Eliyahu Goldratt put together his “Theory of Constraints” and presented its principles in his book The Goal. He explained that systems generally have a single (sometimes more) bottleneck that limits, or constrains, production. In a more general sense, a constraint is anything that prevents you from accomplishing something that you Read more…
Would you go to a doctor whose credentials included only the following? Completed a six year program at ‘Scalpel University’ Certified in ultrasound technology Developed a medication distribution robot for hospitals What about one who only focused on the theory of healing, but never actually learned how to read an x-ray Read more…
Administrative processes substantially contribute to a company’s costs. Obviously, it depends on the company, but estimates commonly attribute 60-80% of expenses to administrative processes. Administrative processes are the office tasks that are required to keep a company humming along. Administrative processes include human resources, marketing, and accounting. Basically, anything that Read more…
Work-in-process (sometimes written as work-in-process and sometimes called work in progress) is a product or service that is partially completed. These goods have had something done to them, so are no longer considered raw materials or component parts. Lean attempts to minimize the amount of work in process to keep Read more…
Variation is the enemy of processes. Variation in inputs or in the process itself causes variation in the output of the process. And that variation is perceived as poor quality. The layman’s definition of variation is simply fluctuation. More advanced definitions of variation categorize it in two ways. Common cause Read more…
Transportation waste is the unnecessary movement of parts, double handling of materials, or shuffling of inventory to get access to the right components. Transportation waste is one of the seven wastes that Taiichi Ohno identified as barriers to flow. It is obvious why moving parts further than necessary is wasteful. Read more…
Everyone, of course, knows what a stopwatch is. They may not, though, understand why someone is standing over them with one. In a Lean company, processes are based on facts and data. One of those facts is the time it takes to accomplish a task. Unfortunately, people who are highly Read more…
Specifications are the stated design parameters of a product or service. Specifications can cover any of a variety of features, from physical dimensions, to operating range, to battery life. Some specifications are given with a margin of error, such as “12.00 +/- 0.10 inches”. Other specs are given with a Read more…
Repeatability is the ability for the same individual or team to get identical results from a process time after time. Essentially, repeatability is the opposite of output variation. When processes are not repeatable, the problem falls into three basic categories. A variation in inputs causes poor repeatability. A poor process Read more…
A reaction plan is the series of steps that you would take in response to a specified abnormal condition. A reaction plan helps to minimize damage. It reduces the time between the occurrence of a problem and a stopgap. While a reaction plan is important, there is one big shortcoming. Read more…
In Lean, quality is often considered to be “good parts”. That is important because quality parts are a necessary condition to create flow. In a broader sense, quality has several different meanings. Conformance to Spec. Does the product do what it says it will do? Does it match the physical Read more…
Productivity is the ratio of output to input. The basic equation is: Productivity = Output / Input When the output is high relative to the inputs, the process is thought of as productive. While there are some standard productivity metrics, such as parts per labor hour, the choice is really Read more…