Not that many years ago, people could choose not to use computers. In fact, many people did not have access to a computer at home or at work. But things have changed. According to Statista, as of 2019, 89.3% of US households have a computer. And many of the last 10% likely have access to a computer some other way—through work or via a friend or relative. What this means is that computers are no Read more…
Complexity is the state of having many interconnected parts. It is anything that has a lot of intricacy to it. The word has a negative connotation to it in Lean. So, what is excessive complexity from a Lean perspective? It is adding more to a process than is needed. It is adding 3 steps when 2 will suffice. Keep the acronym KISS (“Keep it simple, stupid”) in mind when developing Lean processes. It is a Read more…
The Lean office is the result of the progression of Lean from the shop floor to the office environment. It was logical and inevitable that continuous improvement would move from the assembly line to create the Lean office. Why? A significant portion of a manufacturing company costs are administrative. And, of course, service organizations also needed an effective way to improve their operations as well. The Lean office is to administrative process what Lean manufacturing Read more…
Continuous improvement focuses on cost reduction—the actual dollar savings that increase profit. The term “savings”, though, has many nuances to it. Hard savings vs. soft savings. Hard savings are the ones with a specific invoice, credit card statement, or payroll expense associated with it. Soft savings are the ones that are harder to measure directly—improved job satisfaction, lower turnover, less absenteeism, etc. Because soft savings are hard to measure, they are often ignored when assessing Read more…
Profit is the pile of money that is left over after all the bills are paid and the costs are tallied. There are many different types of profit for accounting purposes (net profit, gross profit, EBITDA). The ultimate goal of any company is to make a profit. It is not to serve customers. It is not to be good corporate citizens. It is not to create jobs and generate employee job satisfaction. Those are all Read more…
When we think of process improvement, our minds often jump immediately to what the business is doing to fill a customer’s needs. We are not as good at looking at the steps the user takes. Is customer value added every time the product is used? A case in point. I saw this kiosk at the airport recently. I think it is a great idea. It is a quick charging station for electronic devices. Very handy Read more…
Airports and government agencies give such great opportunities for Lean blog articles. Despite the abundance of topics where I could point out problems, I have to say there are lots of positive changes I see in the face of challenging regulations and stressed customers. For example, story after story comes out about how the TSA did something wrong. In my flight through Seatac a few days ago, though, I had a great experience with security. Read more…
Rework is the act of correcting a defect. Rework is obviously waste, and can be avoided by eliminating the root cause of the problem. The further downstream rework is done from where the error originally occurred, the more the problem costs to correct. Rework is most commonly initiated after an inspection identifies the issue. Repetitive rework should be a red flag to permanently fix a problem, often with a poka yoke device. Even if the Read more…
Call centers are simply clusters of people answering phones for a particular purpose. It might be to provide information, as in a hotline for a recall. It could be for placing orders, for technical support, or for customer service. Call centers can be inbound, where customers are calling in, or outbound, where the organization is calling the customer, such as for sales, or to promote political candidates. Call centers deserve a great deal of emphasis. Read more…
Fabrication is the act of taking raw stock material and turning it into a part for use in an assembly process. There are many different types of fabrication processes. The most common are Cutting Folding Machining Punching Shearing Stamping Welding Additive Manufacturing Watch Our Fabrication Video Let’s look at the types of fabrication processes in greater detail here: Cutting. There are many ways to cut nowadays. The old standby is the saw. Others now include Read more…
A gauge is a measuring device. A gauge can be as simple as a piece of string cut to a specific dimension or a cutout of an animated character with an outstretched arm and the caption, “You must be this tall to ride this attraction.” On the other end of the sensitivity spectrum, a gauge can be a calibrated pressure sensing device or a laser measuring device. In any event, the gauge compares an actual Read more…
A line shift is a synchronized movement of all the production work on an assembly line. It can be done in several ways. Manually, in which each person pushes their work to the next station on a signal. On an indexed moving line, in which the line moves and then stops. The movement may be triggered manually, or automatically. On a continuously moving line, in which the movement of the work units never stops. Rather, Read more…