How does lean production work?

Since 2015, the Professional School of the University of Osnabrück has held its annual Lean Production Day. During its second iteration last year, a large number of participants expressed that the presentations could also be supplemented with enriching visits to companies. Hence, the idea of a new network was born. On the agenda are regular meetings for network participants, where they can discuss current issues in lean production and benefit from the experiences of the other participants. The meetings will take place two to three times a year at one of the participating companies.

The first host in the series with the title "Lean Production im Dialog vor Ort" (lit.: On-Site Lean Production Dialogue) was ASSMANN on 16th February. As part of a company tour, the participants were able to inform themselves on the company's best-practice case examples and speak directly to technical head Guido Hübner and Prof. Dr. Frank Balsliemke from the University of Osnabrück, ask them questions on specific production processes, and discuss approaches to solving problems in lean production.

"Lean production is an important topic for companies; this glimpse behind the curtains is both illuminating and inspiring", comments Guido Hübner when speaking about the great interest in the event. "The goal of lean production is to improve processes and procedures in the company through extensive streamlining and to make them more efficient." What could be made faster, simpler, and more cost-efficient at ASSMANN? A great deal of savings can be achieved and productivity increased through the reduction of superfluous inventory and unutilised capacity alone. Naturally, constant quality checks are also a part of lean production.  

The next network meeting will take place on 31 May 2017. The host company this time will be Kampmann GmbH, Lingen.

Contact at the Professional School: Andrea Sachs
E-mail: a.sachs@hs-osnabrueck.de.