Value, Value Streams, Flow, Pull and Perfection are the five fundamental principles of Lean Manufacturing. The Lean Manufacturing Principles aid organizations in generating maximum value for their customers along with maximum efficiency simultaneously.
The practical strategy when implemented offers manufacturing entities to improvise their offerings in a continuum. A helpful approach, the lean guides the company in the production process’s every stage including planning, designing, R&D, packaging, branding, and delivery.
However, implementing the Lean Manufacturing Principles is an arduous task. Any company serious about adopting it into their manufacturing process must either possess the prerequisite prowess or consult with one having the ability, talent, and expertise.
In other words, it must seek advice from the Lean India Consulting Group (LICG), a leading consulting group and the only organization in India exclusively consulting on Lean manufacturing.
LICG is a division of 20 years old JCE Management Service Pvt Ltd, started by Dr Ashok Puri, the Managing Director (MD), and a direct acolyte of Sensei Masaaki Imai- Kaizen Guru and later an associate of Mark Deluzio, and MD, India for Lean Horizons Consulting, USA. He is also former India Head of Kaizen Institute .
The Captain of Lean India
Dr Puri is trained by Asian Productivity Organization (APO) in Japan, in ‘Management Consultancy for Productivity Improvement.’(1992,1997). He has a PhD in Manufacturing Excellence in Indian Industry. He has done his MBA from FMS , University of Delhi (1985) and his BSc in Mech Engg from the University of Delhi (DCE ) (1974).
Dr Puri has been visiting faculty at various institutes like BITS Pilani for MS Program in Consultancy Management, Indraprastha University for its MBA Program, and the IAS Academy, LBSNAA- Mussoorie. He has researched, published, and presented many papers on Kaizen, Lean, Operations, Change Management, and Transformation.
Dr Puri has been involved in the MSMEs movement on Lean clusters in India for MSMEs and received the Best Lean Consulting Organization award from the Ministry of MSME/NPC, Govt. of India, in April 2015.
Strategic Lean Integrated Manufacturing:
Dr Puri shares, “We excel in Manufacturing Excellence Training/Certification, Consulting and Execution of Lean Fundamentals as a part of SLIM, a proprietary program of LICG.
To our clients, we provide extensive in-house researched India-specific Lean Solutions. One such proprietary program of ours in Lean is SLIM. SLIM stands for ‘Strategic Lean Integrated Manufacturing.’ We also call it a Strategic Movement on Lean.”
Lean India is an award-winning consulting company with a global presence, driven by principles of Lean and helping organizations to drive Continual Business Excellence by Defining the Business Needs, Designing Strategy and Aligning Operations and Support functions with Strategy.
An Exemplary Leader:
Dr Ashok Puri is a globally recognized Management Guru, He is an Author, Engineer, academician, and philosopher ,who has been exhorting his clients and students to examine and reassess their business practices by enabling a new vision. Moreover, he has been immensely contributing to various fields; like Kaizen, Lean Manufacturing, and Organizational Excellence. Dr Puri has also developed Micro-management models for better governance in organizations.
Recently, Lotus Hometextiles Ltd. ,Punjab, appointed Dr Ashok Puri as an Additional Director of the company in the category of Non-Executive Independent Director on its Board.
Apart from being Lean India’s MD, Dr Puri had been also a member -of the executive committee – of IIPE (Indian Institute of Plant Engineers), Delhi and a member of the Advisory Council of GNA-IMT Management Institute Phagwara, Punjab.
He has been a former Chairman of the Delhi Chapter of IMCI, Institute of Management Consultants India and part of its national executive council. He is also one of the known Consultants in Operations Management/Operations Excellence in India. He was also part of the expert team on the ZED program of Quality Council of India , QCI, GOI.
Dr Puri states, “Besides the lean consulting I am further involved in Mentoring Start ups ,Technology Transfer, JV consulting, M&A along with being a National Board Member – MSME Development Forum (Consulting Task Force).”
On the personal front, he is actively involved with the large corporates and SMEs in India in Operations Excellence Consulting. He is a member of many important professional bodies like AIMA, LEI, IE, and ISHRAE. He is a keen Golfer, and a Tennis player, and practices Spiritualism.
Dr Puri adds, “At Lean India, our mission is to ‘Promote and Provide Solutions For Excellence in Business For:
- A Productive Work Culture,
- Improved Productivities,
- Faster Results For A World Class Performance.”
LICG’s SLIM Approach for Profit Maximization:
In Lean management, the LICG provides services like
- Benchmarking
- Consulting
- Training
- Certification
- Strategy development
- Sales growth
- Cost Management
- Supply chain excellence
- Market awareness etc.
These services aids organizations in
- Organization restructuring and turnaround,
- New Business identification and technology backup,
- Developing a business excellence framework for SMEs.
Dr Puri reveals, “Clients choose us because we provide Supply Chain Optimization, Operations Optimization, New Product Development, Cost Management, Sales and Distribution”,deploying tools like Hoshin X Matrix,Value Engineering,Value Stream Mapping ,VSM.
Value Added Solutions:
Furthermore, Lean India offers Strategy Deployment through Factory Fundamental Activities (FFA), Continual Excellence (CE) as part of SLIM, Management System Certifications – ISO 9001, 14001, 22000,TS 16949 ,OHSAS 18001, etc. – through our associates URS Certifications & also programs for Certification as Lean Practitioner, SLIM Practitioner, SLIM Coach, SLIM Champion etc., and LICG also focuses on Work station Management (WSM), Operations Capability Index for Business Process Management, Customer Satisfaction, and Continual Excellence Leadership for MSMEs.
Application Softwares on Maintenance,Productivity,Quality,Audits are provided thru its partner Opex Solutions, Pune. Smart mfg solutions like Data Analytics, IoT ,Industry 4.0 etc. is also provided thru Leanworks,Bangalore.
LICG operates in sectors like Manufacturing, Auto, Eng, Food, FMCG, Process, Healthcare, Hotels, Pharmaceuticals, Chemical and Fertilizer, EPC Projects, IT/ITes, Financial Services, Service/Transactional, and Governments. Services are orgn size neutral n can be provided to orgns of any size.
Dr Puri has also taken initiative to provide blended Quality Skill Education to young students in IT ,Health n Aviation sectors thru collaboration with edutech experts like Aptech ,Virohan n Verandah Acacia .
In a collaborative effort with Mr Kamal Singla of Lean Tycoon, plan is also to take up Payroll Services projects with Indian cos n commence BPO services for overseas cos.
Efforts are on also to mentor,promote n support some good tech start ups .
Apart from SLIM and FFA, other programs include LEAP – Lean Engagement Accelerated Program, SEVA – Services Excellence thru Value Addition, and LOFA – Lean Office Fundamental Activities.
Lean Consultants Combine:
Dr Puri smiles, “We are pleased to introduce Lean Consultants Combine, a unique concept initiated by Lean India Consulting Group.”
The SLIM approach has been specially designed by Lean India for Indian Cos., especially SMEs. “Our clients have found this approach to be very effective in making their operations and organizational culture more productive,” says Dr Puri adding, “Dabur, Highway (of Hero group ), Max Speciality Films, Majestic Auto, Bikano, Rockman,Centrient,Venus Tools,Hero Cycles,Trident, Shivam Auto,Temple, Omax Autos ,Anmol Biscuits,GNA,Skipper Electricals are some of our clients who have benefited from this approach.”
At Highway Industries Ltd interventions like Output Based Incentive OBI,COPQ reduction,Kaizen ,SMED ,FFA have been successfully implemented with very positive results .Highway has also been mentored to win AtmaNirbhar awards of Excellence,Kaizen from ACMA,CII.
With its current resources, Lean India has been able to use SLIM in a limited way in North India and wants to extend the benefit of this approach to manufacturing units and also services units all over India. These units run in lacs in numbers all over India and are looking for such services.
Dr Puri feels, “Consulting Costs being what they are today, it will not be possible for us to take up this challenge alone, as most clients want economical and affordable services.
We have thus thought of creating a Lean Consultants Combine, which is now looking for like-minded management consultants preferably specialised in Operations Management, spread all over India, and bring them to a common platform.”
An Appealing Counsel:
Dr Puri’s counsel to the aspirants who are willing to venture into the field of consultancy is very appealing. He acknowledges that there are many professionals in the market who are tired of their existing routine jobs or are retired or are teaching in some Management Institutes. They are looking for doing something more exciting and challenging, which will not only give them financial security but also a sense of professional freedom, and self-realization. As free and committed professionals they will also be able to serve society as far as they can.
Dr Puri suggests, “There are thousands of Individual consultants in the country, but according to our study, they are not satisfied with their current choices and are looking for opportunities to belong to or be a part of a larger professional group and have better professional identification.” That’s what LICG is trying to provide.
Transforming the Present:
The Consultants Combine will also give bigness to the organization which many client cos are looking for, and thus consider only big cos for offloading the consulting assignments.
Another added benefit would be that of offering lower fees to the clients as the volumes will increase. Thus, it is low fee high volume model.
Dr Puri reveals, “All over India, we are looking for consultants in each district of every state, say about 1000 of them.”
LICG will train and certify them as SLIM consultants/members. For this training and certification, a fee will be charged. Details can be provided to the willing candidates.
“Consultants who can contribute to our knowledge bank or otherwise to our cause may be considered for a waiver of this fee to some extent. Those not keen to provide consulting can become our sales partners and provide sales leads for a fee if the lead is converted to business,” says Dr Puri. Those who want to opt as part-timers can also join this platform.
LICG portal will provide all the marketing, and learning assistance to these certified members, including various softwares, on Factory Fundamentals; Asset Management;Quality ,Productivity, SLIM tools etc. which it has developed in-house or outsourced.
A Lean Indian Industrial Future:
Based on the data in the territory of the consultant, the consultant will solicit business from the Industry from his assigned territory. Any consulting assignment shall be jointly executed by LICG and the consultant.
The revenue fee shall be shared based on contributions/efforts between the Consultant and LICG, in a manner that leads to a win-win situation for the Client, the Consultant and LICG. Though standard terms will be worked out as a basis, each assignment shall be considered a unique case. The decision of LICG however shall be final and binding.
The Consultants Combines approach will provide more confidence to the clients in terms of capability. The consultants will have the advantage of getting all the knowledge under one roof.
Dr Puri adds, “Since there will be an all-India network of which you will be a part of, you will have the opportunity to add value by soliciting any other business as a part of their current specialization, to any other part of India.” This can create an additional revenue stream for the consultant as well as LICG.
Dr Puri concludes, “We ensure the best results for maximum profits and accelerated growth. Thus, who would know the Lean Business better than us.”
Dr Ashok Puri lives in Delhi with his wife Neelam, who is a fashion designer .He has two daughters..Mehak ,a media expert working with Amazon; Mahi .. a Wildlife expert ,who did her PhD from Florida State Univ ,USA n works there as a Research Scientist .His son Arjun looks after his Skill Education business.
Dr Puri is completing his book ..My thoughts on Kaizen & Lean ,which shall be published soon .
He is also starting a short video podcast series on Kaizen in daily life.. for educating Indian masses on the benefits of the Japanese concept Kaizen. Students ,working executives ,housewives, professionals in any sectors, senior citizens will find the series immensely useful.
Dr Ashok Puri can be contacted at apuri@leanindia.com
+919810030260/66
www.leanindia.com
He is avaliable on Linked in & Facebook .
Whatsapp no. +919810030260
