Open Square is a progressive, rapidly expanding distributor for Steel Case office furniture here in the Pacific Northwest. Designing office spaces that capitalize on the collaboration between your team members and modern technology. Along with Design and Distribution, Open Square ensures customer satisfaction through the entire value stream including world class installation. While the design process relies on highly trained professionals with decades of product knowledge and experience, it also relies on the collaborative nature of your most valuable asset, your people. This combination of product expertise and client knowledge, results in efficient work spaces that support the flow of value throughout your entire business model. While designing collaborative, highly functional work spaces begins the process, distribution is key to the on time delivery of product for installation. Distribution requires significant expertise in the management of the entire supply chain. Open Square combines in house warehousing of product with just in time delivery to ensure your on time installation. Installation completes the process with highly trained, customer focused, work teams.
The significant growth Open Square is experiencing has provided the opportunity for the application of Lean throughout the entire business model. The Lean process keeps the customer at the center of all improvement activities. “Learning to See” is the highest level of Lean philosophy, while the elimination of waste is the key methodology. While Open Square is early in their Lean journey, value stream mapping has paved the way to improvement processes in customer delivery through Rapid Process Improvement Workshops (RPIW’s). Last Planner Scheduling is driving the flow of customer value all the way from the design process through final installation. Open Squares first RPIW events are scheduled to address, truck routing, information flow and the optimization of installation processes. Check back often as we will post the results of all improvement events the moment we complete the workshops.
The elimination of waste is the fundamental role of Lean in any organization. Open Square is attacking the waste (Muda) through the identification of Taiichi Ohno’s 7 wastes;
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Time
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Transportation
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Motion
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Over Production
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Over Processing
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Inventory
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Defects
Value Stream Mapping (VSM) followed by RPIW’s provides a powerful tool for the identification and elimination of waste in the process. As you can see in the photo below, the Open Square team has done significant work toward the identification and elimination of waste. The post-its attached to the VSM indicate areas for focused improvement. Classification of each post-it allows for the consolidation of potential RPIW events, or Kaizens. The information flow at the top of the VSM demonstrates the opportunity for increased efficiency through the application of single step flow methodology.
Application of the Last Planner Scheduling system allows Open Square team members to connect each activity from customer order to final installation. The Last Planner Scheduling system employs pull planning to each customer order, ensuring all events necessary to fill the order are completed just in time.