Lean manufacturing has rapidly become the approach of choice by companies around the world for its efficient use of scarce resources. Now the same methods can be applied to optimize maintenance efforts at industrial, mining, refining and institutional worksites. Joel Levitt’s popular book Lean Maintenance (Industrial Press 2008) first adopted these techniques, filling a void of information. Levitt’s company, Springfield Resources, now offers the comprehensive Lean Maintenance Toolbox to continue fulfilling this need.
Organizations interested in lean maintenance can listen to “The Introduction to Lean Maintenance” by Levitt, available for free at www.maintrainer.com/Lean-Maintenance-Toolbox-audio.aspx. They can also order a free copy of the audio CD (paying only shipping and handling charges) at www.maintrainer.com/shopCategory.aspx?categoryRefId=298.
The Lean Maintenance Toolbox is a recipe for successful Lean projects consisting of a series of audio CD-based classes with narrated PowerPoint slides, templates, forms, procedures and checklists to start an organization’s lean maintenance effort. Uniquely, each toolbox includes one free phone consultation with Levitt.
The toolbox mission is to help organizations identify the easiest waste to eliminate and get started eliminating it. Often, new management tools are brought in and never implemented, but Levitt finds companies putting his principals to work immediately because of their ease of implementation. Their projects pay for themselves many times over, often repaying their own cost within months. Organizations have reduced chemical usage and utility bills, increased equipment life, slashed disposal costs and sharpened the level of motivation among their own workers all while lowering prices and staying profitable as their competitors drown in red ink.
Tough times put the Darwinian law of survival of the fittest into play. The fittest companies are the ones with the most advantageous cost structure and the most flexible and creative approach to the market. One often overlooked area for improvement is the equipment, fleet and building maintenance effort. Lean maintenance is an effective way to capture that.
Many initiatives outlined in Lean Maintenance were developed by workers trained in Levitt’s workshops offered in classrooms around the world. These projects are often small and simple, featuring high rates of success, minimal investment, rapid results and terrific returns on investments. Organizations following this approach have attacked waste, improved crew flexibility, cut costs, motivated workers and improved organizational health.
Springfield Resources offers the complete toolbox for $499, a 50 percent discount off the cost of the individual items. For more information, go to www.Maintrainer.com or call 800-242-5656.