Kaizen is a Japanese word that roughly translates to “change for the good”. Many people equate this to putting together a team of people from several work areas to do a week-long project to reduce waste or improve a process’s flow. These projects may be called a kaizen blitz, a Read more…
Taiichi Ohno divided waste up into seven forms. Since then, there have been several other versions of the categories of waste (CLOSED MITT, for example). As a refresher…. The Categories of Waste Defects Overprocessing Transportation Motion Waiting Inventory Overproduction Why the Categories of Waste Don’t Matter Breaking waste into categories Read more…
The waste recording form is a simple tool for documenting waste during a process walk. The observer focuses on identifying the wasteful activities a person is performing and records them on the form. The form will usually contain a place to categorize the waste. Waste reduction is a large part Read more…
I’m a fan of The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. Recently Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger (the ‘Hero of the Hudson’) was a guest on the show. Jon Stewart brought up a part of Sully’s book (Highest Duty: My Search for What Really Matters) where Sully had mentioned that his copilot had Read more…
A pull system (or pull production) is one in which items are only made, transferred, shifted, withdrawn, etc., when there is demand from a downstream customer. This sharply contrasts from a push system in which the downstream actions have no impact on what the upstream process is producing. Pull systems Read more…
Lean often uses the analogy of running water. Making products move quickly and effortlessly is described as flow. Flow is often likened to straightening out a meandering river into a smooth, straight channel. The processes that get those products and services to the customer are known as the value stream. Read more…
Lean makes extensive use of the term flow. As a result, one of the most common teaching analogies Lean practitioners use is that of a meandering river being slowly but surely turned into a deep, straight, fast moving channel. That flow starts at the supplier and finishes at the customer. Read more…
Standard Work is one of the core tools for Lean. It is most appropriate for use in repetitive, shop floor work areas, but can be modified to be used effectively in less structured work flows as well as in the office. Standard work has three main components. A prescribed sequence Read more…
Just a quick tip today. Part of being successful at Lean is in developing a bag of tricks that you can reach into when a given situation presents itself. So, what do you do when you see an operator spin a product around (or lean over it) to check something Read more…
Lean is successful in large part because of its focus on the customer. It puts a great deal of emphasis on the concept of value. Value Stream Maps and the practice of distinguishing value-added and non-value added activities both immediately come to mind. ‘Voice of the customer’ (VOC) also helps Read more…
Inventory is the collective term for finished goods that you intend to sell, and the components that go into those goods. Inventory is a necessary evil of production. Without inventory, nothing could be built, and nothing could be sold. But too much inventory drives up costs. Inventory must be stored, Read more…
How much do you think it would cost to take pictures at the edge of space? You might guess tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars. But you’d be wrong. With some basic problem solving skills and a little dash of creativity, your price tag would come out to $148. Read more…