Lead Time Reduction

Business Challenge

An international engineering firm was experiencing long lead times on capital equipment purchases associated its various global engineering projects. These delays were affecting the implementation schedules and putting customer commitments, budgets and the firm’s reputation at risk.

Solution

A detailed value stream mapping exercise was conducted to identify areas of areas of wait times, rework loops and waste. A critical component in this project was aligning and managing the diverse stakeholders in this global environment. Rapid Process Improvement Workshops (RPIWs) were implemented to focus on work simplification, elimination of non-value added steps and to standardize work activities.

Business Outcome

This project successfully bridged a diverse, global team and streamlined the procurement process. By freeing up capacity, and reducing lead time, one headcount was reduced and over $250K in sales was realized by being able to be more responsive to the customer’s needs. The ROI on this project was 12 months.