An Important Lesson Learned
Over the years, I’ve dealt with many organizations that were “interested” in implementing lean. A few were looking for a complete lean transformation. Others wanted to solve particular problems related to reducing change overtimes, improving flow, or eliminating quality issues. Several of these organizations made substantial progress and continue their lean efforts using kaizen...
Read MoreOrganizations Must Have A Lean Vision To Create A Masterpiece
The first requirement in making a successful transformation to lean is to have a clear vision of what the organization will become. The vision is no doubt achievable, but the journey will take time, discipline, and execution to get there. Throughout the journey, you must hold tight to the vision and take consistent actions. Compare your vision to a work of art. Whether it is a painting, a...
Read MoreVisual Management Is The Heart of a Lean Organization
A lean organization makes extensive use of visual management techniques. These techniques require the placement of all tools, parts, activities, and indicators of the system performance so that the status of the system can be understood at a glance by everyone involved. The objective is to be able to see the factory — its workflow, its performance, its problems, and its improvement...
Read MoreSix Rules To Ensure Your Kanban System Is Effective
A kanban is a signboard or card, and the word also refers to the system of utilizing standard containers, each of which has a card designating what and when to produce. Toyota uses kanban to make what they need when it is needed and in the quantity. Taiichi Ohno, the father of the Toyota Production System, stated that it is not an overstatement to say that kanban controls the flow of goods at...
Read MoreThe Value of Flow and Improving Cash Flow
The beginning of lean can be traced back to Henry Ford and the Ford Motor Company from about 1910 to about 1915. It was not so much Ford himself, but his leadership and sponsoring of projects that led to their mass production accomplishments. Ford created the environment that drove many on his team to dream up and implement those projects. Just about every change in the flow came from the...
Read MoreFlow and Pull Systems Explained
Continuous flow is defined as producing and moving one item at a time, or a small and consistent batch of items, through a series of processing steps as continuously as possible, with each step making just what is requested by the next step. Other names for continuous flow are one-piece flow, single-piece flow, and make one, move one. Flow supports lean by focusing on producing...
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