FACILITIES PLANNING

Plant layout and material handling play a vital role in developing a World Class (Lean) manufacturing capability. However, creating facilities plans that support the program is often hindered by not understanding their importance. The absence of an effective methodology can result in false starts, untimely delays and mediocre plans.

TCA's capabilities in operations consulting, and sound expertise in facilities planning and Lean, provide a genuine competitive advantage. Our planning approach has been tried and proven in numerous facilities across many industries.

Objectives

Through our involvement with many implementations, we've identified the primary objectives of any facilities design project:

• Assist the management team in creating a strategic manufacturing plan as the guiding document for the work to follow

• Document a facilities design that meets capacity needs, maximizes space productivity, and minimizes material handling cost

• Ensure the layout plan supports Lean manufacturing, Six Sigma, and related technologies

• Involve key personnel for maximum effectiveness and ownership of results

Approach

TCA has designed steps to achieve these objectives with a minimum investment of time and effort:

TCA Contributions

We support the execution of those steps by:

• Preparing and facilitating a strategic planning exercise

• Working with your staff in gathering the necessary data and relevant facts

• Providing time-tested analytical tools to convert the data into a usable foundation for planning

• Helping you develop and evaluate alternative plans

• Conducting interim management project reviews

• Conducting a brief final report and a detailed layout of factory work areas and equipment

A critical dimension of TCA's support in implementing Lean manufacturing is training. We believe the key to technical improvement is rooted in understanding and acceptance based on knowledge. Education is the vital element. We honor this belief with carefully developed approaches that reflect modern adult learning models. We enjoy training and see it as our most important tool in assisting client companies through difficult, but necessary changes.

Benefits

An investment in TCA's assistance with your facilities layout planning will yield many vital benefits:

• You will overcome the inertia or "organizational procrastination" that can delay indefinitely the development of an effective facilities plan

• We will ensure that your facilities plan mirrors a carefully considered strategic plan for your business

• You will be assured of employees highest level of support and ownership for the Layout through their involvement in its creation

• We will provide the infrastructure and create the culture that enable implementation of other critical Lean manufacturing techniques and World Class strategies

• You will have the combination of a properly designed layout and other World Class techniques for major improvements in productivity, quality, lead time, and customer service