Asynchronous learning is the concept of teaching the same material to students at different times or places. It is also referred to as location independent learning. The format of this material can vary. It is commonly recorded video or audio programs but can be virtually any medium. Asynchronous learning does Read more…
What industries or types of companies benefit most from Lean? Lean is often thought of as being specifically for manufacturing. There is some truth to this if you think of Lean as a set of tools. Many of the tools are geared towards manufacturing. Kanban cards, SMED (Single Minute Exchange Read more…
Success at continuous improvement requires having a Lean infrastructure in place. This comes in two basic forms. There is the traditional view of infrastructure—the physical systems that support an operation. There is also the intellectual Lean infrastructure. This is the collection of knowledge, tools, documents, training materials, and the like Read more…
There is a pretty high failure rate with Lean. I’ve seen studies that said 76% of continuous improvement efforts under deliver, and I’ve heard anecdotal stories from Lean bloggers that claim upwards of 90% of implementations fail. The truth is that it is hard to pin down precise numbers, as Read more…
Most seasoned consultants look for warning signs when they try to help a company that is early on its continuous improvement journey. Creating a continuous improvement culture is extremely challenging. In its infancy, it is hard to build momentum, and easy to get derailed. Some of the ‘tells’ of a Read more…
There are 6 big losses of OEE (Overall Equipment Effectiveness). 6 Big Losses Breakdowns Setup and Minor Adjustment Idling and Minor Stoppages Reduced Speed Defects and Rework Startup Loss Each of these losses saps a small portion of potential production you could be getting from your machines. Total productive maintenance Read more…
Most processes are governed by a basic transfer function, Y=f(x). It is pronounced “y equals f of x.” Y is the output, or “dependent variable”. X is the input (or inputs). Essentially, there are some input parameters that affect the output. When you change one of the input variables, you Read more…
Tolerance stackup is the cumulative effect of the components of a product being skewed towards the same side of the specification limits. Tolerance is the range between the lower specification limit and the upper limit of a part. Imagine you have a product that lines three or four or more Read more…
Error proofing, also referred to as mistake proofing or poka yoke, is the art of building processes that make it nearly impossible to make a specific mistake. Error proofing is targeted at specific errors—they are not general in nature. This concept is predicated upon the concept that errors cause defects. Read more…
Nominal data is a type of qualitative data. It contains a set of possible values that has no measurable sequence to them. For example, “favorite pet” would be nominal data set. The values might include dog, cat, snake, frog, and horse. While most people would agree that dogs rank much Read more…
DPMO is the abbreviation for defects per million opportunities. It is a metric commonly used in six sigma. Presumably, if you are engaged in an active process improvement effort, you will have made (or will eventually) make significant improvements to your quality. For that reason, it can be difficult to Read more…
On our Kaizen Charter, we devote quite a bit of space at the top of the form to the problem statement. This should be a good indicator as to the importance we place on it. A good kaizen problem statement serves two main purposes. The first is that it creates Read more…