I heard an interesting comment about Standard Work the other day. A reader asked why someone just didn’t create a Standard Work document on writing a symphony so anyone could be a composer. It’s always hard to tell someone’s meaning on a short comment like that. It could be taken Read more…
In accounting, last-in, first-out (LIFO) is a method of recording inventory. It is used to manage earnings in inflationary times. A last-in, first-out inventory system records the most recent price of materials as the cost, thereby making earnings reflect current prices. As a result, the older items, purchased earlier when Read more…
Autonomy is the state of being competent and empowered to make decisions on one’s own. Self-directed or self-managed work teams are examples of autonomous groups. In the most effective application of these sorts of teams, workers own the process, rather than having supervisors or leads giving direction. This responsibility may Read more…
A functional layout is a workplace organization in which processes are organized by the type of work (function), rather than by value stream or in a cellular configuration where sequential process steps are located in close proximity. In a functional layout, for example, the cutting machines would be in one Read more…
Actually, this article really is about time. In Lean operations, there are many, many, many references to time. This is a comprehensive list of time terms you may run across in your continuous improvement travels. Please feel free to offer additional time terms in the comments section, and I’ll update Read more…
“Full-time equivalent”, or “FTE” is a way to normalize staffing decisions. In the modern workforce, particularly in administrative environments, employees perform multiple functions or don’t work standard 9-to-5 schedules. Using FTE to determine the size of the workforce assigned to a process makes accurate productivity and cost measures possible. A Read more…
The activity ratio is a measure of how quickly work moves through a process. It is simply the sum of the process times divided by the total lead time. For example, if the processing time was 30 minutes and the lead time was 2 hours, the activity ratio would be Read more…
In Lean, there are certainly some things that are open for debate. How aggressively to set goals, for example. When the criteria used to select a course of action are different for both sides, there is likely to be a disagreement. (See my recent video on using a decision matrix Read more…
Like many Japanese terms surrounding continuous improvement, there are several slight variations of translations of these three terms. In general, muda is the most commonly used of this group of terms. In practice, it has come to mean “waste”. Muda really means wasteful activity. Mura means the waste of inconsistency Read more…
The American National Standards Institute (ANSI) is a US government organization that coordinates the creation of voluntary national standards. It is the official US representative to the International Organization for Standardization (ISO). More detailed information is available at www.ansi.org. ANSI works towards promoting national standards. These standards help consumers in Read more…
Every conflict can be traced back to a gap in expectations. Every single one. Every time. I normally don’t make such definitive statements, but in this case, I am convinced. Every time I have ever had a dispute with someone, whether it was with my wife over who ate the Read more…
As I troll the Internet looking for juicy new Lean topics to sink my teeth into, I frequently come across questions from people asking about how to classify tasks as value-added or non value-added. Now, the concept of value-added and non value-added work is great. It is important to understand Read more…