Lead-Time Reduction
Reducing inventory will decrease your lead-time. Excess inventory inherently presents a great deal of waste, not to mention quality issues (spoilage), storage requirements, investment of funds, limiting cash flow, among others.
Implementation: When beginning this process we must first know the status of inventory levels. We’ll assist you in performing a streamlined inventory audit, establish a baseline, then categorize inventory by special criteria. Next, new acceptable inventory levels are established as goals.
Careful consideration of cost, replenishment lead-times, and space requirements play an important role in determining reduced inventory levels. The order process is often changed and more inventory is repositioned at “points of use.”
Tracking and adjusting inventory to meet customer demand and buffer business cycles is critical. Training your staff is accomplished by actually performing this process with TPS experts until they are fully prepared to continue the efforts on their own.
Summary: If you need immediate cash flow and improved on-time delivery, reducing inventory will generate a terrific windfall. We have enabled companies to fully fund all aspects of their transition to Lean simply by helping them responsibly reduce inventory.
