Use Gemba Walks to Uncover Problems & Promote Accountability
Gemba is a Japanese word that means the real place where value is created. A gemba walk is a management tool whose purpose is to have managers walk the front line where they can see problems as they are occurring, ask questions and allow them to create follow-up on problems and promote accountability. Problems are most visible where they occur and the best ideas for solving them will come...
Read MoreStandardize Work Process To Provide Customers Better Products & Services
Much of the work we do consists of repetitive tasks: changing a die in a stamping press, closing the books every month or running a weekly or monthly meeting. These repetitive tasks can be studied and improved to make them more efficient, reliable, easier, safer, and more productive. We then document the best method and teach it to everyone associated with the task. This will make...
Read MoreInvest in Employees And Make Them The Center of Your Lean Transformation
Much has been written about why few organizations succeed in making a lean transformation. Some have stated the number to be less than 10% and when compared with Toyota the number becomes even worse and as low as 1%. What is the reason for this? What’s missing? I think it centers on employee involvement and not making employees the center of the lean transformation. Companies that...
Read MoreLean Implementation: Insights from Henry Ford and Taiichi Ohno
Henry Ford and Taiichi Ohno were pioneers in Lean implementation. But with all their success, why is it that less than 20% of manufactures are able to successfully implement Lean? This article will try to show how you must take the basic concepts of lean and apply them to each specific environment to be successful. Both Ford and Ohno were obsessed with creating flow. The reason...
Read MoreIncrease Profitability Utilizing Lean And Theory of Constraints
The goal of every company is to make money. In order for that to happen companies must increase net profit, while simultaneously increasing return on investment and cash flow. In Eliyahu Goldratt’s book, The Goal, he states there are three measurements that express the goal of making money: throughput, inventory, and operational expense. Throughput is the rate at which the system...
Read MoreTen Steps To Analyze And Improve A Product Or Service Using A Value Stream Map
Many processes suffer from inefficiency, mistakes, errors, defects, downtime and late delivery due to the waste inherent in them. The waste I’m referring to are: Transportation Inventory Motion Waiting Over-processing Over-production Defects Safety These waste exists because most of the time it’s the way the process has always been done and no one questions it or looks for the...
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