We just came back from conducting a 2-day workshop in Latin America where 150 people attended from a variety of industries and countries. The basic concepts around lean manufacturing are becoming well understood, and there is growing excitement to begin the journey. The challenge more and more is moving from the concepts to actual implementation.
Part of the problem is that companies are still too focused on learning different lean tools (kanban, poka-yoke, heijunka, quick changeover, TPM, etc.) versus the application of these tools in achieving real-world results for their company. Learning the tools is easy. The hard part is knowing how to apply these tools in ways that will achieve quick and substantial bottom-line benefits to your company.
For example, Value Stream Mapping has become very popular. However, Lean Implementation projects too often become more about "creating a Value Stream Map" versus how to use Value Stream Mapping to better understand their process and how it can be improved.
I wanted to take this opportunity to share 10 Simple learnings identified by companies that have had a successful journey in lean implementation:
- Use Product-Quantity Analysis (PQ Analysis) to create a clear understanding of your business profile in order to create a good manufacturing strategy.
- Use actual videography for cycle time study - don't just observe and estimate. Focus on detailed operator movements, such as hand movement and walking, in order to breakdown the work as a team.
- Focus on output improvement of the cell versus improvement of individual operations.
- Focus improvements in areas nearest to the customer first. This will help prioritize improvement initiatives when many opportunities have been identified.
- Create flexibility where it makes sense. A good strategy is to dedicate lines with few changeovers for high volume items, and create flexible lines with quick changeovers to handle low-volume/ high variety items.
- Catch small problems before they become big ones. Daily housekeeping and checking by operators is one of the best ways to both catch problems at machines while increasing operator's knowledge of the process.
- Use good engineering to de-skill complex operations and make them simple for operators.
- Engineers need to focus on generating creative ideas for simple solutions versus creating expensive solutions to support complex ideas.
- Quality must be Created in the process by operators versus Controlled through external checking. Implementing full-proof mechanisms in the process is one of the most successful methods to reduce rejects.
- The status of production needs to be highly visible to all operators and managers alike.
As you begin working on Quick Changeover projects in your factory, this photo of a Nascar pitstop provides a good example of what can be done. By focusing on good organization and improved processes, what may take a traditional company hours can be performed by a Lean team in seconds. What the typical spectator may not realize is that most teams videotape every pitstop from above so they can later study time and motion. These are reviewed weekly by the entire team to look for ways to improve, become better organized, and eliminate waste.
