Deadlines

Deadlines are, simply put, the date something is due.

Deadlines may be externally dictated, such as the Internal Revenue Service’s April 15^th deadline. They may also be internally set. You may establish March 15^th as the date you want all of your tax records gathered. External deadlines tend to carry far more weight than self-imposed due dates because there are often sanctions associated with missing other people’s requirements.

The basic concept of a deadline is nothing new, but there are some specific points surrounding deadlines in Lean that bear mentioning.

Continuous Improvement Projects

In a Lean company, employees are asked to leave their comfort zone of highly repetitive, structured work, and participate in projects.

Those familiar with working in project settings know to establish internal deadlines and use checkpoints to prevent scope creep and to keep themselves on track. Setting and hitting those deadlines may be a stretch for those not used to doing it.

Production Work

Every time a takt time clock resets or a line shifts, a new production deadline is established. The takt time should be thought of as a deadline to be managed in order to meet customer needs.