What One Company Did to Reduce Inventory and Free-up Floorspace

Posted by on Jun 4, 2013 in Lean | 0 comments

Inventory affects companies in various ways.  A client of my recently made a startling discover.  Their floor space is very restricted and tight would be an understatement!  In looking at how they could free up space, they found that the cardboard boxes they used to package their final products were taking up a considerable amount of it.  In fact they had roughly one hundred different box sizes, many of which varied only a few tenths of an inch in size.  Upon further investigation they found that there were only twenty different sizes they used on a regular basis.  The other 80% (the 80/20 rule strikes again!) were literally taking up valuable floor space and could either be completely eliminated or reduce substantially.

What materials do you use on a daily basis and how many variations of those materials exist?  Have you looked at them lately to see if all the variations are used on a regular basis?  Maybe you have an opportunity to eliminate or consolidate some of the material you use and can both save money and valuable floorspace.  Do you need a central storage area or can you keep only what’s needed at the point of use?  It’s something to take a look at and it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out!

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