Survival of the fittest not only applies to the laws of nature, it also has a very direct application to today's global manufacturing environment, according to Longview's Richard Andrews.
That means if American companies are to survive and thrive in the world of global competitiveness, they need to get lean. Andrews has been an East Texas proponent of lean manufacturing principles for more than 12 years and has taught seminars on the topic.
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Kevin Green/News-Journal Photo | Longview Economic Development Corp. President Richard Andrews says the lean manufacturing movement evolved from principles developed by Japan's Toyota Motor Co.
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Andrews said the lean manufacturing movement evolved from principles developed by Japan's Toyota Motor Co.
"The purpose of lean is to focus on waste elimination, not cutting people," Andrews said. "It is all about understanding the customer and eliminating waste in the design, manufacture and shipping of products."
He retired in 2007 as president of Longview's Stemco manufacturing plant and serves as president of the board of directors of Longview Economic Development Corp.
"I have a passion for manufacturing and a passion for lean principles," he said.
After spending a 42-year career in manufacturing where he saw both traditional manufacturing processes and the lean process used, Andrews said he is convinced lean is the wave of the future — if there is to be a future for manufacturing in the United States.
"America needs to be competitive to keep jobs here," he said. "And I want manufacturing in the Longview area to be competitive. I don't want to see our jobs lost to Mexico or China."
Andrews said manufacturing continues to be a dominant driver of the East Texas economy with about 14,000 workers tied to manufacturing jobs in the immediate Longview area.
Andrews is a consultant for Kilgore College and Texas State Technical College-Marshall. He has conducted seminars on the topic of lean principles for Longview Economic Development Corp. and also does private consulting work.
While the manufacturing process may be the main focus of applying lean principles, those principles should also apply to a firm's total operation.
"We need to create a culture of lean thinking and need to have operational excellence as a part of our strategic plans," he said.
He said lean results in increased efficiency and lower cost. Even with the higher wage structure in place in the United States, Andrews said firms can still be competitive with those in other countries — if their leaders take action.
"One of the most difficult parts of adopting lean is just in getting started," he said. And, Andrews added, the decision to make that commitment needs to come from the top.
"The changes area so great there has to be a top-down commitment," he said. "The CEO needs to believe in the process, go through the training and live it."
That is what happened at Longview's Stemco plant in 1996.
"Stemco formed a team, brought in people with experience and training in lean and got started training our people," Andrews said.
The first 30 years of his 42-year career in manufacturing were spent working in traditional manufacturing environments. In hindsight, he wishes he had come across the movement earlier.
"We had many large competitors and were facing foreign competition," Andrews said of Stemco. "We knew we had to improve to survive."
Using traditional manufacturing techniques in 1995, Andrews said Stemco was producing about 75 percent of its orders on time. By 1999, the company reached the 98 percent level in getting orders delivered on time.
"Inventory turns are a huge factor in manufacturing — the higher your turns the higher your cash flow," he said. "In 1995 we had a 5.0 turn rate in a year's time. By 2004 we were doing 21 inventory turns a year for a 400 percent improvement over 10 years."
Andrews said following lean does not take a lot of capital and can provide an organization with a substantial payback. But the process needs to be entered for the long term.
"When we started lean at Stemco in 1996 we thought it was a five-year program," Andrews said. "We did it for two years and realized it was for the longterm.
"It's not this year's gimmick."
