Many Lean terms can trace their origins to Japan. Muda is one of those terms. It really translates to “wasteful activity”, but in common practice most people equate muda to waste. Since one of Lean’s main goals is reducing waste to improve flow, it is no surprise that muda has Read more…
Let’s talk a little about the waste of overprocessing. Anyone who has been around Lean for more than a day or so has dived into the seven wastes (eight with unused creativity thrown in). One of the wastes is the waste of overprocessing. The most common explanation given about overprocessing Read more…
Like the three rules of real estate—Location, Location, Location—continuous improvement has its own repetitive rules as well. Plus, there’s even a fourth one for good measure. By the way—muda is the Japanese word for wasteful activity, but in practice is used synonymously with waste. These rules are pretty simple. Muda. Muda. Muda. Read more…
A kanban card is small card containing information about a specific part used in production. It is a signal that tells someone upstream to move, purchase, or build more of a component for production. These cards must contain the number of units (items, pounds, kits, etc.) that need action. They Read more…
Let’s start out by assuming that you understand the definition of Lean standard work and are familiar with the three main documents for standard work. Armed with that basic information, you still have one big decision to make. Where do you start implementing Lean standard work? It can be overwhelming Read more…
A takt time calculator is simply a tool, usually a spreadsheet, with the takt time calculations already programmed in. It is most useful for people who don’t routinely calculate takt time. The takt time calculator should take people through all the steps of determining takt time. Get Our Takt Time Read more…
The 7 wastes is one of the most important continuous improvement terms you will hear. Most of the Lean tools, at their core, focus on reducing waste to improve flow. The seven wastes provide a systematic way to categorize problems and identify improvement priorities. When assessing a process, looking for Read more…
The definition of consistency (for Lean) is the ability to repeat a process over and over and get the same results every time. Although it is not exclusively a Lean term, consistency is a critical component of Standard Work. Why is it important to continuous improvement? Consistency in processes is Read more…
Processes are the bread and butter of continuous improvement. They are the series of linked actions (or steps, tasks, activities, operations, etc.) performed to reach a specific outcome. Processes take randomness and bring it to order. Imagine what would happen if nobody followed a process when driving. No process for Read more…
Where can you find some of the best Lean Six Sigma teams around? The people I’m thinking of don’t spend their day on the shop floor or in an office. They work on the deck of a boat. Surprisingly, a great example of Lean operations is on Discovery Channel’s hit Read more…
Demand windows are periods of time when customer demand is relatively stable. For slow growth or mature products, the window can be extremely long. For other products, demand windows can change seasonally (think water skis or snow shovels), hour-by-hour (think fast food), or can trend steeply up or down. In Read more…
Daily improvement is the strategy of making constant, incremental improvements each and every day in order see impressive long-term gains. While many people see kaizen as just a week-long event, it is much more powerful when an entire workforce engages in daily improvement efforts. Daily improvement does not have to Read more…