Handoffs occur when work is passed from one person to another person. In most cases, a handoff entails reorienting the work and getting it ready to add value to it. Handoffs in manufacturing act a little like speed bumps. They create hiccups in the flow of work. When a handoff is disjointed, the effect is bigger. Think of putting parts into a cart that sits in a queue, that then has to be wheeled over Read more…
Preventing errors is one of the ways Lean helps reduce waste. Before we talk about preventing errors, let’s first talk about what errors are. They are the gap between what happened and what should have happened. Simply put they are mistakes. Errors link to defects. Every defect that is identified can be tied to some error in an upstream process. It might be a supplier error, but it is still an error. Obviously, preventing errors Read more…
Conflict is the state of disagreement or opposition. Conflict is a normal part of any Lean effort. When a process is changed, people invariably have differing opinions about the best way to fix things. In some cases, there is even conflict about whether something is even a problem. Conflict is managed in a few ways. The first is by using a healthy dose of facts and data. It is hard to argue with “12”. “A Read more…
Complacency is the state of being content with achievements while simultaneously being unaware of the pending dangers. One of the greatest risks successful Lean companies face is complacency. They make massive gains, and become highly competitive in their markets. Then they become complacent and rest on their laurels while the competition makes progress. Many companies embrace Lean in a time of crisis, but when they are out of the woods, complacency sets in. The key Read more…
The term ‘best practice’ is commonly used to describe a standout process that is the best known way to do something. ‘Best practice’ is really a misnomer. There is no such thing as a ‘best’ practice—only a ‘best known practice’. The term itself goes contrary to the whole premise of continuous improvement—that things can always be made better. Don’t let yourself get complacent because you come up with a ‘best practice’. At one point, the Read more…
Employee backups are the people who fill in when the regular operator is absent. Having backups implies something. It means that the team has regularly assigned positions and does little or no job rotation. In great Lean companies, standard work is in full force and people rotate in and out of positions regularly. This reduces the need for backups because there are already many people cross–trained for each work area. Backups have two big drawbacks. Read more…
Flat surfaces are bad for work areas. They collect dirt, dust, debris, etc. They don’t support processes. People use them for storage. Work hard to eliminate flat surfaces in work areas. Flat surfaces collect debris. They collect dust. They collect extra parts, extra tools, extra equipment, extra Work-In-Process (WIP). If there are no flat surfaces, there are no flat surfaces to clean. And there is no place to put extra materials, WIP, etc. Obviously, don’t Read more…
I frequently like to unwind by playing some basketball at a local gym. Actually, to be a little more accurate, I play something that is vaguely recognizable as basketball. You’d think that with my years of experience at process improvement, I’d learn how to fix my jump shot. The other day, my wife asked me about the rules for these pickup games. I hadn’t really put much thought into it before then, but it got me Read more…
Safety is freedom from injury and harm. The most obvious freedom is from immediate bodily injury. Safety switches, gate, guards, etc. help provide this, as does proper training and well-designed processes. Safety also includes freedom from chronic conditions that accumulate over time. This includes things like repetitive stress injuries, and long-term exposure to toxins. The less commonly considered aspect of safety, though, is the freedom from stress. There are real, scientifically proven health risks to Read more…
Intelligence is one of the many facets of “smartness”. Intelligence is the capacity to learn, but it doesn’t always translate into actually possessing knowledge. Having the capacity to learn does not mean that one has actually learned. Intelligence is a highly valued trait in Lean, as continuous improvement works best in a learning organization—one that assesses shortcomings and seeks understanding about why problems happened. People are also often asked to use new tools or work Read more…
I saw a story today about an accidental email that informed nearly 29,000 applicants to a California university that they had been accepted. The problem was that they hadn’t. The news report focused on the impact this error had on the prospective students. While their experience was far from fun, there is another group that will feel a much greater effect for a much longer time. The team working in the admissions office will be dealing with Read more…
There are two ways to look at the term “bias”. The first is the technical, statistical meaning. It is the systematic error component, or the difference between what the observed value is and what the actual value is. You might have selection bias in which a non-representative sample is chosen. You might have a bias in the estimators that you use. Or you may have a bias in any of a number of other factors Read more…
