Kaizen is largely a drive toward stability – that is a more consistent operation, producing a more consistent result. The key is the definition of “consistent.” Overproduction is a way to achieve the illusion of consistency in the face of inherently unstable operations. Your machines are unreliable? Run faster when you can run. Inconsistent quality? [...]
I got an interesting email from a friend a while ago, and am finally finishing up this post about it. Some months ago, he joined a new company and wrote about his impressions of some of the legacy he was walking into: [before my arrival, the company] used Xxxxxx consultants to get their Lean effort [...]
Over the years, I have been party to at least three corporate-level efforts to bring “A3” or “Practical Problem Solving” into their toolbox. Sometimes it has other names, such as “Management by Fact” or such, but the approaches are all similar. Typically these efforts, if they catch on at all, become exercises in filling out [...]
This sub-assembly line had a planned cycle time of 15 minutes. The most skilled and experienced assembler could almost get all of the work done in that time, but generally, two people were required to consistently deliver without stopping the main line. Among other obstacles identified, the first assembly step was being done on a bench. This required the [...]
Past Due Hours This area was picked for the initial focus because they were way, way behind, and it was getting worse. The initial work was done in mid-April. The target was consistent output at takt time. As the team looked at the process, and identified the sources of disruption and variation, “changeovers” surfaced pretty [...]
Gosh, I guess it is a couple of weeks ago now (I’ve been up to my eyeballs in work), Gerd Aulinger posted this presentation up on the Lean Enterprise Institute’s “Kata” page: I’m obviously interested in your comments as I had some amount of input into the final product. For that, I would ask that [...]
“What is your target condition?” “One-by-one flow, meeting an 11 minute planned cycle time, with two people.” “What is your current condition now?” “We are making rate, but our lowest repeatable times add up to 28 minutes, and with that and the 32% variation we are seeing, we need 3 people on the line to [...]
The world continues to move toward meeting customer’s true demand of one of something, when they want it, where they want it. 3D printing is one area where we can see the beginnings of a disruptive technology curve. Laser printing has been around even longer. Books are an area where the traditional mass-printing model is under [...]
As I work in the field, I continue to encounter a desire to get right to optimal results – “Why aren’t we working to eliminate all of the waste?” Once people start seeing opportunities, there is a great temptation to try to simply engineer a new process and implement it. This is especially true in [...]
One of the challenges of teaching and consulting is resisting the temptation to give people the answers. Honestly, I like giving people the answers. It feels genuinely helpful, and it provides a nice ego boost. But according to this article on Time’s “Time Ideas” site by Anne Murphy Paul titled “ Why Floundering is Good,” [...]
