Shojinka

Shojinka is a form of flexible manufacturing, where the number of workers vary to match demand requirements. This is obviously superior to a static system that staffs work areas without consideration for fluctuations in production requirements. Being able to reassign people to exactly where they are needed will help keep Read more…

Setup Time

Setup time is the time it takes to reconfigure a machine to run a different part. Setup consists of two basic categories. Internal setup time. This type of setup time requires that a machine be shut down to do the tasks required to get ready for a different product. This Read more…

Side Effects of Lean

While Lean and other continuous improvement efforts can make impressive changes in an organization, there are often some unintended side effects. The Lean side effects include: Possible accounting issues. The dramatic changes in inventory and the way costs are applied can be disruptive to financial documents. In some cases, it Read more…

SWAG

SWAG is an acronym, likely originating in the US Army, for “scientific wild-ass guess”. It is used to describe a hypothesis or decision that is based on a small amount of factual evidence, but nowhere near enough to have certainty. Any organization with a fast pace of change, at some Read more…

Stability

The term stability is the tendency of something to keep its current state. The opposite of stability is Lean operations is variation, or the state of things fluctuating wildly, or drifting away from normal. Stable processes tend to not only produce high quality outputs, but also do it in a Read more…

Status Quo

The status quo is defined as the current or existing state or condition. In plain English, it is how things are today. There is an old adage that the definition of insanity is doing things the same way and expecting different results. Getting better requires that something is done differently. Read more…

Standardization

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…

Stakeholders

Stakeholders are the people that are vested in the outcome of something. They are not necessarily people who actually do the process, but they do have some skin in the game. Stakeholders that are indirectly affected by a process frequently have a negative effect from the change. In many cases, Read more…