Lean can satisfy customers, suppliers needs If you can't or won't raise prices, how are you going to increase profits? How about becoming more efficient, which doesn't necessarily mean investing in a lot of automation. This year's Seeley Conference discussed the concept of Lean manufacturing and applied it to horticultural companies. The principles of Lean or Just-in-Time manufacturing are based on the Toyota Business System, but they can be applied to any process from production to office management in all sizes of companies. How successful has Lean manufacturing been for Toyota? During the first quarter of this year, for the first time, Toyota surpassed General Motors in worldwide production and sales. The Japanese automaker recorded its seventh straight fiscal year of record sales. The company's success has continued with its best-ever June sales for cars, an 8.9-percent increase over the same period last year. The company's June sales of light trucks were even better, up 11.9 percent. Profit for the quarter was up 9 percent. Industry analysts said it's just a matter of time before Toyota overtakes GM as the world's No. 1 automaker. Toyota president Katsuaki Watanabe doesn't seem too concerned about continuing to out-produce GM or any other auto manufacturer. He told reporters in May that rather than think about other companies, Toyota needs to do more to satisfy customers worldwide. Watanabe said there is plenty for Toyota yet to do. The company, he said, is looking to boost sales in every region of the world. He said the obstacles facing the auto industry are opportunities for Toyota, which will continue to strive to achieve growth. Adapting Lean to horticulture Horticulture companies that have implemented Lean principles include Yoder Brothers, Smithers-Oasis, Kerry's Bromeliads, D.S. Cole Growers, Tagawa Greenhouses, Van Belle Nursery and C. Raker & Sons. All of these companies have experienced benefits from implementing Lean. But as one Seeley Conference speaker pointed out, Lean is about what the customers want -- what's of value to the customers. Lean looks at removing waste or non-value-added activities that customers are unwilling to pay for. Lean is much more than just cutting costs. Lean ties all of a company's processes together. Another Seeley Conference speaker said Lean was an organizational change to his company's business culture. He said that for Lean to be successful, company owners need to be directly involved and exhibit leadership by example. Management needs to be 100 percent behind the process. As early successes are realized, more employees will become converts. One goal of another grower for implementing Lean was to develop "leaders on the floor." Lean was seen as a tool to try to change the company business culture to make decisions based on data to make jobs simpler. Lean provided the company with an opportunity to develop managers who could run the business for the owners. Looking for another benefit of Lean? One grower said implementing Lean saved his company $77,000 in distribution costs alone. Send this article to a friend Enter your e-mail address: Enter your friend's e-mail address: Click the image below to send: © 2007 Branch-Smith Publishing