24 December 2007
MUSCAT -- A select group of experts on manufacturing discussed 'Lean Manufacturing' at a seminar organised by the Oman Manufacturing Group (OMG) last week. This seminar was the last of the series held by OMG at Crowne Plaza Hotel. The topic of the seminar "Lean Manufacturing: Value Stream Mapping" is one of the most powerful techniques to reduce manufacturing bottlenecks and increase organisational efficiency.
Journalists who supported the OMG seminar series received special awards from Hilal Al Ahsani, CEO of PEIE at the end of the seminar. On behalf of Times of Oman, Visvas Paul D. Karra, reporter, received the award. Times of Oman and Al Shabiba were the media sponsors for the seminar. S. Gopalan, CEO, Reem Batteries, moderated the panel of experts which included Amrou Al Sharif, Teclution; Raza Ashraf, Total Alignment; Manoj Manoharan, Jotun Paints; and Venkatesh, Savoir Faire Management Consultancy.
A large number of owners, managers, supervisors and others who are committed to improving their manufacturing performance attended the seminar.
In the face of increasing global competition, manufacturing companies across Oman face a number of growing challenges from reducing costs, improving marketing, packaging, design and product quality, training, introducing new technology through to speeding up production processes.
In order to help manufacturers meet these challenges, the Public Establishment for Industrial Estates (PEIE) came up with these series of four OMG seminars.
In his opening remarks, S. Gopalan said that four 'M's namely materials, market, manpower and machinery are important to achieve lean manufacturing. The panelists observed that there has to be a fundamental change in the mindsets to derive the benefits of lean manufacturing, which is a journey and not the actual destination.
Venkatesh pointed out lean manufacturing can be divided into an alphabet and a numeral, which is the three 'P's: purpose, process and people. The purpose of lean manufacturing is to serve the customer who wants value for his money; while the process is in which the customer's value is created through complex purposes.
Again the perfect process is valuable, capable, available, adequate and flexible. In value stream mapping, you have people who are asking the right questions. Even though the manufacturer needs to attack the visible areas and improve upon them, there are typical hurdles to lean manufacturing like variations in products; lack of proper communications; being unable to get people to focus in the right direction; and a customer who is not willing to wait. All these have to be identified, the data has to be analysed and find a viable way of improving the processes.
As a conclusion it was agreed that the bottom line is to focus on the people and not on the machines. The OMG Seminar Series has introduced best practice ideas and practical tools and techniques to Omani manufacturers and according to Hilal Al Ahsani, CEO, PEIE, "OMG is the voice of Oman's manufacturers and was designed specifically to raise the profile of the Sultanate's manufacturing sector".
MUSCAT -- A select group of experts on manufacturing discussed 'Lean Manufacturing' at a seminar organised by the Oman Manufacturing Group (OMG) last week. This seminar was the last of the series held by OMG at Crowne Plaza Hotel. The topic of the seminar "Lean Manufacturing: Value Stream Mapping" is one of the most powerful techniques to reduce manufacturing bottlenecks and increase organisational efficiency.
Journalists who supported the OMG seminar series received special awards from Hilal Al Ahsani, CEO of PEIE at the end of the seminar. On behalf of Times of Oman, Visvas Paul D. Karra, reporter, received the award. Times of Oman and Al Shabiba were the media sponsors for the seminar. S. Gopalan, CEO, Reem Batteries, moderated the panel of experts which included Amrou Al Sharif, Teclution; Raza Ashraf, Total Alignment; Manoj Manoharan, Jotun Paints; and Venkatesh, Savoir Faire Management Consultancy.
A large number of owners, managers, supervisors and others who are committed to improving their manufacturing performance attended the seminar.
In the face of increasing global competition, manufacturing companies across Oman face a number of growing challenges from reducing costs, improving marketing, packaging, design and product quality, training, introducing new technology through to speeding up production processes.
In order to help manufacturers meet these challenges, the Public Establishment for Industrial Estates (PEIE) came up with these series of four OMG seminars.
In his opening remarks, S. Gopalan said that four 'M's namely materials, market, manpower and machinery are important to achieve lean manufacturing. The panelists observed that there has to be a fundamental change in the mindsets to derive the benefits of lean manufacturing, which is a journey and not the actual destination.
Venkatesh pointed out lean manufacturing can be divided into an alphabet and a numeral, which is the three 'P's: purpose, process and people. The purpose of lean manufacturing is to serve the customer who wants value for his money; while the process is in which the customer's value is created through complex purposes.
Again the perfect process is valuable, capable, available, adequate and flexible. In value stream mapping, you have people who are asking the right questions. Even though the manufacturer needs to attack the visible areas and improve upon them, there are typical hurdles to lean manufacturing like variations in products; lack of proper communications; being unable to get people to focus in the right direction; and a customer who is not willing to wait. All these have to be identified, the data has to be analysed and find a viable way of improving the processes.
As a conclusion it was agreed that the bottom line is to focus on the people and not on the machines. The OMG Seminar Series has introduced best practice ideas and practical tools and techniques to Omani manufacturers and according to Hilal Al Ahsani, CEO, PEIE, "OMG is the voice of Oman's manufacturers and was designed specifically to raise the profile of the Sultanate's manufacturing sector".
© Times of Oman 2007
