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Surat as a city has reached pinnacle in diamond manufacturing.
Almost everyone would agree and believe that manufacturing operations have been
perfected in Surat. Henry Ford’s great innovation, the moving assembly line, has
been refined in the diamond industry, maybe not consciously but maybe sub-consciously.
However, over the last 2-3 decades, the Japanese, especially the team at Toyota has been perfecting what they came to call the Toyota production system, which we now know as lean production. Initially, lean was best known in the West by its tools: for example, kaizen workshops, where shop floor workers solve routine problems; kanban, the scheduling system for just-in-time production; and the andon cord, which, when pulled by any worker, causes a production line to stop. In more recent years, this early understanding of lean has evolved into a richer appreciation of the power of its underlying management disciplines: putting customers first by truly understanding what they need and then delivering it efficiently; enabling workers to contribute to their fullest potential; constantly searching for better ways of working; and giving meaning to work by connecting a company’s strategy and goals in a clear, coherent way across the organization. All these through elimination of the 8 fundamental wastes as identified by the TPS system.
Lean is one of the biggest management ideas of the past 50 years. No less than Ford’s original assembly line, it has transformed how leading companies think about operations—starting in shop floor and other factory settings and moving more recently into management areas and services ranging from retailing and health care to financial services, IT, and even the public sector. Yet despite lean’s growing awareness and level of general familiarity, it is still early days for Lean in the diamond industry.
Indeed, we believe that as management, gains more exposure to lean and deepen their understanding of its principles and disciplines, they will seek to drive even more value from it. The opportunities available to them are considerable. For example, powerful new data sources are becoming available, along with analytical tools that make ever more sophisticated problem solving possible. Further, there is a huge scope in bringing customer requirements, preferences and inputs more directly into factories by mapping the disprate data streams. All these data that was once never collated into meaningful information and was wasted, is becoming the big opportunity now. This is what we call 'Eliminating the information waste'.
What’s more, new technologies such as helium polish, 3D movies etc., new analytical tools such as Lemon's BI Tools, and new ways of engaging with customers are making it possible, with greater precision than ever before, to learn what they truly value. The implications are profound because one of the primary constraints on the ability to design a perfect lean system in any operating environment has always been the challenge of understanding customer value.
However, over the last 2-3 decades, the Japanese, especially the team at Toyota has been perfecting what they came to call the Toyota production system, which we now know as lean production. Initially, lean was best known in the West by its tools: for example, kaizen workshops, where shop floor workers solve routine problems; kanban, the scheduling system for just-in-time production; and the andon cord, which, when pulled by any worker, causes a production line to stop. In more recent years, this early understanding of lean has evolved into a richer appreciation of the power of its underlying management disciplines: putting customers first by truly understanding what they need and then delivering it efficiently; enabling workers to contribute to their fullest potential; constantly searching for better ways of working; and giving meaning to work by connecting a company’s strategy and goals in a clear, coherent way across the organization. All these through elimination of the 8 fundamental wastes as identified by the TPS system.
Lean is one of the biggest management ideas of the past 50 years. No less than Ford’s original assembly line, it has transformed how leading companies think about operations—starting in shop floor and other factory settings and moving more recently into management areas and services ranging from retailing and health care to financial services, IT, and even the public sector. Yet despite lean’s growing awareness and level of general familiarity, it is still early days for Lean in the diamond industry.
Indeed, we believe that as management, gains more exposure to lean and deepen their understanding of its principles and disciplines, they will seek to drive even more value from it. The opportunities available to them are considerable. For example, powerful new data sources are becoming available, along with analytical tools that make ever more sophisticated problem solving possible. Further, there is a huge scope in bringing customer requirements, preferences and inputs more directly into factories by mapping the disprate data streams. All these data that was once never collated into meaningful information and was wasted, is becoming the big opportunity now. This is what we call 'Eliminating the information waste'.
What’s more, new technologies such as helium polish, 3D movies etc., new analytical tools such as Lemon's BI Tools, and new ways of engaging with customers are making it possible, with greater precision than ever before, to learn what they truly value. The implications are profound because one of the primary constraints on the ability to design a perfect lean system in any operating environment has always been the challenge of understanding customer value.
In the years ahead, service and product companies alike will
increasingly be able to reach their long-term goal of eliminating waste as
defined directly by customers across their entire life cycle—or journey—with a
company. For example, an unprecedented amount of stone parameter data is now available through technologies,
for eg. it is now possible to precisely judge the colour of a diamond before it
is cut.
The next step is to link this information back to diamond design and marketing—for example, by tailoring variations in the stones to the precise lighting, jewellery design & setting and other conditions in which customers use them. Savvy companies will use the data to show customers evidence of unmet needs they may not even be aware of and to eliminate product or service capabilities that aren’t useful to them. Applying lean techniques to all these new insights arising at the interface of marketing, product design, and operations should enable companies to make new strides in delighting their customers and boosting productivity.
Finally, market- and consumer-insight tools (for instance, BI or statistically analysis, as well as advanced pricing tools) are creating a far more sophisticated (and much closer to real-time) system of what customers value. The changes may just be getting started. Better-integrated datasets across channels and touch points are rapidly enabling companies to get much more complete views of all interactions with customers during the journeys they take as they evaluate, buy, consume, and seek support for products and services.
The next step is to link this information back to diamond design and marketing—for example, by tailoring variations in the stones to the precise lighting, jewellery design & setting and other conditions in which customers use them. Savvy companies will use the data to show customers evidence of unmet needs they may not even be aware of and to eliminate product or service capabilities that aren’t useful to them. Applying lean techniques to all these new insights arising at the interface of marketing, product design, and operations should enable companies to make new strides in delighting their customers and boosting productivity.
Finally, market- and consumer-insight tools (for instance, BI or statistically analysis, as well as advanced pricing tools) are creating a far more sophisticated (and much closer to real-time) system of what customers value. The changes may just be getting started. Better-integrated datasets across channels and touch points are rapidly enabling companies to get much more complete views of all interactions with customers during the journeys they take as they evaluate, buy, consume, and seek support for products and services.
The end result should be more scientific insight into how
product and service attributes contribute to customer value; new ways to look
at what matters most for classic lean variables, such as lead time, cost,
quality, responsiveness, flexibility, and reliability; and new opportunities
for cross-functional problem solving to eliminate anything that strays from
customer-defined value.
The future of lean is exciting. Its tools for eliminating waste and for increasing value as customers define it are being enhanced by huge gains in the volume and quality of the information companies can gather about customer and product behavior, the value of the marketing insights that can be integrated with operations, and the sophistication of the other insights brought to bear on the customer’s needs and desires. The way organizations adapt their processes to eliminate the information waste shall determine the winners of tomorrow.
At RSM Astute Consulting - Lemon Technologies, we strive to assist organizations in their quest to be at the cutting edge of the Lean revolution through the Manufacturing Excellence Movement. We are there to help you achieve your goals.
The future of lean is exciting. Its tools for eliminating waste and for increasing value as customers define it are being enhanced by huge gains in the volume and quality of the information companies can gather about customer and product behavior, the value of the marketing insights that can be integrated with operations, and the sophistication of the other insights brought to bear on the customer’s needs and desires. The way organizations adapt their processes to eliminate the information waste shall determine the winners of tomorrow.
At RSM Astute Consulting - Lemon Technologies, we strive to assist organizations in their quest to be at the cutting edge of the Lean revolution through the Manufacturing Excellence Movement. We are there to help you achieve your goals.
