{"id":27392,"date":"2018-11-21T17:24:41","date_gmt":"2018-11-21T14:24:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.textilegence.com\/?p=27392"},"modified":"2019-01-11T15:32:04","modified_gmt":"2019-01-11T12:32:04","slug":"lean-manufacturing-carlo-rogora","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.textilegence.com\/en\/lean-manufacturing-carlo-rogora\/","title":{"rendered":"Lean Manufacturing"},"content":{"rendered":"

The past four years have meant a major overhaul and wide-reaching re-organization activities with the goal to streamline, optimize and modernize the production<\/a> facilities of Itema<\/a> Group located around the world, from Colzate to Zuchwil to Shanghai, in full compliance of Lean Manufacturing<\/strong> principles.<\/p>\n

The ultimate objective was to increase Itema Group’s ability to meet Customer needs, ensuring the necessary flexibility, agility and ability to quickly respond to changes in a highly variable market, reducing lead time, whilst, at the same time, providing even better levels of service, quality and cost.<\/p>\n

This is how Itema embarked on the arduous journey to streamline and to optimize the manufacturing facilities around the globe, from Colzate<\/strong> in Italy to Zuchwil<\/strong> in Switzerland and all the way to Shanghai<\/strong> in China. Now all Itema plants are real flaghsips of world-class manufacturing in full compliance of the most stringent Lean Manufacturing principles.<\/p>\n

The \u201cLean\u201d project initially focused on the Group’s main factory in Colzate spanning the entire process from Mechanical<\/strong> Machining<\/strong>, Pre-Assembly<\/strong>, Assembly<\/strong>, and Quality Control<\/strong>. Shortly thereafter, Lean Production’s implementation activities were rolled out also within the Shanghai assembly site, with a view to increase the integration and standardization of processes at Group level. Last, but not least, a dedicated team was put in place and charged with re-modernization of the ex-Sulzer plant in Zuchwil, Switzerland, which still today produces the legendary projectile loom, revered worldwide by real aficionados<\/em> of this technology.<\/p>\n

Efforts across all plants focused first on labor-intensive areas, with the aim of significantly reducing throughput times, gradually making the switch from a push-type production to a pull-type logic that ensures that every single step along the way leads to real value creation within the manufacturing departments.<\/p>\n

In order for this to happen, the Company had to rethink its own internal and external logistic flows; thus involving, in addition to the Production area, also the Logistics and Purchasing areas.<\/p>\n

Activity areas for lean manufacturing<\/strong><\/h2>\n

The activities implemented have focused on the Pre-Assembly area and were later extended to the Assembly department. In particular, efforts have concentrated on:<\/p>\n