Lean Manufacturing
Great People Building a Great Company
A key factor that supports our ability to deliver these solutions to our customers is Bixby's focus on building a lean manufacturing culture in which employees are responsible for regularly making incremental improvements in the way they do their job. This initiative empowers our team members to improve the company's processes by making all manufacturing procedures as lean and streamlined as possible.
Manufacturing projects are executed with cross-functional teams during focused kaizen events, which follow the Japanese business philosophy of making continuous improvements that include minimizing waste, increasing individual efficiency, working as a team, and taking steps to constantly improve morale.
"We focus on making sure all our employees have a voice in improving our company to create a world-class manufacturing operation, which is why we have Great People Building a Great Company." - Greg Santini, Vice President of Operations
Lean manufacturing focuses on minimizing waste within manufacturing systems while simultaneously maximizing productivity.
According to the book, Lean Thinking: Banish Waste and Create Wealth in Your Corporation, the five principles of lean manufacturing are:
- Identify value from the customer's perspective
- Map the value stream
- Create flow and eliminate functional barriers
- Establish a pull system by only starting new work when there is demand for it
- Pursue perfection with continual process improvement, or kaizen