We were down on the shop floor watching an assembly operation. The takt time was on the order of three hours. The assembler was new to the task, and the team leader periodically came by and asked if he was “doing OK.” The reply was always in the affirmative.
As the takt time wound down to [...]
Yesterday I told you the plan for today. Here is what really happened.
We got the even pitch going for a while. I was at the front of the line releasing units down the line as the pre-build Team Member was done with them. I was watching distance (since distance = time on a moving line). [...]
Operations that work to the “push” are well known for complex and interdependent problems. What looks like a problem in one area often has causes, or parts of causes, in other areas. Quality problems, delivery problems (late, too much, too little, wrong stuff), sub-optimizing attempts to reduce local cost.. all of these things propagate unchecked [...]
A few days ago I wrote about asking “What is your takt time?” and the likely responses to that question. But in my list of common responses, I left one out – “What’s the point? We get everything out by the time the truck leaves.”
Here’s a real-life example: In a high-volume consumer goods factory [...]