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Welding (Fabrication)

Fabrication

Fabrication is the act of taking raw stock material and turning it into a part for use in an assembly process. There are many different types of fabrication processes. The most common are Cutting Folding Machining Punching Shearing Stamping Welding Additive Manufacturing Watch Our Fabrication Video Let’s look at the Read more…

Facilitation

The dictionary definition of facilitation is to make something easier. In this broad definition, facilitation covers a lot of ground. But in the continuous improvement definition, facilitation has a few specific characteristics. Facilitation is generally done for groups, not for individuals. Facilitation is most common for discrete projects. You might Read more…

Facilitator

A facilitator is an individual who instructs, coaches, and guides project teams towards their continuous improvement objectives. This person may be facilitating as a secondary role or as their primary function. They may also be an employee of the company that they are coaching, or they may be an individual Read more…

Factory

A factory is a discrete building or group of buildings that produces a product or product line. The first image that comes to mind with the term factory is often a car manufacturing facility, like those run by Toyota, a company well-known for its Lean manufacturing. In reality, a factory Read more…

Facts and Data

Facts and data are the supporting evidence for making decisions. Gathering facts and data is a key part of any problem-solving process, but it becomes particularly important in Lean. Making frequent changes, as companies do when they create a continuous improvement culture, also increases the number of opportunities to make Read more…

Fastcap

Fastcap is a small manufacturing company located just north of Bellingham, Washington. While the company itself develops and sells tools to support the woodworking industry, its real claim to Lean fame is that it is used as a vehicle for its founder, Paul Akers, to test and promote his Lean Read more…

Fatigue – Employee

Fatigue is the physical and mental state of tiredness that results in diminished capacity to perform a task or function. Because it increases the likelihood of errors, quality problems, and rework, employee fatigue is an often unrecognized form of waste that can impact the safety of the workplace. Lean, if Read more…

Feeder Lines

Feeder lines are a very specialized branch of a main assembly line. Generally, they are used when there is a different amount of work required for an option or for the most time intensive product on a mixed-model assembly line. Feeder lines will run on their own takt time. The Read more…

FIFO Lane

A FIFO lane (First In, First Out) helps manage flow in a process. It is exactly what it sounds like. The first item coming into a process is the first one worked on. FIFO lanes provide consistency and predictability. They create a link between a process and its upstream supplier. Read more…

Firefighting (Problems)

The term “firefighting” is often used to describe solving problems in a mad scramble during a crisis. It generally means that someone comes in and handles a problem in an emergency mode. The result is normally just enough to rescue the team from its predicament, but seldom actually solves the Read more…

First Pass Yield

First pass yield (FPY) is a metric that indicates the percentage of items moving through a series of processes without any problems. The basic equation for first pass yield is: First Pass Yield = Process 1 Yield * Process 2 Yield *…*Process ‘n’ Yield As you can see, the more Read more…

Fishbone Diagram

The fishbone diagram (a.k.a. cause and effect diagram, a.k.a. Ishikawa Diagram) is a way of linking the causes of a problem to the observed effect. The diagram groups the causes in categories along the spine. The distinctive shape of the tool gives the fishbone diagram its name. This is one Read more…

Fixtures

A manufacturing fixture holds parts during the manufacturing process. Fixtures come in a wide range of types. In their simplest form, they may be a series of pins sticking up from a flat surface to keep a part from sliding. They can also be much more complicated, with a series Read more…

Flat Surfaces

Flat surfaces are bad for work areas. They collect dirt, dust, debris, etc. They don’t support processes. People use them for storage. Work hard to eliminate flat surfaces in work areas. Flat surfaces collect debris. They collect dust. They collect extra parts, extra tools, extra equipment, extra Work-In-Process (WIP). If Read more…

Flexibility

Process flexibility applies both to the ability to rapidly change model mix as well as to change layouts of your facility. As continuous improvement speeds up its pace, you will find that your production areas enter a state of constant flux. Build process flexibility into your workstations. Suspend power and Read more…

Flow

Making operations flow is the ultimate goal of Lean. When all the waste is reduced, every process is improved, and the excess inventory is eliminated, you are left with work that effortlessly glides through operations. Flow is often talked about reverently. The senseis I worked with from a premiere Japanese Read more…

Flow Chart

A flowchart is a visual representation of the progression of an entity (product, person, information, etc.) through a process. A flowchart is a visual representation of the progression of an entity (product, person, information, etc.) through a process. Flow charts have two main uses. Process flow charts are used for Read more…

Flow Production

Flow production is one of many names used to describe a system of production that predominantly follows Lean principles. It is recognizable by single units of work moving directly from one process to the next without stopping in queues. That state of streamlined motion is known as flow, and is Read more…

Follow-Up

Follow-up is the act of making sure that… something that was supposed to be done was, in fact, done, or something that was done is working as planned In short, follow-up is confirming that things are going as expected. Unlike an audit, which is a broader check, a follow-up is Read more…

Ford, Henry

Henry Ford (July 30, 1863 – April 7, 1947) is the founder of Ford Motor Company and the man most widely known as the inventor of the moving assembly line. While the first is true, the second common belief is a bit inaccurate. Ford actually popularized the moving assembly line; Read more…

Frontline Employees

Frontline employees are the people who do the ongoing production work in an organization. While the range and skills of frontline employees vary widely, most of the entry-level jobs within the company fall into this category. That is not to say all frontline jobs are entry-level. There are many senior Read more…

Frontline of Change

The people actually doing a process a new way are at the frontline of change. They are the ones who must enforce new processes with internal customers, manage changes with suppliers, or work with customers to educate them about the new and improved methods. Working at the frontline of change Read more…

Frustration

Frustration is the feeling of anxiety or dissatisfaction that results from the gap between expectations and reality. Frustration happens when problems are unsolved and when things don’t go according to plan. Lean depends heavily on employee engagement and job satisfaction to work at its best. Frustration reduces job satisfaction, thereby Read more…

FTE

“Full-time equivalent”, or “FTE” is a way to normalize staffing decisions. In the modern workforce, particularly in administrative environments, employees perform multiple functions or don’t work standard 9-to-5 schedules. Using FTE to determine the size of the workforce assigned to a process makes accurate productivity and cost measures possible. A Read more…

Functional Layout

A functional layout is a workplace organization in which processes are organized by the type of work (function), rather than by value stream or in a cellular configuration where sequential process steps are located in close proximity. In a functional layout, for example, the cutting machines would be in one Read more…