Compared to developed countries, printing and packaging companies are still at a crude level of operation, facing many pressures such as rising costs, declining profits, and increased energy-saving and environmental protection requirements. Relying on market share alone can no longer guarantee profit growth, and transformation and upgrading have become inevitable choices. With the continuous implementation of strategies such as Germany's "Industry 4.0," the United States' "Industrial Internet," and China's "Made in China 2025," global printing and packaging companies are gradually moving toward a path of digitalization, interconnectivity, and intelligence. Thanks to the widespread application of new-generation digital technologies such as big data, cloud computing, and artificial intelligence, the foundation for the development of the digital economy is becoming increasingly solid. The momentum for traditional printing and packaging companies to transition to intelligent manufacturing is continuously gathering. Furthermore, after the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2019, some printing and packaging companies that started early and had a high degree of digital transformation were less affected, and even achieved counter-cyclical growth. However, many small and medium-sized traditional printing and packaging companies were particularly sensitive to the changes brought by the external environment of the pandemic and faced significant survival pressure. Whether due to internal or external factors, these challenges are pushing traditional printing and packaging companies to accelerate their transition toward intelligent manufacturing and digitalization. Therefore, this article focuses on discussing how traditional printing and packaging companies can establish "lean operations digitalization" through the integration of lean operations and digitalization.
In the past 20 years, lean operations have helped companies around the world achieve excellent performance, improving key performance indicators (KPIs) such as productivity, delivery time, product quality, and delivery reliability. At the same time, the past 20 years have witnessed the rapid development of digital technologies, which have transformed most companies' production and management methods. Advanced technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), advanced analytics, and robotic process automation have completely revolutionized lean transformation, making business management more transparent, reducing barriers between different organizational levels and functions, improving automation levels, enabling data-driven decision-making, and reducing transformation costs and time.
Today, the integration of digitalization and lean operations has formed "digital lean." It incorporates Industry 4.0 elements into traditional lean thinking, reshaping end-to-end processes and achieving digital management. Digital lean management is based on a "single data source" (data center) and utilizes advanced analytics and remote monitoring technologies to support its capability building.
1. Characteristics of Lean and Digitalization
Both lean operations and digitalization focus on optimizing the entire value chain of production management. They follow a step-by-step improvement principle, gradually improving the workshop production site, operations, organizational processes, and strategic mechanisms in four modules. The production operation chain is optimized in four stages: "Point, Line, Surface, and Body." In these four stages, lean operations and digitalization each have their focus. Based on existing research, this article summarizes the characteristics of lean operations and digitalization in the "Point, Line, Surface, and Body" stages. The specific characteristics are summarized in Table 1.
Table 1: Characteristics of Lean and Digitalization
II. Lean Operations Driving Digitalization
Data-Driven Decision Making: Lean operations emphasize making decisions based on data, which aligns closely with the concept of digitalization. Through lean methods, businesses can identify which data is critical, thereby optimizing the process of data collection, analysis, and use to support data-driven decision-making.
Process Optimization: Lean operations focus on process optimization, identifying and eliminating waste within processes. This mindset of process optimization provides a framework for digitalization, allowing businesses to better understand how to use technology to improve processes during digital implementation.
Customer Orientation: Lean operations emphasize customer value as the guiding principle, with only activities that create value for customers considered effective. This customer-centric approach helps businesses maintain a focus on enhancing the customer experience and meeting customer needs during digital transformation.
Employee Engagement: Lean operations advocate for employee involvement, considering employees key to improvements. This philosophy also supports digitalization because employee participation is crucial for the successful implementation of digital transformation.
Continuous Improvement: Lean operations focus on continuous improvement, encouraging businesses to constantly experiment, learn, and refine during the digitalization process.
III. Digitalization Enhancing Lean Operations
Digitalization and Industry 4.0: Industry 4.0 focuses on the transformation of manufacturing, relying on Internet of Things (IoT) technology to achieve interconnectivity between intelligent systems. Previously, businesses relied on communication with employees to identify and resolve root issues through feedback about internal processes and pain points. Now, businesses can rely on digital technology to gather and review existing data, enabling faster and more precise resolution of fundamental problems.
Digital Lean: Digital lean means businesses establish interconnected digital dashboards that share information among themselves and compile it into a single database at the organizational level. These dashboards not only provide real-time updates of KPIs but also allow for aggregation and comparison across organizational levels and departments, facilitating top-down communication. For instance, profitability KPIs at the CEO level can be quickly broken down into revenue and cost, and further divided across business teams, business lines, and product lines.
Achieving Sustainable Improvement: Digital technology helps increase the transparency of the lean transformation path, enhancing both employee and management understanding of the lean management model, freeing them from inefficient practices, and driving sustainable development. Additionally, employee loyalty and the precision of the transformation will improve significantly.
Real-Time Updates with Digital Dashboards: With digital dashboards, companies can update SOPs in real-time, encouraging employees to reflect on their daily performance, resolve issues promptly, and significantly improve employee satisfaction and engagement. For example, after implementing digital lean transformation, a leading group insurance company saw employee engagement increase from 55% to approximately 80%.
Dual Improvement in Efficiency and Agility: The introduction of digital lean can significantly simplify internal processes, enhance communication efficiency among stakeholders, and shorten the time required for transformation. In fact, digital lean can reduce project delivery cycles from the traditional lean approach of 2-3 years to just one year.
IV. Establishing Lean Operations Digitalization in Printing and Packaging Enterprises
Define Objectives: The first step is to clearly define the goals of lean operations digitalization. This may include improving production efficiency, reducing waste, enhancing product quality, increasing customer satisfaction, and so on. These goals should be measurable to facilitate tracking and assessing progress.
Identify and Understand Processes: At this stage, it is essential to deeply understand the business processes and identify areas where waste and inefficiency exist. This can be achieved through tools such as process mapping, value stream mapping, and other methods.
Data Collection: To support decision-making and optimization, it is necessary to collect and analyze large amounts of data. This may include production data, quality data, customer feedback, and more. This step may require the use of data collection devices and systems, such as sensors, data acquisition cards, etc.
Technology Implementation: At this stage, appropriate digital technologies, such as the Internet of Things (IoT), artificial intelligence (AI), and big data, need to be selected and implemented. These technologies can help automate processes, improve data accuracy and availability, and provide deeper insights.
Continuous Improvement: Digitalization is not a one-time project, but a continuous process. Therefore, it is necessary to monitor and evaluate results continuously, making adjustments and optimizations based on feedback.
Employee Training and Engagement: Both lean operations and digitalization require active participation from employees. Therefore, necessary training should be provided to help employees understand the principles and technologies of lean operations and digitalization, improving their skills and capabilities. It is also important to encourage employees to suggest improvements and participate in improvement activities.
Finally, establishing lean operations digitalization in printing and packaging enterprises is a long-term, systematic endeavor that requires strong commitment and support from management and active participation and effort from all employees. Only through such collaboration can the goals of lean operations be truly realized, improving production efficiency and quality, meeting customer needs, and enhancing the competitiveness of printing and packaging enterprises.
About Realscheme
Realscheme Enterprise Management Consulting Co., Ltd., headquartered in Shanghai, has established a cooperative network in Seattle, Munich, and Singapore. The company serves industries such as printing and packaging, education, textiles, cables, and metal processing, focusing on comprehensive solutions for manufacturing industry digital transformation. They provide process reengineering consulting, digital transformation implementation, and smart manufacturing integration services. Realscheme embraces the future and is committed to achieving success for clients, currently serving over 100 industry clients. Their professional consulting team consists of seasoned industry experts. The company leverages its specialization, platform-based approach, and international advantages to promote the exchange of best practices in manufacturing and support the successful digital transformation of the manufacturing industry.
For more company information and successful case studies, please refer to the company website and official WeChat account.
Contact: Ms. Zhou Xiaoqing, 18019320206.
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