Henry Ford is generally considered to be the inventor of the assembly line. In reality, he should be credited with the transition of the assembly line into the modern version of it. Primitive versions had been around in England for about a century. Henry Ford’s primary improvement was focusing the Read more…
Should Standard Work Documents Be Hand-Written or Computer Generated? There are two conflicting schools of thought on establishing your standard work procedures. Those in favor of computer-generated standard work documents such as Standard Work Sheets and Standard Work Combination Sheets point to the ease with which the information can be updated, and the Read more…
Diminishing returns happen when resource (time, effort, money, space) yields less output than it did at an earlier time. In math jargon, diminishing returns happen when the productivity curve starts to flatten out. Diminishing returns are essentially the inverse of the Pareto 80/20 Principle. Once the 80% of gains are Read more…
A Standard Work Combination Sheet (SWCS) is also known as a Standard Work Combination Chart, or a Standardized Work Combination Table. Regardless of what you call it, it is one of the most critical documents to your Lean success. Standard Work Combination Sheets goes hand-in-hand with Standard Work Sheets. In Read more…
The Standard Work Sheet is a staple form for Lean Manufacturing. It provides a graphical view of the workstation, the path of the operator, and the amount of standard work-in-process required to keep the process flowing smoothly. This form goes hand-in-hand with the Standard Work Combination Sheet. Directions for the Read more…
There’s a little pastry shop up the road from us. It’s just far enough off our beaten path that we have to make an effort to go there. My wife stopped in a few years back and got lousy service. I had gone around the same time, but I thought the Read more…
In Lean, Standard Work is the cornerstone of any continuous improvement effort. It locks in gains and provides a foundation for future advances. It helps companies reach their improvement targets, but also provides a stable, reasonable working environment for frontline employees. Learning how to standardize a process using this tool Read more…
A cycle is the time from the start of a process until the operator (or machine) is ready to start the next time through the process. An alternative definition of cycle says it is the time from the start of one part until the start of the next part. The Read more…
Customer demand is the pull from a customer. Don’t confuse customers saying they want to purchase something with actually buying something. There is a considerable fall-off between a customer admiring a product or service, and actually opening up her wallet. Knowing your customer demand is critical to Lean operations. Customer Read more…
Countermeasures are the actions taken to reduce or eliminate the root causes of problems that are preventing you from reaching your goals. In many cases, this is a formal process for a company. A company does its strategic planning, which cascades down through the levels of an organization, creating targets, or Key Performance Indicators Read more…
In nearly all continuous improvement projects, it is important to know how long work takes to accomplish, known as the cycle time of the process. So, what is cycle time? Lean defines cycle time as the time it takes to do a process. It includes the time from when an Read more…
Checkpoints, in the military, are used to track progress of a unit’s movement. In Lean, checkpoints can be used in a similar fashion. Checkpoints can be linked to specific process steps. When the sequence of work is standardized, the operator should hit those checkpoints with the same time remaining in Read more…