63 buckets63 bucketsLean manufacturing and the Toyota Production System Articles
please update your RSS feeds
2007-06-04 18:02:00 Can I please ask all my readers to update their RSS feeds? My new site is learnsigma.com More About: Update , Lease , Ease
Update your links/bookmarks to leansigma.wordpress.com
2007-05-20 19:01:00 I'm in the process of migrating this blog over to the following address: leansigma.wordpress.comNew posts will appear on leansigma.wordpress.com and not here! Please update your bookmarks and links. More About: Wordpress , Links , Update , Mark , Marks
Which of the 5S is hardest and why?
2007-05-19 18:05:00 I recently entered a competition over at the excellent gembapantarei which posed the question, "which of the 5S is hardest and why?". Well, the winners have been announced but my own personal suggestion was:the most difficult "S" is Sustain: (Shitsuke). Unless a Lean philosophy has been adopted then a 5S activity will not be repeated and will therefore not become part of the culture. Change is difficult for most people and people tend to slip back into their own habits. Dee agreed with me, but Ron over at Lean Six Sigma Academy suggested:While it is not an official "s" in the 5S line-up the hardest one to master is without a doubt - start. You see starting does not mean go and have a company wide 5S thrust event where everyone cleans up their desks. Instead it means to start having a kaizen mentality whereby every associate is empowered and expected to think about how 5S should not just start... but never end.The main thing is to avoid L.A.M.E. (Lean As Misguidedly Executed) because...
Seven Steps to 3P Heaven
2007-05-16 18:03:00 There's a tool which is used within Lean but doesn't get the recognition it deserves. It's 3Ps, which stands for:. production. preparation, and. process.How does 3P work?Seven steps to getting 3P to installed in your company are:Define Product or Process Design Objectives/Needs: The team seeks to understand the core customer needs that need to be met. If a product or product prototype is available, the project team breaks it down into component parts and raw materials to assess the function that each plays.Diagraming: A fishbone diagram or other type of illustration is created to demonstrate the flow from raw material to finish product. The project team then analyzes each branch of the diagram (or each illustration) and brainstorms key words (e.g., roll, rotate, form, bend) to describe the change (or "transformation") made at each branch.Find and Analyze Examples in Nature: The project team then tries to find examples of each process keyword in the natural world. For example, for... More About: Heaven , Step , Steps
Toyota Production System Quiz
2007-05-14 13:40:00 From Wikipedia:The Toyota Production System (TPS) (トヨタ生産方式) is the philosophy which organizes manufacturing and logistics at Toyota, including the interaction with suppliers and customers. The TPS is a major part of the more generic Lean manufacturing. It was largely created by the founder of Toyota, Sakichi Toyoda, his son Kiichiro Toyoda, and the engineer Taiichi Ohno; they drew heavily on the work of W. Edwards Deming and the writings of Henry Ford. But how much do you really know about the Toyota Production System ?Take this quiz and add your results below ... no cheating!image credittoyotatoyota production systemTPSlean manufacturingquizTurbo Tagger More About: Quiz
Environmental 5S
2007-05-12 19:48:00 How can 5S contribute to helping the environment? Well ...Painting the machines and the equipment light colors and cleaning the windows, often done under the Shine pillar, decreases energy needs associated with lighting.Painting and cleaning makes it easier for workers to notice spills or leaks quickly, thereby decreasing spill response. This can significantly reduce waste generation from spills and clean-up.The removal of obstacles and the marking of main thoroughfares decreases the potential of accidents that could lead to spills and associated hazardous waste generation (e.g., spilled material, absorbent pads and clean up materials).Regular cleaning, as part of the Shine pillar, decreases the accumulation of cuttings, shavings, dirt, and other substances that can contaminate production processes and result in defects. Reduction in defects has significant environmental benefits (e.g., avoided materials, wastes, and energy needed to produce the defective output; avoided need to dis... More About: Environmental , Menta , Iron , Envi
Toyotas Success Benefits Consultants
2007-05-04 15:02:00 Apparently,A cheer went up last week because Toyota (TM) sold more cars and trucks than General Motors (GM). The cheer obviously did not erupt from the U.S. auto industry.Rather, it came from the industry of experts and consultants who sell the no-waste business regimen known as lean manufacturing, a regimen that is popular due almost entirely to Toyota's success.The publicity about Toyota becoming No. 1 will create another burst of energy to lean, even though a survey by management consulting firm Bain shows that just 19% of companies that have tried it are happy with the results, says Mark Gottfredson, Bain's head of performance improvement.Hmm, I wonder if the companies who are not happy with the results realize that:The tools themselves, however, are not the point, nor the purpose of Lean. The tools are merely a means to an end, and a clear understanding of the end is crucial to success with Lean. Because many people like “silver bullet” solutions, however, use of the tool... More About: Success , Ants , Bene , Benefits , Consultants
Applying Occam's Razor to Lean
2007-05-03 18:02:00 Occam's razor is a principle attributed to the 14th century logician and Franciscan friar; William of Occam. The principle states that "Entities should not be multiplied unnecessarily." It's sometimes written as: "when you have two competing theories which make exactly the same predictions, the one that is simpler is the better."Lean projects are complex, and everything from a lack of funds, to a lack of staffing, to a lack of time and focus can be blamed for failures. Nevertheless, striving for the simplest possible solutions in a project is one of the drivers of success. Consider this example:It is one of the largest computing projects on the planet, arguably employing more computers than any other single, fully managed system (we're not counting distributed computing projects here), some 200 computer science PhDs, and 600 other computer scientists.And it is all hidden behind a deceptively simple, white, Web page that contains a single one-line text box and a button that says ... More About: Lying , Razor
Top ten ways to make money out of lean
2007-04-27 22:11:00 Here are the top ten ways to make money out of lean, based on a very unscientific and incomplete survey of several sources.This may be of use to you but I'm more of a Theory Y (or even Z) man myself! Theory Z beingWilliam Ouchi studied management practices in the United States and Japan and developed Theory Z. Theory Z combines elements of both U.S. and Japanese management styles and is sometimes called Japanese Management. It assumes that the best management style involves employees at all levels of the organization. Specific characteristics included in Theory Z are long-term employment, less specialized career paths, informal control, group decision making, and concern for the individual rises above work-related issues. This theory satisfies both lower order and higher order needs. Looking out for employees' well being satisfies the lower-level needs. Incorporating group processes in decision making satisfy middle-level needs and encouraging employees to take responsibility for ... More About: Money , Make Money , Lean , Make
What not to ask presidential candidates
2007-04-25 22:00:00 What is your plan for Iraq? At every press conference, interview and fund-raising event, the presidential candidates are all asked this same pointless question. And it's pointless because next to nothing can be done to salvage Iraq. The US no longer has the capacity to determine the outcome of that country's civil war, so to ask candidates how they would fix it is merely to invite them to fudge and dissemble. Instead we should be asking President Bush's would-be successors whether they can do what he cannot: acknowledge failure in Iraq and look beyond it. Iraq, after all, was meant to be just the starting point of an open-ended global war on terror. Candidate s who still find merit in that original cause should explain how we might prevail in such an enterprise in the wake of the Iraq fiasco. Where might we fight next? What will victory look like? Candidates who are sceptical of further military action, meanwhile, should be pressed to describe their alternative plans for dealing w... More About: Presidential , Side , Resident
Integration in Glasgow
2007-04-25 21:50:00 Since 2000, the Government has dispersed hundreds of asylum seekers to the poorest areas of Glasgow . The tabloids would have you believe the scheme has been a disaster an impression strengthened by the recent assault on an Algerian woman and her baby in the city. But the reality is very different. When the asylum seekers first arrived, there were racial tensions and the usual myths about incomers getting free refrigerators. Over time, however, locals and asylum seekers began to interact. People came to see that their new neighbours, forbidden to work and forced to live beneath the official poverty line, didn't have it so easy after all. They also witnessed at close hand the tactics of dawn raids, as police battered down the doors of asylum seekers and dragged children from their beds. This offended locals so much that, last October, 150 of them joined arms in the streets to stop the police from carrying out another such raid. Far from exacerbating the social problems of Glasgow's ... More About: Integration , Integra
Nemawashi and Nominal Group Technique
2007-04-24 13:50:00 The Japanese have very different ways of conducting meetings or gaining consensus on an idea. This is termed Nemawashi and it is an informal process of talking to the people concerned, gathering support and feedback, so before a formal meeting starts, participants have already drawn conclusions regarding information to be presented at the meeting. The original meaning of the word is to smooth around roots before planting.Whilst we may no be able to emulate this culture, we can use a methodology called Nominal Group Technique (NGT) to gain consensus; this is a structured method for group brainstorming that encourages contributions from everyone.When should a team use NGT?When a team needs to create a list of options and rank them, using NGT effectively neutralizes the domination of the loudest person, or the person with the most authority, over the decision-making process. This tool can also help a team achieve consensus about the relative importance of issues. The final result may n... More About: Wash , Ique , Nique
So that's what lean is about?
2007-04-13 17:50:00 Don't just focus on the results of TPS without understanding how these results were achieved. Perhaps this will assist: More About: Lean , That
Value Added Wilfing?
2007-04-11 13:53:00 How much "value-added" time do you spend surfing the web? "Wilfing" - or surfing the web without any real purpose has become an epidemic.more than two-thirds of the 33.7 million internet users in the UK admit to at least the occasional "wilf" (a term derived from the phrase "what was I looking for?"), while browsing the internet.In fact millions of Brits and Australians are surfing the web aimlessly, losing an average of two full working days per month.Not only does it affect relationships at home, not wanting to - or being unable to - engage with the family but“If people Wilf at work, it could be they are bored with their job or that they work in a culture of such long hours that it is not the done thing to be seen to be leaving the office at 5pm. “To combat the tendency to wilf“Set yourself a specific surfing goal and time limit to keep on track. Set pop-up blockers on your PC to save you being distracted. And when you’re buying things online, think about using online ser... More About: Value
Takt Time Demystified!
2007-04-10 11:27:00 What is Takt Time ?Takt time can be defined as the maximum time allowed to produce a product in order to meet demand. It is derived from the German word taktzeit which translates to clock cycle. The pace of production flow would then be set based on this takt time. Product flow is expected to fall within a pace that is less than or equal to the takt time. In a lean manufacturing environment, the pace time is set equal to the takt time. A similar but alternative definition can be found here How is Takt Time established?The customers buying rate establishes Takt Time. It's the rate at which the customer buys your product. It is calculated as follows:The net available production time (the amount of time available for work to be done. This excludes break times and any expected stoppage time) divided by customer demand. It provides the heartbeat of a lean production system.Improving Takt Time Takt time isn’t “improved.” Cycle time is improved. Takt time is the amount of time “a... More About: Myst
The Toyota Way - 14 Management Principles From The World's Greatest Manufac
2007-04-09 12:12:00 Scribd is a free online library where anyone can add documents, and clearly someone has taken this literally and decided to upload, "The Toyota Way - 14 Mana gement Principles From The World's Greatest Manu facturer" hereSurely this breaks copyright?lean manufacturingTPSToyotaToyota Waylean production Toyota Production SystemTurbo Tagger More About: Test
Do you REALLY understand Kanban?
2007-04-06 09:22:00 According to Wikipedia:Seth Godin ( GO-din) is an author of business books and speaker of the late 1990s to the present.Type Seth Godin into Google brings over 1.5 million results. So, clearly an influential individual. In a recent post he says the following in relation to kanban:In Japanese car factories, this is called kanban. You trade production efficiencies for quality. If a part isn't perfect, the worker refuses to install it. And the entire assembly line stops. Detroit was horrified by this idea. Keeping the assembly line going is the holy grail. Guess what? The line doesn't get stopped very often. Things get better, fast.However, over at TPM Log Mike has something to say about this:What we have here is a person who, for unknown reasons, decided to try to get his point across by using and defining a term he has no understanding of, with a definition he ignored from a source that did not do a great job defining it in the first place.He continues ....We all have a difficult e... More About: Real , Understand , Really , Under , Stand
The Toyota Way - Part 3
2007-04-01 12:29:00 This post continues my summary of the The Toyota Way by Dr Jeff K. Liker.Principle 3: Use the “Pull-System” to Avoid Over ProductionThe pull-system hinges on the idea of restocking inventory based on the day-to day demand of the customers rather than on a fixed schedule or system. This calls for a flexible system that relies on consumer demand. The Just-in-Time (JIT) system provides customers with what they want, when they want it and in the amount they want it. Material restocking based on consumption minimizes work in process and warehousing of inventory. You only stock small amounts of each product and frequently replenish based on what the customer actually takes away.Principle 4: Level out theWorkload (heijunka)A strict build-to-order system builds a lot of inventory, over-head cost, poorer product and service quality and hidden problems. To eliminate this problem, Toyota came up with a scheme of leveling out the production schedule. The leveling of production by volume an... More About: Part , Part 3 , The Toyota Way
Andon systems
2007-03-30 15:03:00 In 'ancient' Japan, Andon was a paper lantern (a handy vertically collapsible paper lampshade with an open top and a candle placed at the central section of the closed bottom). To the ancient Japanese, Andon functioned as a flashlight, a signaling device in distance, or even a commercial sign.However, now:Andon - is an visual (and often auditory) process cue. For example a light that signals all is well (green light), when stock is running low (or a machine is nearing time for service) (yellow light) and when a machine is down or stock is empty (red light).An Andon system is one of the principle elements of the Jidoka quality-control method. It gives the worker the ability to stop production when a defect is found, and immediately call for assistance. Common reasons for manual activation of the Andon are part shortage, defect created or found, tool malfunction, or a safety problem exists. Work is stopped until a solution has been found out. The alerts may be logged to a database s... More About: Systems , Stem
Lean -v- US Culture
2007-03-24 11:40:00 Note: to embed the video clip the formatting in this post may be slightly "off". Here's (listen to it here) an interesting non-maufacturing example of lean implementation.Entitled, "Suit Maker Goes 'Lean ' to Keep Jobs in U.S." the articleprovides an overview of how Joseph Abboud employ Lean to making men'stailored clothing. There is no magic to lean manufacturing. Under the old system, employees stitched pieces on their own. In a lean system, they work in teams, rapidly moving fabric through a circuit. They are also trained in various skills, so if pieces back up, they can jump to another job.It appears to be working as: Last year, the factory increased production, and sales are up 15 percent.But not everyone's a fan: Sanchez preferred working alone at her own speed. Now, she's part of a team. And if she doesn't move fast enough, other workers give her a hard time, because it affects everyone's pay. "It was just me doing a bundle. And I used to finish the bundle, tie it up ... More About: Culture
Standardized work for your closet
2007-03-23 08:01:00 I've written aboutstandardized work before. As a reminder: Humans are great atadaptability but lousy at consistency. Operators develop 'bestpractices' that are used to make production more efficient andhopefully easier. Many companies hold Kaizen Events to promote andbuild new and better ways of thinking and operating. Stand ardized Work is an agreed upon set of work procedures that establish the best methodand sequences for each process. It defines the interaction of peopleusing processes to produce a product. Image employing the following asa standard for putting clothes away! Tags: standardized+work More About: Anda , Closet
Kansei Engineering: incorporating affection & emotion into the design p
2007-03-22 13:56:00 Kansei is a Japanese term where the syllable kan means sensitivity and sei means sensibility, together it addresses the psychological feeling or image of a product. It is used to express the quality of an object for producing pleasure through its use taking into account subjective issues (emotion, affect, perceptions, sensations...) in user experience. It is sometimes referred to as "sensory engineering" or even "emotional usability."The method was invented in the 1970s by Professor Mitsuo Nagamachi (Dean of Hiroshima International University). He recognized that companies often want to assess the customer’s impression of their products. Kansei Engineer ing can "measure" the feelings and shows the relationship to certain product properties. Consequently, products can be designed to incorporate the intended feeling. But, which parameters influence these impressions? Kansei Engineering can show to what extent factors have an effect on these impressions. Moreover, target values can be... More About: Design , Sign , Motion
The Toyota Way - Part 2
2007-03-17 12:11:00 This post continues my summary of the The Toyota Way by Dr Jeff K. Liker.Toyota developed the after World War II. While Ford and GM used mass production and economies of scale, Toyota faced very different business conditions. Toyota's market was very small but it had to produce a variety of vehicles on the same assembly line to satisfy customers. The solution: making the operations flexible. This resulted in the birth of TPS.TPS borrowed some of its ideas from the United States. The core idea of the Just in Time system came from the concept of the “pull-system”, which was inspired by the American supermarkets. In the pull system, individual items are replenished as each item begins to run low on the shelf.Applied to Toyota, it means that the first step in the process is not completed until the second step uses the materials or supplies from Step 1. At Toyota, every step of the manufacturing process uses Kanban to signal to the previous step when its part needs to be repleni... More About: Part , The Toyota Way
Toyota Production System Videos
2007-03-11 10:43:00 A nice summary on the Toyota Production System : and an application in Healthcare: Tags: TPS, healthcare More About: Videos , Toyota Production System
SMED summary
2007-03-11 09:12:00 “The slower but consistent tortoise causes less waste and is much more desirable than the speedy hare that races ahead and then stops occasionally to doze. The Toyota Production System can be realized only when all the workers become tortoises.- Ohno, 1988 -From Wikipedia:Single Minute Exchange of Die (SMED) is one of the many lean production methods for reducing waste in a manufacturing process. It provides a rapid and efficient way of converting a manufacturing process from running the current product to running the next product. It is also often referred to as Quick Changeover (QCO). It is a concept that says all changeovers (and startups) can and should take less than 10 minutes ... hence the phrase Single Minute. Closely associated is an advanced concept of One-Touch Exchange of Die, (OTED), which says changeovers can and should take less than 100 seconds.For best results, SMED techniques should only be targeted at bottleneck areas within the process. Firstly ensure t... More About: Summary
The Lean Office
2007-03-06 18:09:00 From Wikipedia 5S is a reference to five Japanese words that describe standardized cleanup: Seiri (整理): tidiness, organization. Refers to the practice of sorting through all the tools, materials, etc., in the work area and keeping only essential items. Everything else is stored or discarded. This leads to fewer hazards and less clutter to interfere with productive work.Seiton (整頓): orderliness. Focuses on the need for an orderly workplace. Tools, equipment, and materials must be systematically arranged for the easiest and most efficient access. There must be a place for everything, and everything must be in its place.Seiso (清掃): cleanliness. Indicates the need to keep the workplace clean as well as neat. Cleaning in Japanese companies is a daily activity. At the end of each shift, the work area is cleaned up and everything is restored to its place.Seiketsu (清潔): standards. Allows for control and consisten... More About: Office , Lean
The Toyota Way - Part 1
2007-03-03 08:41:00 Over the course of the next few posts I plan to summarise the main points contained in The Toyota Way by Dr Jeff K. Liker.World Class Power of the Toyota WayToyota first caught the worlds attention in the 1980s when consumers started noticing that Toyota cars lasted longer and required fewer repairs than American cars. Today, not only is Asia leading the way in car production (see graphic below) but the company has the biggest market value (see graphic below), consistently producing high-quality cars using fewer man hours and less on-hand inventories.To this day, Toyota continues to raise the bar for manufacturing, production development and process excellence.The Toyota Way explains the management principle and business philosophy behind Toyotas success. It narrates Toyotas approach to Lean Production (known as the Toyota Production System) and the 14 principles that drive Toyota towards quality and excellence. The book also explains how you can adopt the same principles to improve... More About: Part
Can Lean and ISO 9001 be integrated?
2007-03-01 18:02:00 In a word: yes. However, you must take care; from Wikipedia:"ISO 9000 guidelines provide a comprehensive model for quality management systems that can make any company competitive.""A survey by Lloyd's Register Quality Assurance indicated ISO 9000 increased net profit... Another Deloitte-Touche survey reported that the costs of registration were recovered in three years.""Good business judgment is needed to determine its proper role for a company.""The ISO registration process has become a mountain of paperwork. Opponents claim that it is only for documentation. Proponents believe that if a company has documented its quality systems, then most of the paperwork has already been completed.""Registration... unfortunately has become a vehicle to increase consulting services... Studies show that the majority of certifications derive from customer demands, such as a vendor qualification checklist, instead of internal needs to improve quality.""Is certification itself important to the mar... More About: Lean , Integra , Integrated , Rate
San-Gen Shugi
2007-02-21 20:34:00 This article in the Harvard Business Review looks at how staff are trained in the Toyota Production System (TPS) to make improvements in the production process. The article picks out some of the key differences between TPS and the way most American and European enterprises tackle productivity improvement. I'll focus on two points:There is no substitute for direct observation.Many western employees try to solve problems (for example, why a machine is unreliable) by thinking about the problem and devising hypotheses that can can checked. Toyota gets their employees to recognise the importance of direct observation.Managers should coach, not fix.Each worker looks for ways to improve the process, and the manager’s role becomes one of involving the team in identifying the problems and not doing all the work himselfThe TPS lends itself to Deming’s writings about Leadership who understood that traditional supervisory activities are reactive rather than proactive. Many managers to pay ... |
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