TCMG - Management Strategies

Management Strategies

           Companies seeking to implement or further advance Lean Manufacturing, Six Sigma, Lean Six Sigma, or other management strategies usually experience numerous frustrations - remaining committed until results materialize is a huge challenge.

          The Continuum Management Group, LLC, matches its involvement to each company's needs, assuring the time and money invested throughout the assessment and plan development phases are not wasted. TCMG, LLC, forte is assisting companies in the most difficult phase of realizing improved performance – the plan implementation phase. Below are brief descriptions of several management strategies beginning with Continuum Management.

           The Continuum Management Group, LLC, has knowledge and experience in all of these strategies and utilizes a cross-section of their tools to facilitate and execute the optimal plan to assist a company in improving its overall performance.

Continuum Management
           The Continuum Management strategy is a company-wide process improvement strategy which helps companies evolve toward a Stage 4 Company-Wide Optimized "Lean" operation.

           Continuum Management utilizes tools and techniques associated with Lean Manufacturing, the Theory of Constraints, Six Sigma, Hoshin Planning, and other management strategies and tools. The distinction of Continuum Management is an overall structure of optimizing the performance of the entire company through achieving process predictability for all individual functions (departments) before substantial monies and efforts are devoted to optimizing interdependencies among functional departments.

           To achieve a Stage 4 operation TCMG, LLC, works with businesses to evolve each of their departments through four stages of performance:

           1. Start up
           2. Systems Development
           3. Functional Integration
           4. Company-Wide Optimization "Lean"

           Individual functions have activity-based characteristics that describe their normal day-to-day activities – not self-proclaimed capability i.e. "World-Class!"

           For more information on Continuum Management contact The Continuum Management Group, LLC, at 608.604.9264 or info@tcmg.net

Lean Manufacturing
          Lean, a term credited to Dr. James Womack, PhD, and his work at MIT, is a natural progression of JIT manufacturing. Lean is based on the four elements of the Toyota business system - 1. Product development system, 2. Production operations system, 3. Customer relations system, and 4. Supplier management system. The conceptual idea of Lean is simple - continually identify and eliminate activities customers would not be willing to pay for.

          The Continuum Management Group, LLC, utilizes tools associated with Lean, e.g. value stream mapping, 5S, kaizen, visual factory management, and others to assist companies in reducing nonvalue-adding activities. TCMG, LLC, differentiates itself from the majority of Lean implementation processes by integrating all functions including marketing, sales, engineering, production scheduling, supply management, production, logistics, and other functions into the Lean implementation strategy.

           For more information on Lean Manufacturing contact The Continuum Management Group, LLC, at 608.604.9264 or info@tcmg.net

Six Sigma
           Originally developed by Motorola, Six Sigma has been practiced in various forms by AlliedSignal, General Electric, and in recent years many other companies.

           Although some Six Sigma practitioners tout Six Sigma as a total business management strategy – it is not! Six Sigma does possess a broad set of proven tools to assist a company in understanding and reducing discrete process variation.

           The Continuum Management Group, LLC, utilizes Six Sigma tools and techniques to assist companies in reducing scrap, rework, and bringing predictability to the order fulfillment cycle time - the time from which a company receives an order until the time the order is ready to ship (shipping from finish goods inventory doesn't count).

           TCMG, LLC, supports the use of Six Sigma as a process variability reduction technique which utilizes a wide array of quality and planning tools.

           For more information on Six Sigma contact The Continuum Management Group, LLC, at 608.604.9264 or info@tcmg.net

The Theory of Constraints
           Originated by Eliyahu M. Goldratt, author of The Goal, the Theory of Constraints (TOC) is a philosophy of managing an organization focusing on the few constraints that prevent the system from increasing throughput while simultaneously maintaining or reducing operating expenses and inventory.

           Also known as the process of on-going improvement or constraint management the Theory of Constraints is an excellent management philosophy which focuses on the selection of a few strategic projects “the constraints” and measuring project work success in a global context by utilizing a throughput accounting method. The utilization of a throughput accounting methodology goes hand-and-hand with constraint selection and management by asking the question “were more finished goods produced with the same or fewer resources?” The only way more throughput (the production of finish goods) occurs with the same or fewer resources is to focus on the system’s (the entire company) greatest constraint.

           The Theory of Constraints not only looks at production it also considers the market as a potential constraint. By focusing on the constraint, TOC global approach to improvement has the advantage over most “cost saving” processes where dozens of local improvement projects can be completed yielding “virtual” savings via direct labor burden allocation calculations - yet no money is realized on the company’s bottom line.

           The Continuum Management Group, LLC, supports the Theory of Constraints and uses the global improvement measurement system to provide global impact of project work. Additionally, TCMG, LLC, combines the Theory of Constraints, Lean and Six Sigma tools, and Hoshin Planning to improve the probability of selecting projects that lead to the greatest financial impact and evolve a company to a higher stage of performance.

           For more information on the Theory of Constraints contact The Continuum Management Group, LLC, at 608.604.9264 or info@tcmg.net

Hoshin Planning
           A wise man once said "those that plan carefully are usually very lucky." Hoshin Kanri or more commonly known as Hoshin Planning is a strategic planning methodology. Develop in Japan during the 1960s as an enhancement to Management by Objectives (MBOs) Hoshin Planning was widely accepted and practiced by many Japanese companies by the mid-1970s. The first symposium on Hoshin Kanri practices was conducted in Japan in 1981. A few leading US companies, Intel, Hewlett-Packard, Procter & Gamble, and Florida Power and Light, began using Hoshin Planning during the 1980s.

           Hoshin Planning aligns a company’s employees toward the critical few issues by providing a comprehensive communication methodology among all levels and departments of a company and facilitates the strategic utilization of limited resources focusing them on the few critical issues.

          The Continuum Management Group, LLC, utilizes the Hoshin Planning methodology to assist companies in aligning their organization by identifying near- and long-term strategic issues.

           For more information on Hoshin Planning contact The Continuum Management Group, LLC, at 608.604.9264 or info@tcmg.net