5 Lean errors that cost factories 4,230 PLN a day
Most factory owners in Pomerania believe that Lean is only about cleaning and painting lines on the floor. Because of this erroneous thinking, they lose real cash every day that they could allocate to new machines or bonuses for people. Numbers don't lie – in a medium-sized production plant near Gdynia that we worked with in March 2024, organizational errors cost exactly 4,230 PLN on every shift.
Production for stock, or freezing 142,300 PLN in goods
The greatest sin in Polish plants is fear of an empty warehouse. Managers often think that machines must run non-stop so they earn for themselves. This is nonsense. In one metal processing plant we visited in February 2024, 1,427 finished elements were lying on the floor, for which the client placed an order only for May. These parts occupied 340 square meters of space for which rent and heating had to be paid.
The problem is that material bought with cash lies and gathers dust instead of working. In this specific case, we calculated that the cost of frozen capital was 480 PLN a day in interest and storage costs alone. Added to this is the risk of damage. While moving pallets with a forklift, 4.3% of the goods got scratched, requiring repainting. This is pure waste of time and material.
Instead of producing for stock, it's better to set up the system for a specific order. At Baltic Bridge Consulting, we teach how to shorten machine changeover time from 84 minutes to just 12 minutes. Thanks to this, you don't have to make 2,000 pieces at once to make it 'worthwhile'. You can make 214 pieces exactly when the client needs them. We look for losses on the floor where others see only 'safe stock'.
When we limited overproduction in this company, we recovered 120 square meters of free space. The owner did not have to build a new warehouse shed, which he had planned since August 2023. He saved 87,400 PLN in investment. This is concrete instead of theory that can be seen in the bank account after just the first month of changes.
Overproduction is the worst type of waste because it hides all other problems in your company.
Excessive transport and walking that eats up 3.2 hours a day
Most workers on the floor are unconscious marathon runners. In October 2024, we measured the distance covered by a lathe operator in a plant in Rumia. It turned out that daily he takes 8,420 steps just to bring tools, deliver a report to the office, or find a functioning pallet jack. This takes him a total of 3.2 hours during one shift. Hours for which you pay him, and in which he does not produce a single part.
Often a bad machine layout is to blame. In one company producing office furniture, material had to travel across the entire hall (114 meters) just to return to a machine standing next to the first station. It's illogical, but no one has corrected it since 2017 because 'it's always been that way'. Every such trip is a risk of an accident and a waste of fuel in the forklift, which at current gas prices costs the company an extra 112 PLN a week per forklift.
Our audit of internal plant logistics points out exactly where time is lost. At Baltic Bridge Consulting, we don't propose expensive automation systems if moving one assembly table by 4 meters is enough. In December 2023, we shortened the transport path in one of the halls by 46%, which allowed one forklift operator to be released for other, more important tasks. We recover your time and profit by eliminating empty runs.
An employee who doesn't have to run across the hall is less tired and less likely to make assembly errors. In a company near Elbląg, after reorganizing workstations, the number of mistakes fell by 23.4% in just two weeks. People stopped being frustrated that they were constantly looking for something. Concrete instead of theory means that tools are at hand, not in a cabinet at the other end of the hall.
Waiting at the machine, or how 47 minutes of efficiency escape
The most expensive minute in your company is the one in which a half-million zloty machine stands idle. Many factories have a synchronization problem. We have seen it many times: the operator waits 18 minutes for raw material, then 12 minutes for a quality control decision, and finally 17 minutes for a minor fault repair that he cannot remove himself due to silly procedures. Together this gives 47 minutes of loss on just one machine.
In July 2024, we analyzed the work of a bottling line. The average downtime due to 'lack of components' was 54 minutes a day. The reason was trivial: the warehouse worker learned about the lack of labels only when the operator shouted across the entire hall. The lack of a simple signal (so-called Kanban) cost this company 1,240 PLN a day in lost margin. Numbers don't lie – those 47 or 54 minutes are money thrown in the bin.
We introduce simple notification systems that shorten reaction time. You don't need expensive software for 200,000 PLN for this. Sometimes a plastic card or a board with colored magnets is enough. At Baltic Bridge Consulting, we focus on making the flow smooth. If the machine is standing because someone didn't bring documentation, it is a management error, not bad luck.
After implementing our recommendations in a plastic processing plant, efficiency increased by 14.8% without hiring a single new person. We simply eliminated the moments when people stood and looked at the clock, waiting for the forklift driver. We fix processes in factories and warehouses so that every hour of work is actually spent on the product.
A machine standing because of a lack of information is the most expensive furniture in your company.
Corrections and defects that cost 12.40 PLN for each item
Many factories boast of 'highest quality', but when we look into the waste bin, the truth is different. In March 2024 we examined a company producing plastic elements. Their defect rate was 7.3%. This means that for every 1,000 items, 73 ended up as scrap or required manual correction. Each such correction took an employee an average of 6 minutes and cost 12.40 PLN in man-hours and energy.
Often errors result from unclear instructions. The worker does not know exactly what the finished product should look like because the instruction has been hanging on the board since 2019 and is all dirty with grease. We introduced simple visual standards there – photos of good and bad parts at each station. Result? After a month, the number of defects fell to 2.1%. That's a saving of around 3,100 PLN a month on material alone.
Correcting what was done wrong once is pure waste. We look for losses on the floor and find them in processes where quality control takes place only at the very end. This is a mistake. Quality must be built at every stage. We teach operators how they themselves can control their work so as not to pass a defective element further. This saves controllers' time and the owner's money.
Concrete instead of theory: in a printing house near Gdynia, changing the method of checking sheets allowed a complaint from a large client for the amount of 43,500 PLN to be avoided. If we hadn't caught the error in machine setting in the first 15 minutes of the print run, the entire run would have gone to waste. Lean is not just a philosophy; it is hard protection of your profit against human errors.
Unused potential of people – a mistake worth 8,340 PLN
The last but often the most expensive error is ignoring employees' ideas. In May 2024, we spoke with Mr. Marek, who has worked in assembly for 11 years. He had a great idea on how to shorten frame assembly time by 4 minutes. Why didn't he report it? Because two years ago he heard from the manager: 'You're here for doing, not for thinking'. This one remark cost the company thousands of zlotys in unrealized efficiency.
The cost of recruitment and onboarding a new employee in today's reality is about 8,340 PLN. If people feel ignored, they leave for the competition for a 200 PLN higher salary. You then lose their knowledge and experience. At Baltic Bridge Consulting, we help build a culture where employees want to report improvements because they know it will make their work easier and will be appreciated.
Implementing an employee suggestion system in a logistics company in Gdańsk brought 37 concrete ideas during the first quarter of 2024. The total saving from these small changes was 21,200 PLN a year. This was money lying on the ground, and it was enough to reach for it and listen to the people who handle these processes every day.
We fix processes in factories, but we start with communication. If your people are afraid to admit a mistake, you will never learn why you are really losing money. We recover your profit by involving the smartest heads in the company – your own employees – in the optimization process. They are the ones who know best where the floor 'bleeds' cash.
Your employee knows more about your losses than the most expensive computer system. You just have to give them a chance to say it.
