Most continuous improvement efforts, either directly or indirectly, are centered on improving flow. Flow is the condition where work moves from one process to the next without stopping. Improving flow means taking out all the efficiencies that keep that continuous movement smooth and direct. When flow doesn’t exist, it is Read more…
Queue time is a very specific form of waiting, one of the traditional seven wastes. It occurs when a person or item is in line behind something else and is waiting for the same resource. Queue time occurs in two basic flavors. There is the time spent by the customer Read more…
One of the jobs of a leader in a Lean environment is to push teams to embrace a continuous improvement culture. The often entails asking the team to try to implement one of the Lean tools in a work area. On occasion, the tool they the boss recommends is not Read more…
Production glitches and line stops are a fact of life. The better your team gets, the less frequent and shorter they stoppages are, but they will always occur. Even great teams are constantly working to make processes better. Sometimes, this is done by removing safety nets to see where the Read more…
Continuous improvement is built around the PDCA, or plan-do-check-act cycle. Unfortunately for many people, they are not used to the “check” step. As a result, they often feel micromanaged and untrusted when the boss comes into the area to see how things are progressing.
Lines are a fact of life. They result from a company trying to keep the costs of providing its services in check in the face of fluctuations in customer demand. With enough resources to handle spikes, companies never make customers wait. Of course, profit would drop significantly because employees would Read more…
There is a fine line between wanting new equipment and needing new equipment. One of the best examples is computers. Every 15 minutes or so, a breakthrough in computing power happens, and the equipment you are using becomes obsolete. But upgrading with each new release is too expensive. The flip Read more…
Standardization is the act of establishing a specified condition, process, or practice. It is a very general, blanket term which covers a variety of ways to add consistency to whatever is being standardized. Standardization is one of the most important concepts in continuous improvement because it provides a stable platform Read more…
SOPs are instructions that describe how to behave in a particular situation. SOP stands for standard operating procedure, or, alternatively, standing operating procedure though the latter term is falling out of use. Both are generally used interchangeably. An SOP should be documented. Informal SOPs exist but, more often than not, Read more…
In a well-run Lean organization, leaders are frequently present on the shop floor. They will be likely to engage with you and ask lots of questions about specific things that they see. They will also probably ask the open-ended “How are things going?” question. You can brush it off with Read more…
A few years ago when my daughter was in preschool, her teacher sent home a stack of materials to use for classroom decorations. Naturally, I pretended to have a pressing deadline to prepare for, so the work fell to my wife. The task was to use the accompanying box of Read more…
You are close to a process, and think you know what the evidence and facts & data is telling you. Your boss, though, may come up with a different conclusion about what is going on. How you present your evidence goes a long way toward reconciling your positions.