removing waste and organizing around processes are often discussed in trade publications, trade associations and 20 groups, but the big question always remains, “How do I do this in a body shop?” This “Lean Success” series of articles is meant to help specifically describe the “how to” by telling the story of how one of our new shops made the transformation successfully.

In the first article ( “A Lean Transformation,” March 2008), we talked about the shop’s initial changeover, which was the physical transformation from day one and the “5S” activities everyone needs to do to prep “the machine” for performance. This time, I’ll take you through the next step, which is building and implementing the actual proc- ess and creating the new “value stream.”  

Here Comes the Fear

From a people perspective, this “new way” talk brings a good amount of fear. Most everyone who ha...