Four lines of work, one method: follow the flow
From the workshop to the office and out to the supplier network, we start on the ground, measure where the product or the file waits, and build with your teams a flow they can sustain on their own.
Lean Plant Flow
Lean applied to the plant, starting from value stream mapping.
For production sites that want to deliver on time without inflating inventory or exhausting their teams. We always start the same way: follow the product from the customer order to the truck, and look at where it waits.
Value stream mapping, explained simply
How long does an order take to travel through your plant?
VSM stands for Value Stream Mapping. Put simply: we follow a single order end to end, the way you track a parcel, and draw its whole journey on one sheet. At each step we note what moves forward… and above all what waits.
20 days
of total journey
3 hours
of real work
More than 98% of the time, your order is waiting.
Illustrative example: 3 hours of work over 20 working days of 8 hours (160 h), i.e. less than 2%.
- Cutting120
- Welding40 : the bottleneck
- Painting100
- Assembly90
parts / day. Illustrative example.
40 parts per day. Not one more.
Speeding up elsewhere is pointless: it only grows the pile in front of the bottleneck.
Three benefits
See
the full journey of your product, and above all what waits. Everyone knows their piece of the puzzle; nobody has the picture on the box.
Connect
teams around one shared picture. As in a 4 × 100 relay, the race is lost at the baton handover: losses sit between departments.
Release
the bottleneck that slows everything else. A bottle empties at the pace of its neck; so does your plant.
In practice, three steps with your teams
Walk
We follow a real order on the shop floor, with the people who make it.
Draw
We draw its journey on the wall, together: what moves, what waits.
Improve
We draw the ideal journey, then clear the bottlenecks one by one.
Sound familiar?
- WIP spilling over between two shops
- Long changeovers that rule out small batches
- Late deliveries patched with overtime
- KPIs tracked, but nobody knows what to do with them on Monday morning
Our levers
- Plant VSM: current state, future state, transformation plan
- Pull flow: supermarkets, kanban, production levelling
- SMED and TPM on bottleneck equipment
- Real-time OEE measurement with Factbird
- 5S, standard work and visual management
- Problem solving: QRQC, A3, 8D
Measure OEE continuously, line by line, with our partner Factbird. Factbird OEE
What you get
- Value stream map validated by management
- Costed 90-day transformation plan
- Standards and routines handed over to the teams
Lean Supply Chain Flow
Lean applied to the supply chain, from supplier to customer.
For companies whose performance depends on a network of suppliers, carriers and warehouses they do not fully control. Same logic as in the plant: follow the flow end to end, from your suppliers to your customers, and find where it waits, where it amplifies and where it can break.
Sound familiar?
- Repeated stock-outs on a few critical items
- Bullwhip effect: orders amplified as they move upstream
- Dependence on a single supplier or region
- Safety stocks set by gut feeling
Our levers
- Extended VSM, from supplier to customer
- Pull flows between sites and warehouses, supplier kanban
- Safety stock sizing
- S&OP and demand management
And when a link breaks?
A lean supply chain is efficient… until the day a link breaks. Risk management means knowing in advance where it will break, how many days you can last, and what is ready to cope. It is a line of work in its own right at Phi-Lean, with one offer for SMEs and one for large groups.
Lean Supply Chain Risk ManagementFirst-hand experience
Manuel Gourmand coordinated the distribution supply chain of an international group (11 regional hubs, $189M revenue) and covered supply chain leadership roles in North and Latin America: for us, risk management is not a theoretical exercise.
What you get
- Network map and supplier and item risk matrix
- Protection plan prioritised by impact
- Working S&OP process with early-warning indicators
Our approach, whatever the line of work
Measure
Gemba walk, real-flow mapping, data collected on site rather than assumed.
Co-design
The future state is designed with the people who will do the work, not for them.
Experiment
Short workshops on a pilot scope, to prove before rolling out.
Embed
Standards, routines and KPIs handed over: your managers take back control.
To get started: the VSM Express Diagnostic
Entry offer
VSM Express Diagnostic
In 3 days on site, we map one of your value streams with your teams, measure where time is lost and size the achievable gains. You leave with an action plan, whether or not you continue with us.
Remote scoping
One hour to choose the value stream, the product family or logistics flow, and gather existing data.
Day 1: on the shop floor
Walking the flow backwards, from customer to suppliers. Measuring inventory, times and waits, step by step.
Day 2: mapping
Building the current-state VSM with your teams, then the future state. Every source of waste is quantified.
Day 3: read-out
Presentation to leadership: three to five priority workstreams, the expected gains and a 90-day plan.
Frequently asked questions
What does “100% deductible” mean?
If you entrust Phi-Lean with the follow-up engagement within 3 months, the full cost of the diagnostic is deducted from it.
Which flows can be mapped?
A product family in a plant, or a logistics flow between your suppliers, sites, warehouses and customers.
Who needs to be available on our side?
One value stream owner for the three days, and two to three hours from each team involved in the mapping.
Are travel expenses included?
The fixed fee covers the engagement. Travel expenses are charged at cost and stated in the quotation.
Let's talk about your flow
Thirty minutes on the phone is often enough to know whether a diagnostic makes sense, and on which scope. No commitment.