Waiting is one of the seven wastes first introduced by Taiichi Ohno, and still commonly used in modern Lean. Wait time is particularly bad because it consumes a non-renewable resource, and an important one at that: Time. Waiting occurs for a variety of reasons. People often wait for a machine Read more…
Workstations are exactly what they sound like. They are the locations where work is completed. In a non-Lean environment, workstations tend to be assigned to individuals, lack standardization, and often are very general in design. For example, a company may have a standard 6-foot-long workbench with a shelf above it Read more…
A water spider or ”mizusumashi” in Japanese (see our listing of Japanese Lean terms), is a person who has a prescribed set of tasks to keep materials in stock at the point of use in production areas. NOTE: The water spider is alternately called a water strider. This differs from Read more…
Work instructions are the specific details on how to do a job. They go hand-in-hand with Standard Work. Standard Work lays out the big picture sequence of the work; work instructions spell out the step-by-step methods used to do a job. Work instructions are characterized by: Pictures of how work Read more…
A workaround is an unofficial or temporary fix for a problem. In effect, it is an admission that the issue cannot be immediately resolved, and a patchwork fix is put in place. Workarounds are not intended to be permanent fixes but have a tendency to be left in place longer 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…
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…