Missed deliveries, long lead times and recurring expediting can persist even after individual processes improve. Duggan combines lean consulting, value stream design and hands-on implementation support to connect those processes into an end-to-end operating system. Your team learns how to see normal and abnormal flow and respond using defined methods.
A faster process does not automatically produce faster customer delivery. Work can still wait between processes, compete for shared resources or lose its sequence. Duggan designs those connections, then works with the team to put the design into practice and make performance visible.
The starting point is the way your operation needs to deliver to customers. Product mix, demand and operating constraints shape the future-state design. Training and hands-on implementation help your team turn that design into daily work.
“Without a complete end-to-end design for your material flow, lean improvements become disconnected, leading to one improvement causing another failure. For example, if there are four interconnected machines or processes, improving just one can overwhelm the next, creating bottlenecks and making the overall system worse.”
“As part of our transformation journey, we engaged Duggan Associates to guide our lean journey-improving productivity, efficiency, customer and staff experience, and building a stronger culture of continuous improvement.
Their focus on high participation built strong buy-in and a common language across the shop floor. Most importantly, they emphasize sustainable transformation-developing both mindset and capability. I appreciate their close partnership and proactive support.”
– SVP of Transformation & Technology
SIA Engineering Company
Early lean tool use wasn’t the constraint; leadership wanted an operation that grew the business, not one that required daily management heroics. Specific pressures included:
Lean Consulting
Connect the improvement work with the way the whole operation delivers to customers.
Look at delivery performance, lead time, work in process and where the team repeatedly expedites work.
Connect product families, scheduling and process hand-offs around demand and operating constraints.
Combine team education with implementation, visible operating rules and clear ownership.
Make normal and abnormal flow visible. Define a response and escalation when the condition is outside the team’s authority.
“I began working with Mr. Duggan in 2002 at Sikorsky Helicopters where we applied Kevin’s value stream design and mixed model expertise to create a lean flow through our Black Hawk helicopter assembly and MRO lines. While in the past we had used continuous improvement through local Kaizen events, Kevin’s approach was to teach us principles through formal training that would impact the end-to-end flow of material and information (the Value Stream) for the customer. Kevin’s team worked with our front-line workers to ensure everyone understood the concepts behind our new flow and was able to implement these concepts through the back shops as well as final assembly.
Due to our success with Mr. Duggan at Sikorsky, our parent company United Technologies (now Raytheon Technologies) selected Duggan Associates to implement lean projects and provide formal lean training across all of the portfolio businesses including Pratt & Whitney, Hamilton Sundstrand, and Otis Elevator. Kevin worked directly with our chairman as well as the C-level executives, as well as middle management and shop floor personnel.
United Technologies also engaged Duggan Associates to provide a full license of Duggan Associates training material and incorporated it into our world-leading ACE program. The Duggan Associates team worked closely with our team to tailor their material to ensure a good fit and roll-out with ACE. Duggan Associates training material remains at the forefront of lean training within ACE to this day.”
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How the approach works, and what it means for your operation.
We begin with how the operation will deliver to customers. A future-state value stream design connects individual improvements to an end-to-end operating system.
Tools are chosen to support the flow design and operating requirements. Your team learns why each method is used and how it connects with the whole system.
Yes. Duggan’s design methods address product variety, shared resources and the connections between processes, with training and implementation support tailored to the operation.
Relevant measures can include lead time, on-time delivery, work in process and productivity. The measures should reflect the operating problem and the intended business outcome.
Your team learns how to recognize normal and abnormal flow and use standard responses. Capability is built through education and hands-on implementation.
Tell us what you want to change in customer delivery, what your team has already tried and where progress has stalled. We can discuss how an end-to-end flow design can connect your improvement work with the results your business needs.
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Email thealey@dugganinc.com or call +1 (401) 601-7286 and we'll respond within 2 business days.
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Email thealey@dugganinc.com or call +1 (401) 601-7286 and we'll respond within 2 business days.
