A key part of what makes Okopod special is our commitment to sustainability. This is done by using natural materials wherever possible, efficient use of natural resources and a drive to reduce waste wherever possible.
We apply this approach to all areas of the business including the sales and manufacturing processes. We follow lean manufacturing guidelines, the approach used by all major car manufacturers, to produce high quality product, on time and to specification. This originated from Japan, specifically Toyota, and is sometimes known as the Toyota Production System (TPS).
There are lots of different tools, processes and methodologies to TPS, but the overarching principle is the “total elimination of waste”. At Okopod we use several techniques/tools to optimise our production and to ensure that our customers get what they want, when they want it.
Some of these techniques are:
Continuous Improvement (kaizen) – we are always learning and improving. We don’t look for a “silver bullet” to transform our product rather we look to make small incremental improvements all the time. This approach is similar to the “marginal gains” philosophy used by the GB Olympic cycling squad. Essentially, it’s easier to make ten 1% improvements than look for one 10% improvement.
Visual Management System – like most businesses we have a variety of spreadsheets, processes, instruction manuals, sales pipeline management and other tools that help us manage our business. One of the most important is our Operations Board which pulls a customer order through our process using a kanban (another Japanese word that means card). It’s a very visual system that allows everyone in the business to understand immediately the status of every job as it approaches installation.
Just in Time (JIT) – As the kanban moves across the board it triggers actions within our supply chain to ensure that parts arrive at our facility as we need them. Pulling the Okopods through the process rather than pushing them gives us many advantages.
We don’t make standard items in advance
Externally supplied items arrive when we need them
Last minute changes can (usually) be accommodated
All of these benefits reduce our work in progress (WIP) which improves factory utilisation, makes us more flexible to customer needs and most importantly improves our product and process quality.
Workplace Organisation (5s) – this is a proven way of improving quality and reducing waste in our production facility
Sort
We eliminate unnecessary tools and use the right ones for each job
Set in Order
The workplace is arranged so that we know where to find items (“A place for everything and everything in its place”)
Shine
We work hard to keep our environment clean and safe
Standardise
To reduce variations we make repeat items the same way until we find a better way, then that becomes the standard.
Sustain
We uphold the first four Ss and always look to improve
Foolproofing – Using another Japanese word poke yoke, we try to design our products so that they can only be fitted correctly. From the slots on our wall panels to the fall of the roof we always strive to make things better and simpler to install eliminating waste from re-learning, rework and scrap.
