Written by on Tuesday August 14th 2012 in What We're Thinking

Virtualization, Manufacturing and Lean with Liam Hastie

Liam is one of our SIMUL8 Consultants and has 10 years’ experience with a proven track record for improving business processes. Liam has a background in improving productivity and efficiency through lean optimization and continuous improvement exercises such as Kaizen 5s, process mapping and waste reduction. That’s why Liam is our Lean Champion! If you have any questions of your own, please leave them in the comments below.

How will virtualization and manufacturing intersect in 2012?

LH: First, we should note that there are no ‘new ideas’ in manufacturing. All current manufacturing trends such as lean, variation reduction or integrated supply chains can all be found in practices adopted by Henry Ford over 100 years ago. What does change is how technology drives these processes, how these processes are marketed and grouped, and the extent that these approaches are adopted by industry. Lean approaches will continue to dominate thinking and requests for virtual environments and simulation. In particular, the ability to use simulation to experiment with lean implementation options will lead manufactures to discover their vital constraints and eradicate inefficiencies much more quickly than using traditional techniques.

How has the manufacturing environment changed over the past few years?

LH: Visual management and feedback has become a much more important part of manufacturing. Rather than being solely directed towards managers, it is now becoming common for performance data and quality rates to be displayed in real-time to the operational staff themselves. Increases in the numbers of temporary staff and foreign nationals employed in manufacturing have influenced how this information is being displayed; it is far easier for staff to follow traffic light systems or animations than it is to understand on screen statements loaded with industry specific jargon.

Read full article –  Q&A with Liam Hastie for Virtual Strategy Magazine