Richard McCorry is the president and a co-owner of Production Spring, an automotive parts manufacturer in Rochester Hills, Michigan. He also serves as an advisor to private equity companies in Michigan and beyond. One of Richard McCorry’s areas of professional expertise is lean manufacturing. In the early 1990's, he was an invited guest speaker at the GOAL Quality Consortium presenting the concept of Kaizen in Manufacturing. Utilizing Lean tools, he orchestrated a major plant turnaround at the age of 30. He abandoned traditional manufacturing measuring methods and developed his own set of tools including "APU". Actual Productive Uptime ("APU") is now commonly referred to as OEE. Most recently, General Motors Supplier Quality Directors asked permission to share some of his unique visual management systems with their supply community.
Emphasizing the value of engendering efficient production while using a minimum of resources, lean manufacturing practices are centered on various concepts of waste reduction. This waste reduction can occur at any stage of design, manufacture, distribution, or customer interaction. Specific types of waste monitored and addressed range from overproduction of inventory to wasted time.
The history of lean manufacturing dates back to the early 1900s and assembly line pioneers such as Model T manufacturer Henry Ford who said, “We will not put into our establishment anything that is useless.” Toyota executive Taiichi Ohno refined and coalesced the concept of lean manufacturing during Japan’s post-WWII reconstruction period. Lean manufacturing ultimately rose to widespread popularity in the wake of the 1996 book Lean Thinking by James P. Womack and Daniel T. Jones.
