Establishing foundations The desire is quickly formulated: "Now we will become a Lean Company." But like a tennis player who wants to win the tournament at Wimbledon, it requires foundations, meaning basic skills and abilities. For a tennis player these are for example fitness, fast reaction ability, repeatability and discipline. These may not make them a world-class player, but without these basic abilities it will never get that far.   V&S is your coach when establishing the foundations. We urge you forward, run next to you, show you the steps again and again, and rigorously demand the discipline that you need to muster so that you can reach the top.

5S = Fitness The most important tool in the section "establishing foundations" is quite certainly the method »5S«, sometimes also called »6S« or »5A«. Only the professionalisation of all working areas regarding efficiency, quality, orderliness and cleanliness as well as safety make the further steps possible. It is like with tennis: only with a high degree of fitness will you endure the training and be able to learn the running movements and the strokes. More about 5S...   SMED = reaction ability Batch sizes are a topic everywhere, especially in manufacturing rich in variants . Sure, every practical thinking person knows: the smaller the batch size, the shorter the lead time, the lower the stocks and above all: the higher the reaction ability. If only it wasn't for the set up times. Due to assumed economical reasons they force one to large batch sizes. With the tool SMED you have the systematic approach for the drastic reduction of the set-up times in your hands - often without noteworthy investments. And with lower set up times it is suddenly possible to reduce the batch sizes. So it is like with tennis: with a good serve return you maintain yourself in the game, but only with an above average reaction ability will you be in a position to respond to the serves of a Roger Federer More about SMED... Standard work methods = repeatability Standard work methods are a further basic ability. Only the repeatability of processes makes a systematic improvement possible - Or put differently: standard work methods are the prerequisite for functioning KAIZEN, as it defines deviations and makes them visible. Furthermore, our experience shows that productivity and quality are thereby additionally improved. For standardisation, experienced professionals such as V&S are required in all cases, who take the specific special features of the processes and the participating human individuals into consideration. In this way they achieve the desired success. So it is like with tennis: every top player is dependent on training sequences and on recalling them at any time, regardless of whether on sand, lawn or on hard-court. Only in this way is it possible for him and his trainer to initiate improvements and to bring the technique to perfection. More on standard work methods... Further tools to establish foundations: Muda Walk Problem Solving