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Hank Czarnecki’s students may not remember his name, but years later, they do remember he’s the boss, the know-it-all owner of Buzz Electronics Enterprises and their make-believe employer for an afternoon.

Czarnecki, an instructor with the Auburn University’s Technical Assistance Center (ATAC), uses the boss and dysfunctional Buzz Enterprises as part of an interactive course to show businesses how Lean Continuous Improvement system can improve performance.

“Companies are doing everything they can right now to be competitive and stay in business,” Mitch Emmons, ATAC’s senior outreach associate, said. “We have helped companies all over the state and across the Southeast.”

ATAC, an outreach unit in the College of Business, works with Industries, businesses, and some nonprofits to improve efficiency and process.

Lean and other ATAC programs are based on the Toyota production system pioneered by Edward Deming, Emmons said.

“You try to take waste out of the system or reduce it, and then you standardize it,” Emmons said.

Tim Beasley, human resources manager at Briggs & Stratton, said Lean has to be more than an afternoon of training. It must be cultural.

“I think it has to be that way,” he said. “It can’t be the program of the month. It’s got to be a program and methodology that you adopt.”

Briggs has implemented Lean at all its engine manufacturing locations, Beasley said.

“The biggest impact is we have a more structured approach to process improvement,” he said. “You really start by looking at a lots of simple processes you take for granted.”

Specifically, Lean seeks to reduce defects, overproduction, waiting, excessive transportation, inventory, unnecessary motion and extra processing.

Friday, Czarnecki was at Hoerbiger Automotive Comfort Systems in Auburn.

Kimberly Couch, human resources manager for the auto parts

supplier which makes hydraulic arms, said the training focused on employees working in production logistics re-work areas.

Past Lean training led to repositioning machines to reduce the time and manpower for various jobs, Couch said.

“Instead of two employees, a job could be done by one,” she said. “Not that we want to eliminate people, but we can use those people in different areas more efficiently.”

That’s the beauty of Lean, Emmons said.

“You can take the philosophy of waste reduction and elimination and apply it to any process,” Emmons said.

To illustrate how Lean works, Hoerbiger students became Buzz employees scrambling to build, test and transport security panels by deadline.

The panels, made from metal springs, diodes, LEDs and resistors stuck in acrylic peg boards, simulate the complexities of manufacturing — everything from paperwork to inventory.

“It’s a bit of real life,” Czarnecki said.

It’s meant to be chaotic, and afterwards, the group dissected what went wrong, Emmons said. By the last simulation, things are usually much more efficient.

“The ultimate goal is to build a product just as the customer needs it,” Emmons said. “What you are trying to do is never have (excess) inventory. We strive for it, but we really never get there.”