I have been on the road a lot lately. First to TN, then to NY with a few different conferences and consults on the way. One topic that repeatedly comes up is systems as I talk with farmers.
Your farming operation is built around systems, from how you seed, to how you harvest, to washing/packing and finally selling your product. Each of those processes is a system. And your farm will be win or lose based on those systems.
Lean manufacturing is all about looking at your systems and eliminating waste, whether it be movement, or overproduction, or wasted time. In fact, there are 7 different types of waste that lean addresses!
I was searching around for some information for a project today and stumbled upon this video which I felt clearly showed how lean works. I’ve followed Paul for a couple years now and have really enjoyed his work. He Gets Lean!
Check out this video. Its long, but you will find it fascinating how in 20 minutes, they changed a system and saved 250 man hours or $3000.
You can get Paul’s book 2 second lean, here
I also recommend Ben Hartman’s The Lean Farm book as well. It goes into detail on how Ben implemented lean on his farm and how that changed his life.
Keep working on those systems!
Michael
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