Everything Lean For Leaders And Their Teams

Building Continuous Improvement Management Systems

Lean Consulting

Lean Training

Lean Products

Lean Support Services

Forms and Tools

Lean Dictionary
Consulting Training Products Services Forms Dictionary

Call us at 1.800.670.5805

Email UseView Cart

Gotta Go Lean BlogView Cart

View hundreds of terms in our Lean Dictionary

Lean Definition: Level Loading

Level loading, also known as heijunka, is the practice of using demand estimates to establish an average production level.

By smoothing the demand, Lean companies can standardize their processes better, and can match their capacity to the current needs of the customer. Level loading on a mixed-model production line balances the mix of products in addition to the total demand by specifying a standard sequence of models. (i.e. ABABC ABABC)

Product planners should continually review both the quantity and product mix on a level loaded line to make sure that the numbers don’t get out of alignment with actual demand.

Keep in mind that level loading is a workaround. It either increases lead time for the customer who has to wait to get into the product mix, or it adds inventory when the mix doesn’t precisely match customer demand.

Add a Comment

Share Your Thoughts    |No comments|

© 2009-2012 by Velaction Continuous Improvement, LLC. All rights reserved.

Lean Definitions | Tags:

Other Information You May Be Interested In...

  1. Demand, Customer Customer demand is the ‘pull’ from a customer. While the demand can be for a free product (such as The Continuous Improvement Companion), the great majority of time, customer demand...
  2. Heijunka Heijunka is the Japanese term for level-loading. Heijunka is intended to flatten out the peaks and valleys in demand to create conditions that make standardization easier. It also stabilizes the...
  3. Demand Windows Demand windows are periods of time when a specific customer demand is stable. For slow growth or mature products the window can be extremely long. For other products, demand windows...
  4. Takt Time Takt time is the required pace of production to meet customer demand. The word takt comes from the German word for the baton used by an orchestra conductor. In the...
  5. 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...
  6. Line Shift A line shift is a synchronized movement of all the production work on an assembly line. It can be done in several ways. Manually, in which each person pushes their...

Comments and Feedback:

Please leave feedback about this entry.

You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Leave a Reply