LEAN – the whole workshop can benefit from it

Earlier this year, all managers of Möller Mobility Group were introduced to LEAN. The next natural step of the evolution of LEAN within Möller Mobility Group was to increase the general knowledge of LEAN for the entire workshop.

It was a great pleasure welcoming Möller Trondheim, part of Möller Mobility Group, to our Training Center in Copenhagen. This was the first time we have held a LEAN training which involved all levels of staff, from receptionists to management. More than 30 people participated in the course. Everybody was there: administration, panel beaters, painters, management.

It is all about improvement and streamlining of processes

In the training, Stephen Booty, Business Development Manager, PPG Scandinavia, introduced the whole group to the basic parts of LEAN. The focus of the training was to give all employees a basic understanding of how LEAN works and how it applies to and can benefit all parts of the workshop.

Basically, LEAN is all about improvement. The philosophy is that everything can be improved. The focus of LEAN is removing all unnecessary steps and ‘waste’ to streamline processes. This applies to all parts of the workshop so to gain the best results for the workshop, it makes sense to include all employees. In this way, we ensure that everybody is going in the same direction and working towards a common goal.

Morten Johansen, Department Manager, Möller Bil, Skadesenter Trondheim

Morten Johansen, Department Manager, Möller Bil, Skadesenter Trondheim, says:
”At Møller Bil Trondheim, we are constantly looking for improvements. I have been on a LEAN course with PPG myself, but to get the best results for the entire workshop, it is important that everyone is involved so that we get a common understanding.

We are happy that you wanted to welcome us and implement this. Our wish going forward is to reduce the time the car is in our workshop and to have a neater and more organized workshop.

This PPG LEAN course helps us further along the way.”

Möller Bil in Trondheim is, like the rest of the Norwegian Möller Bil repair shops, serviced by the PPG distributor C.Christoffersen who also have a long and proven track record of helping the repair shops to optimize productivity and streamline the production processes. So, from that perspective, the entire Möller Bil chain can get support from various angles when needed.

Möller Bil Trondheim have already implemented ProcessManager, PPG's digital planning tool for workshops, which makes it easy to plan and allocate work to all employees and thereby reduce unproductive time. In that way, ProcessManager is in many cases LEAN in practice, and Möller Bil Trondheim has embraced these principles.

Mixing theory and practice

The training day in Copenhagen was a mix of LEAN theory and exercises. After introducing the theoretical principles of LEAN, it was time for a practical exercise. Instructor Stephen Booty asked all course participants to ‘draw a pig’ - but he did not give them any details of which kind of pig drawing he had in mind.

As it turned out, everybody drew a pig the way they wanted. No drawings were the same, but how could they be?

The instructor had a specific kind of drawing in mind, but as he did not give them any instructions, he naturally did not get the results he wanted. After a few rounds of ‘wrong’ pig drawings, Stephen Booty gave the participants specific and detailed instructions for the task– and he got exactly the drawings that he wanted.

The learning of this exercise is that when you give detailed instructions; you will get the right and best results. It might seem banal, but in a busy working environment, it can be easy to forget the good working processes and communication.

The continuous improvement approach

In our LEAN Optimization projects, we help workshops optimize their productivity by reducing their cycle times and implementing the continuous improvement approach. We remove the things that we do not need and streamline processes although the workshop. Everyone will be involved and benefit from the optimized ways of working.

Overall, the positive impact of implementing LEAN is that lead times will be reduced, work in process will be optimized and customers will get their car back faster.