"Lean, Green, and Low Cost"

David Blanchard

Industry Week

October 2007, pp. 37-39

Industry Week and the Manufacturing Performance Institute have joined together for an annual Census of U. S. Manufacturers. This year, there were 433 respondents.

With multiple responses allowed, the following percentages of respondents reported the use of the indicated improvement methodologies:

• Lean Manufacturing—69.6% of respondents
• Total Quality Management—34.2% of respondents
• Six Sigma—29.0% of respondents
• Toyota Production System—17.0% of respondents
• Theory of Constraints—14.4% of respondents
• Agile Manufacturing—6.4% of respondents
• Other—14.6% of respondents
• None—11.6% of respondents

The following percentages of respondents engaged in each of these strategic practices:

• Continuous Improvement—76.9%
• Recycling/Reuse Programs—56.1%
• Quality Certifications—55.9%
• Customer Satisfaction Surveys—51.4%
• Value Stream Mapping—45.5%
• Kaizen Events/Blitzes—45.5%
• Environmental Management—43.6%
• Benchmarking—42.5%
• Supplier Management Program—36.1%
• Total Productive Maintenance—34.2%
• Energy Management—32.8%
• Quick Changeover/SMED—29.3%
• Strategy/Policy Deployment—26.9%
• Open-Book Management—16.0%
• None—4.0%

For Focus of Market Strategy, those emphasizing each of the following were:

• High Quality—73.7%
• Service and Support—55.8%
• Total Value—41.2%
• Fast Delivery—32.0%
• Customization—26.6%
• Innovation—26.8%
• Low Cost—26.8%
• Product Variety—13.4%

Back to top of page