In today’s world, we’re all having to make an effort to clean up our acts when it comes to waste. Businesses, in particular, have to deal with this new concern. With the media, governments, and general population putting pressure on them to improve. But, if you’re a small business, it can be hard to know where to start. And, if you’re doing something like this, you should be hoping for it also to make your business more efficient. So, to help you out, this post will go through some of the best ways to improve your footprint while becoming a faster business.
One of the first steps to efficiency is management. If you can start a process and leave it for two hours, it’s much better than having to sit their and monitor it for one. A lot of businesses have peeled back their management and staff, leaving only what they need. Of course, this has an impact on the amount of jobs available. But, it also helps to make a more dynamic business. Lean management can be a necessity for a small business. Having as few staff as possible could be the only option, on a very tight budget. Usually, it will require an expert to help a business get rid of some of their staff. But, in the case of a small business, you can just start from the beginning. This means you don’t have to get rid of any staff at all!
Now, considering more of the environmental side of things, you also need to minimise the waste you create. Staff won’t create much waste, so you may have to look elsewhere. Lean manufacturing is becoming a staple amongst big businesses. Casting aside as little as possible can make the creation of product much cheaper. It won’t matter much for a small business, but a big business could be wasting tons of material. The top lean manufacturing tools and techniques are held close by the companies that have developed them. So, you may need some help when it comes to making your manufacturing process more streamlined. Doing this early is a great plan. It could save your business a lot of expense, and could even make it cheaper for you now.
To achieve the greatest feats of lean business, you need some degree of automation. If your factory can be set up to be managed by one staff member; you’ll only have to pay for one staff member. Having work automated also lessens the risk of human error. And, human error usually leads to waste. It will also hugely limit the amount of power and gas that you have to use. Other things, like water, will also go down. Altogether, this makes for a great opportunity.
Hopefully, this will inspire you to start pulling the bootstraps tight and getting to work on better processes for your company. Once you’ve started, it will be easy to keep these things going. So, it’s much better to start with a small company, than wait until you’ve grown.
Great post, invaluable tips.