LCM Associates

LCM Associates is dedicated to helping companies to grow and to improve their flexibility using the principles of Lean and Continuous Improvement.  

Leslie Masten, the President and founder, has over 15 years of experience applying the strategies of Lean in 10 different industries.  Much of this experience has been in manufacturing but she also has experience leading Continuous Improvement efforts in non-traditional situations such as the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office, engineering and printing environments.

LCM Associates is committed to a successful collaborative effort between our clients and ourselves, keeping our clients' best interest in mind.  Our goal is to build the skills and motivation within your company so that you are able to successfully carry on the Continuous Improvement effort on your own, with your own talent.   We strive to build enthusiasm and ability through all levels of your organization, from the CEO to the floor level.  

Call us to schedule a free walk-through* to determine the opportunities at your company!  

Once we understand your situation and needs, we can develop a customized bid for services.  We typically quote a daily rate for time spent at your facility that includes travel expenses, and telephone/email support between visits.

*Certain conditions apply.  Contact us for details.

What is Lean?

Lean is a way of thinking that Toyota has developed since the mid-20th century, inspired by a visit to the US after World War II.  It focuses on understanding what the customer values, eliminating those things the customer does not value (also called waste), and centers on employee involvement at all levels.

How does it help me?

No one wants to continue a process that negatively impacts profitability and customer satisfaction.

Over time, activities creep into business processes that do not add real value to you or your customer.  Lean teaches you to look at your processes from a new vantage point, allowing you to streamline or eliminate these wasteful activities, and thus save time and money in your organization.  This provides an opportunity to focus on those things that truly add value.

By utilizing Lean principles and leveraging the creativity and experience of those who do the daily work, not only builds pride and self-esteem, but can create solutions that employees are excited to sustain and which actually work.

Streamlined processes help people to "do it right the first time", resulting in less rework and faster response time for your customer.

As non-value-added activities are eliminated, lead time is improved, which provides more room to grow your business without adding more employees, and increased flexibility to provide a wider variety of products or services in the same time.

I'm not a manufacturer - does it really apply to me?

Yes!!  The Jacksonville Sheriff's Office has been actively using the techniques for several years to reduce non-value added activity and improve their ability to provide services that matter to the citizens!

Dr. Sami Bahri, a dentist in Jacksonville, has also been using Lean tools for the past 10 years to improve his services.  Read more about his efforts here.

The principles of Lean can be applied to any process - Hiring, Payroll, Product Development, Order Processing, you name it!! 

What are some other terms I might hear?

8 Wastes:  Defects, Overproduction, Waiting, Not using people effectively, Transportation, Inventory, Motion, Excess Processing

5S:  Workplace Organization the Toyota way, stands for 5 words that start with S.  Translations vary slightly but include:  Sort (Sweep or Simplify), Straighten (Simplify, Set in Order), Scrub (Sweep or Shine), Stabilize, and Sustain

Cellularization: The process of reorganizing processes into a customer- or product-focused manner to facilitate one-piece flow and increased flexibility.  Often means physically moving processes from a functional to a process layout. 

SMED:  Literally, Single Minute Exchange of Dies.  What it really means to most companies is Changeover Reduction, or actively working to reduce the time it takes to changeover from one product to another in order to improve flexibility and reduce batch size.

TPM:  Total Productive Maintenance, a cross-functional approach to ensuring equipment is available and running whenever it is needed.

PDCA:  Plan-Do-Check-Act - a repeating cycle to ensure processes are sustained and that they are performing as expected.

DMAIC:  Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, Control.  A Structure for analyzing problems based on the Scientific Method and often used in 6 Sigma projects.