The University of Malta, the US Embassy and Malta Enterprise last Friday organised a seminar on Enhancing Industrial Competitiveness Through Lean Principles.

The seminar was conducted by John Gershenson, a Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Manufacturing at Michigan Technological University.

Last March the University of Malta and the US Embassy signed a memorandum of understanding for Malta's participation in the new Ambassador's Scholar programme, under which the two sides nominate one US academic as an "Ambassador's Scholar" each academic year.

Within this context, the University of Malta's Department of Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering nominated Prof. Gershenson, to serve as an "Ambassador's Scholar" in the domain of Lean Manufacturing.

In an interview with The Times Business Prof. Gershenson explained what lean manufacturing is.

"Lean manufacturing has been around for quite some time. It originated out of some of the manufacturing principles out of post-war Japan. It is a philosophy of manufacturing which basically says you need produce your product with the absolute minimum of resources necessary in order to satisfy customers' wants."

Everything else, he says, is considered waste "and waste must be attacked on all fronts whenever possible." Another element, he points out, is that you are continually focused on the improvement of your manufacturing process.

What lean manufacturing is not, he says, "is an easy way to fire people." Instead of focusing on a person's job - how is this particular task being done - the focus becomes "while I'm doing that what can I possibly do to improve the cost in quality and delivery".

So more time is spent on continuous improvement, he says, and less time on the actual assembly task.

Citing examples to show how lean management can be used to improve quality and cut costs, he says some of the things one definitely attacks are inventory levels.

"All inventories are things you have already paid money for, that nobody has paid you for. How often do you turn over your inventory over the course of a year? What one should aim for in terms of a world class organisation is to turn your inventory over at least 50 times per year. Most companies tend to do this around five to 10 times a year. As inventories come in, you are adding value to the process. You are geared towards satisfying customer demand," he says.

He adds: "In terms of numbers you're talking about being able to manufacture your product in less than a day, delivering quality of three problems per million products manufactured, and narrowing the gap between changing over from one product to another."

Prof. Gerhensen says part of his trip to Malta, organised by the University of Malta and the US Embassy, involved visiting nine manufacturing companies of different sizes.

"My impression was that the companies most definitely have great capability. I found it quite amazing that here I am, somebody from the US, coming specifically to visit manufacturing companies, and I had no idea that there are companies here which are part of a global company, subsidiaries of US companies where they are actually best in class."

Like everywhere else, he says, there exists a wide range of companies, and he is yet to go to a country where all the companies are excellent or all are horrible.

"I have seen companies with problems in Japan and I have seen great plants in places where you wouldn't expect it. What I actually believe is that the potential for plants here in Malta is far greater than their current capabilities and that is something to get excited about," he says.

Prof. Gerhensen explains that for the most part the challenges that Malta's manufacturing companies face are no different from the challenges that everybody else faces. All the issues that people might think are unique to Malta are not actually unique, he says.

"One issue, however, is of course shipping, which is more of an issue than in other places. Sometimes waiting weeks for ships to bring in raw materials can pose challenges. This is probably a uniquely Maltese problem."

He believes people in Malta are very much open to change and thinks the workforce is very adaptable.

"Malta has seen so much change over the centuries - and this is positive if a company had to introduce a new philosophy with regards to lean manufacturing. That is one of the reasons I see great potential for going forward and going forward very quickly in manufacturing. I believe that this is an advantage for Malta when compared to other countries," he points out.

Prof. Gerhensen says that whenever Malta's membership of the European Union was discussed in his meetings with manufacturers it was always highlighted as a "significant positive" because Malta is now the entry way into the rest of the EU.

"Malta is geographically uniquely positioned and its human resources and culture are also a plus. Companies can operate in English here and that is a great advantage."

What advice did he have for Maltese industry?

"Taking advantage of what we call vertical integration. Collaboration among the companies in order to offer high value added manufacturing as well as services that go along with that. Pick strategic products that can be distributed throughout the EU and in additional places. Malta can have a strategic position with regard to engineering and technology."

He says for each company to have its own lean manufacturing programme, companies should team up together.

"Judging from what I've heard, not only are companies thinking about working together, they are ready to do it now. I think this will involve collaboration between industry, perhaps the university and supporting organisations that are already in Malta.

He adds: "But the people who truly need to make it happen are the management at the industry here in Malta. I'll be back soon and I look forward to making sure that that is in place and helping with evaluation, programmes and the auditing of their plants. I'm pretty excited about this."