Society of Manufacturing Engineers holds presentation on Lean process design

Robert Simonis

The Society of Manufacturing Engineers (SME) held a presentation on Lean process design: low capital manufacturing and assembly (LCMA) on Tuesday, May 18 in Building S on Macomb Community College’s South Campus.

The event was presented by Robert Simonis, director of global Lean manufacturing at the Lear Corporation’s Electrical Power Management System division.
A graduate of the University of Montana and the US Army’s Command and General Staff College, Simonis attended Oakland University in pursuit of his MBA and previously took one of the Pawley Lean Institute’s first Lean graduate classes.

The SME presentation focused on the tools available in the development of a Lean process design for new products that do not already have a design process in place.
“If I don’t have an existing process, what tools do I use to develop a Lean process?” Simonis asked as his focus problem. “How do I design the process in the beginning so that I don’t have any problems later?”

Simonis discussed tools such as set based design involving multiple alternatives as well as the importance of challenging everyone to think long term, beyond the life of the product.

“I want to design to be Lean from the outset,” Simonis said. “I want to build Lean into the process at the design stage.”

For more information on Lean thinking and the Pawley Lean Institute, visit www.oakland.edu/lean.