175 – The benefits of lean manufacturing – James Stewart, Lean Practitioner

James Stewart is an experienced lean practitioner who has worked with Burberry and Fashion Enter to help streamline their manufacturing process.‘Lean’ is a method for producing products in smaller batches, closer to the customer, rather than making zillions of products overseas that no one wants to buy.Anyone that manufactures sustainably and locally in the UK, is in fact using some lean principles in their business, even if they aren’t aware that they are.In this episode James discusses the benefits of lean manufacturing, and how it can give UK manufacturers an advantage.Book mentioned in this episode: The Lean TurnaroundJames Stewart LinkedinDiscover: How James worked with Burberry to introduce Lean principles 05:11What Lean is and how companies can use it to make their business better for people and planet 06:54How Burberry cut its lead-times down by 90% in it's UK factory 11:05Why Inditex (owners of Zara) manufacture so much locally 16:22Advice James would give to any company for how they can use lean principles in their business to make a rapid change 27:21Stay in TouchBritish Brand Accelerator - Find out how you can work with me to build your British-made brandMake it British websiteJoin Make it British - become a member of our community and promote your business in our directory or UK-made brands and manufacturersMake it British on InstagramMake it British on YouTube - subscribe to my YouTube channel to watch many of the podcast episodes as videos.