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 [...]
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 [...]
Once again we see another data point on the trend. Why is “batching more efficient?” Simple – you haven’t solved the problems yet. Here is an ice cream shop that has no ice cream… until you order it. Does this shop surface the next layer of issues to solve? Certainly. But by thinking it is [...]
As of about 12:30 Pacific 11/4 there have been a couple of revisions, so be sure to download the latest. Mike Rother has released Version 12.0 of the Toyota Kata handbook on his website. The handbook, over the last few iterations, has become much more pragmatic (and practical). The information about the coaching process is [...]
Amazon.com’s competitive advantage over regular retail has typically been around good prices with the thing you are looking for being available. In essence, they are an online, extreme extension of the big box store. The downside has been that if you want it now, you have to either pay extra for expedited shipping, or get [...]
This video captures a crucial aspect of lean thinking – searching for the simple and elegant solution. We can’t say this is an obvious idea, a lot of very smart people have been working on this problem for decades. But it is a simple idea. Sometimes the search needs to be outside of the regular [...]
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 [...]
If you are in a production operation, be it a factory or even administration, take a look in your scrap bins (or trash cans). What you find there can be very informative. Is all scrap treated the same? In a lot of metal working operations, I see routine drop scrap mixed in with scrapped parts [...]
PC once again left a provocative post in the Lean Thinker’s Community, and gave us a link to this Tim Harford TED talk that drives home the point that learning and improvement is more about rapidly discovering things that don’t work than about designing things that do. Trial and Error Tom Wujec makes the same [...]
