After the intense 3S morning session followed by stretching exercises, I walked through the plant to see the lean transformation at HOKS. Everywhere I turned, there were examples of employee driven kaizen. I rapidly took notes, snapped pictures and scribbled out crude drawings to spark my memory. Of all the companies we visited, HOKS was probably the most open with information and access to their shop floor operation to allow us the opportunity to really understand their lean manufacturing culture.
The one area that sparked my imagination the most at HOKS was their lean transformation in the office. Many companies have made significant improvements on the shop floor yet the office areas remain insulated from any significant lean changes. At HOKS, they broke through the office barrier with some extremely interesting lean applications.
Right off the bat, you could instantly see that the HOKS office operation was special. The entire staff, from President on down, was standing. Their desks were elevated using kaizen pipe or custom made out of kaizen pipe to accommodate the height of each employee and there were no chairs in sight. According to Mr. Manabe, HOKS President, it is healthier to stand and 30% more efficient. For the office staff that may have difficulty with standing all day, bar stools were provided. I saw several staff members using the bar stool however the clear majority were standing.
As an Industrial Engineer, I always promoted standing on the shop floor for the majority of operations to increase cell efficiency yet never thought to push the concept to the office. To me, this was a major shift in how to view the office. Do you think this will catch on in the United States? After talking with several staff members and their positive reflections on changing to a standing office, I am going to convert my office for standing.
The second lean change was the physical location of the office staff. It was no surprise to see support staff like production management and engineers' desks (work spaces) located on the shop floor in their respective areas of responsibility. But so were production/scheduling, customer service, and sales staffs. In another common sense move, HOKS located their purchasing staff next to their receiving area. One note: HOKS does have some areas in the plant set up for sitting at a computer and away for the group setting for those work tasks/occasions needing intense concentration.
In each case, the lean goals driving these office improvements were to streamline communication and strive for rapid responsiveness to the shop floor operation, From what I observed at HOKS, they are definitely on target.
Monday, September 25, 2006
Wednesday, September 20, 2006
Japan Day 4 - HOKS Part I
On day 4 of the Japan Kaikaku Experience, our group traveled to the northeast coast of Kyushu Island. We arrived bright and earlier at HOKS, a $50 million printed circuit board manufacturer, just in time for their daily 3S self-action. It is called self-action because it is voluntary and unpaid, relying on your self motivation and a little peer pressure to contribute.
Everyday, the entire management team at HOKS arrives 30 minutes before the start of the shift to engage in exhaustive 3S (Seiri - Sort, Seiton - Straighten, and Seiso - Shine). The shop floor employees come 10 minutes early to clean their areas. All of this is done outside of company time. Not all the 3S activities are limited to this daily ritual, every 2 weeks the plant production is shutdown for 1 hours for more 3S which is on the company clock with full pay.
The entire plant is cleaned top to bottom with some tasks completed daily while others have a rotational schedule. The 3S activities include cleaning floors, windows, desks, racks, lights, hallways, toilets, company cars and the outside grounds. Even the public street in front of their building is cleaned by the HOKS employees as a sign of good will in their neighborhood.
At HOKS, they believe that 3S is the key to their success. It instills discipline in their employees and helps sell their company to potential customers. The reason it's a 3S activity versus 5S is that HOKS believes if you vigorously attack the first 3S daily, by default, you have achieved all 5S. (Simple.) They do have a 5S goal but concentrate on improving the behaviors needed to be successful versus driven by the target goal or numbers. If the correct behaviors are solidly in place, the numbers will improve.
To really embrace this focused 3S culture, our group was invited to join in on the fun. Each of us were paired up with a HOKS employee and given a 3S cleaning assignment. My assignment was to trim the front hedges and clean up the clippings as seen in the picture. I definitely worked up a sweat by the time I finished but there was still time for more 3S. I quickly moved inside the plant and wiped down all the desks in the production control department with a little time left to sweep the floor. You certainly can accomplish a lot in 30 minutes when you put your mind (and muscle) to it.
Even the president of the company, Mr. Manabe, participated in the morning 3S period. On that day, his job was to clean the administration office floor by getting on his hands and knees with washrags in each hand. Talk about "Leading by Example"!
This is no ordinary 5S program and is unlike anything I have ever witnessed. When they first started this radical 3S regime, there was resistance and it was mandatory, driven down by management. After the routine was established, it moved to a self managed effort but constantly supported by management and a sense of pride in their company. And I love their company slogan on self-change, "If I change, our company will change!". Great words of wisdom on organizational change.
Sunday, September 17, 2006
Japan Trip Continues
I apologize for the delay in posting on my week long lean manufacturing study mission in Japan. For the last half of the week, I had virtually no access to the web with our action packed schedule and a stay at a traditional Japanese hotel with a hot spring (a tough life!). I did make it back safely to Indiana last night about midnight after over 30 hours without much sleep. At least we made it back before the typhoon hit Southern Japan earlier today. Watch for the highlights of the rest of my lean study mission this week and my lean manufacturing epiphany.
Wednesday, September 13, 2006
Japan Day 3 - TOTO Kokura
On our third day in Japan, we studied the lean manufacturing process at the TOTO facility in Kokura, Japan. TOTO is a hugely dominate manufacturer in Japan (and growing worldwide) of faucets, metal fittings and bathtubs. Check out the TOTO website to see the variety of their product offerings and learn more about this company. After my visit, I would definitely consider TOTO to be a strong competitor to companies like Kohler and Delta faucet. TOTO is doing some amazing things in lean manufacturing. And after using their product this week, I have to say I loved the heated seat.
One problem facing many manufacturing plants in the US is the limited resources available like engineering to make improvements, At TOTO, they have addressed this problem by have the engineers only work on the big stuff ( major equipment selection, designs and major projects) and have all the shop floor employees do the smaller stuff (like build their own workstations, fixtures and work aids). This frees up a tremendously amount of burden from the Engineers responsibilities to work on the big bang stuff yet still allows the little stuff to get done by the process owners. Works great.
There were all kinds of simple workstation and visual improvements put into place. There were small pinwheels placed on the fans of CNC mills as a visual indicator that the fan was operational, all the workbenches, carts, racks, etc were made out of various types of Kaizen Pipe, the measurement boards were shortened to be able to see across the department, all the assembly power tools were inline and electric models to reduce noise, etc. A repeating theme in Japan - make it simple!
The coolest thing was seeing the casting operation, plating operation and pre-assembly operations lined up side by side. Typically a casting and plating operation would be separated to prevent contamination in the process. At TOTO, great care and process design was given to look at the point (or source) of this contamination and prevent it. This was accomplished using large (powerful) vacuum hoods along with guards and shields. The operators are also constantly wiping their areas down throughout the day. Extremely clean operations.
The new employee training program was excellent. All new employees were trained in basics of company info/philosophy and safety followed by working in a training lab on some basic assembly skills. This even includes lessons in manners and how to greet visitors, all conducted in a training area separate from production. Then the employee is assigned a mentor to train in multiple areas, rotating over a 2 month period, with actual product units.
After this rotation, the new employee is teamed up with a couple of other new employees for a 2 day education session conducted in the training lab. The first day, the team is given parts and told to make up a cell to produce this product and run parts. Later in the day, this team is given an opportunity to make improvements. On the second day, they run more production with their new process. At the end of the second day, the team is sent to the production floor to see the method preferred to build that product (the current standard method/layout). Great lean learning experience with most lean improvements coming from the shop floor employees.
The manufacturing work cells at TOTO were dominated by single operator cells. The controlling factor of the cells was not work content, it was determined by space and expense of equipment needed.
There is much to learn from this outstanding company. Oh, by the way, TOTO has only been into the lean approach for 5 years yet they have rapidly learned and implemented these great improvements on their lean journey.
We are off again in the morning to another company further along the lean journey
One problem facing many manufacturing plants in the US is the limited resources available like engineering to make improvements, At TOTO, they have addressed this problem by have the engineers only work on the big stuff ( major equipment selection, designs and major projects) and have all the shop floor employees do the smaller stuff (like build their own workstations, fixtures and work aids). This frees up a tremendously amount of burden from the Engineers responsibilities to work on the big bang stuff yet still allows the little stuff to get done by the process owners. Works great.
There were all kinds of simple workstation and visual improvements put into place. There were small pinwheels placed on the fans of CNC mills as a visual indicator that the fan was operational, all the workbenches, carts, racks, etc were made out of various types of Kaizen Pipe, the measurement boards were shortened to be able to see across the department, all the assembly power tools were inline and electric models to reduce noise, etc. A repeating theme in Japan - make it simple!
The coolest thing was seeing the casting operation, plating operation and pre-assembly operations lined up side by side. Typically a casting and plating operation would be separated to prevent contamination in the process. At TOTO, great care and process design was given to look at the point (or source) of this contamination and prevent it. This was accomplished using large (powerful) vacuum hoods along with guards and shields. The operators are also constantly wiping their areas down throughout the day. Extremely clean operations.
The new employee training program was excellent. All new employees were trained in basics of company info/philosophy and safety followed by working in a training lab on some basic assembly skills. This even includes lessons in manners and how to greet visitors, all conducted in a training area separate from production. Then the employee is assigned a mentor to train in multiple areas, rotating over a 2 month period, with actual product units.
After this rotation, the new employee is teamed up with a couple of other new employees for a 2 day education session conducted in the training lab. The first day, the team is given parts and told to make up a cell to produce this product and run parts. Later in the day, this team is given an opportunity to make improvements. On the second day, they run more production with their new process. At the end of the second day, the team is sent to the production floor to see the method preferred to build that product (the current standard method/layout). Great lean learning experience with most lean improvements coming from the shop floor employees.
The manufacturing work cells at TOTO were dominated by single operator cells. The controlling factor of the cells was not work content, it was determined by space and expense of equipment needed.
There is much to learn from this outstanding company. Oh, by the way, TOTO has only been into the lean approach for 5 years yet they have rapidly learned and implemented these great improvements on their lean journey.
We are off again in the morning to another company further along the lean journey
Tuesday, September 12, 2006
Japan Day 2 - Matsumoto Kogyo
After a couple of days in Japan, my body is just now catching up to the radical time change shift and ready for the next lesson in lean from Japan. On day two of our tour, we visited Matsumoto Kogyo which is Tier 2 automotive supplier to Nissan and Toyota making seat frames. Our group took a Japanese Sonic train from the train station followed by a short taxi ride to this 200 person plant. I still have not adjusted to riding on the left side of the road which caused some moments of fear as we turned into traffic.
Matsumoto is a 40 year old company with extremely diverse lines of business from automotive parts, construction industry, architecture design and even supermarkets (60% of their business is currently automotive). Even being a smaller firm by US standards, they are a powerhouse when it comes to innovation and creativity!
Some of the lean lessons seen here include applying standard work outside of the manufacturing shop floor. One example is in building innovative, custom machines, where standard work is applied to the Engineers time. Yes, an Engineer.
Typically, we plan (if at all) the Engineers time by the larger task like design a machine. It would be estimated for 1 week. Even though we plan 1 week, it may not take 40 hours or it may take 100 hours. We don't know until it's done. So we don't rush the engineer because this work is part science and part art form and we can not measure it.
At Matsumoto, that is not how it works. The Engineers tasks are broken into the standard tasks required to design a machine (in 12 minutes blocks). The key is to break down the tasks into these finite, standard tasks and making sure you have properly listed all of them. Then it's easy to plot them on a time line and allocate resources to ensure meeting the target completion date.
It's only the combination of tasks that is custom. With each time reduced to 12 minute increments, the tasks can be well organized, planned and accurate.
Not only are the Engineering tasks measured here, even the Sales department had standard work. (I'll save that one for a later blog).
The most amazing lean lesson at Matsumoto is found in their special machine building talent. I have never seen so many cool mechanical ideas put into cells and automatic assembly machines all in one place. All these fixtures and machines were designed and built inhouse using basic ingenuity. One very cool example is the use of a milled slot in a spotwelding fixture to guide the fixture over a specified path ensuring 100% repeatable location each and every time. The fixture glided on rails as the part passed under the spot welder and included spot location to designate a required weld.
A cool poke-yoke example at one of the workstations is the use of sensors across part bin openings. As the operator passed the beam to retrieve a part, this information was collected. When the operator moved the completed part to the next operation and if all the sensors were not properly activated, the next machine would not cycle preventing a possible failure to continue through the process.
Bottomline, none of these were expensive ideas to implement. All were designed and built inhouse using scrap material or low cost components. The only requirements were ingenuity, creativity and determination to find a way to make it work.
Matsumoto is a 40 year old company with extremely diverse lines of business from automotive parts, construction industry, architecture design and even supermarkets (60% of their business is currently automotive). Even being a smaller firm by US standards, they are a powerhouse when it comes to innovation and creativity!
Some of the lean lessons seen here include applying standard work outside of the manufacturing shop floor. One example is in building innovative, custom machines, where standard work is applied to the Engineers time. Yes, an Engineer.
Typically, we plan (if at all) the Engineers time by the larger task like design a machine. It would be estimated for 1 week. Even though we plan 1 week, it may not take 40 hours or it may take 100 hours. We don't know until it's done. So we don't rush the engineer because this work is part science and part art form and we can not measure it.
At Matsumoto, that is not how it works. The Engineers tasks are broken into the standard tasks required to design a machine (in 12 minutes blocks). The key is to break down the tasks into these finite, standard tasks and making sure you have properly listed all of them. Then it's easy to plot them on a time line and allocate resources to ensure meeting the target completion date.
It's only the combination of tasks that is custom. With each time reduced to 12 minute increments, the tasks can be well organized, planned and accurate.
Not only are the Engineering tasks measured here, even the Sales department had standard work. (I'll save that one for a later blog).
The most amazing lean lesson at Matsumoto is found in their special machine building talent. I have never seen so many cool mechanical ideas put into cells and automatic assembly machines all in one place. All these fixtures and machines were designed and built inhouse using basic ingenuity. One very cool example is the use of a milled slot in a spotwelding fixture to guide the fixture over a specified path ensuring 100% repeatable location each and every time. The fixture glided on rails as the part passed under the spot welder and included spot location to designate a required weld.
A cool poke-yoke example at one of the workstations is the use of sensors across part bin openings. As the operator passed the beam to retrieve a part, this information was collected. When the operator moved the completed part to the next operation and if all the sensors were not properly activated, the next machine would not cycle preventing a possible failure to continue through the process.
Bottomline, none of these were expensive ideas to implement. All were designed and built inhouse using scrap material or low cost components. The only requirements were ingenuity, creativity and determination to find a way to make it work.
Monday, September 11, 2006
Japan Day 1 - Nanjo Sobi Kogyo
After the tour of the Toyota Motor Kyushu plant, our group headed to another factory in Southern Japan while there was still daylight to burn. We arrive later in the afternoon to the Nanjo Sobi Kogyo plant as the first foreign (Westerner) visitors every allowed to visit this extremely well run manufacturing facility.
Our host, Mr Yoshio Kaneko, Plant Manager, was extremely gracious to us for allowing this unique opportunity to see his operation. Prior to the official tour and Q/A period, the most honorable Mr Kaneko expressed his deepest sympathies to our group in remembrance of 9/11 on this 5th anniversary and sorrow for this tragedy against humanity. Arigato-Gozimas!
The Nanjo Sobi Kogyo plant, built in 1991, produces Seat Trim and covers for the automotive market. The operations include mainly fabric/leather cutting and sewing with a small group of 99 employees. The have outstanding kaizen spirit throughout their company from top to bottom with plenty of visual management and tremendous employee participation. The walls are filled with celebrated kaizen successes!
The biggest eye opener is the fact that all the operators sewing are standing up instead of the traditional sitting down. Standing up while performing work is more efficient yet some tasks like sewing are not considered suitable for standing. Mr Kaneko proves us wrong. Watching the operators move the fabric around with precision and ease while standing is a sight to behold. A typical cell is set up with one operator surrounded by 3 sewing machines set up for a specific model. The foot pedals are even fixed into position by a simple cutout in a board on the floor. Extremely cool to see in action!
The next thing that caught my attention is that the air and electric drops were missing from above. Typically, most manufacturing plants in the US drop air and electric lines from the ceiling to the workstations. Not at Nanjo Sobi Kogyo where the air and electric access come from the floor! A well designed trench system keeps the workstations supplied with power which really opens up the view of the shop floor. Outstanding!
These were just two of many improvements that surrounded us as we walked this very impressive plant. In parting, Mr Kaneko expressed some of his continuous improvement philosophy in that "Kaizen is part of work and not a program to be managed" and that "Kaizen should be embraced and not forced on to employees ". Certainly words of lean wisdom spoken from experience.
Japan Day 1 - Toyota Car of the Future
Here is a picture of Toyota's i-unit, car of the future, that was on display at the Kyushu automoble showroom . REALLY cool!
Japan Day 1 - Toyota Motor Kyushu
On our first manufacturing tour day in Japan, we wasted little time and proceeded directly to the pinnacle of lean manufacturing in the world, the Toyota Motor Company. After many years of reading, hearing and studying about Toyota with their successful Toyota Production System, I find myself standing today in the newest Toyota plant in Japan. My first impression is "WOW, these guys are REALLY good and they make manufacturing look easy."
The Toyota Motor Kyushu plant was built in 1991 and is one of 15 Toyota plant in Japan. This plant makes several different models including the Lexus IS 350, Lexus ES 350, Lexus RX 350, Harrier Hybrid and the Kluger (Highlander). Approximately 1,784 vehicles are produced per day for a Takt time of 60 seconds per vehicle with planned overtime currently in the schedule. The workforce is about 6,500 employees (almost double from a year ago!) . The percentage full time permanent employees to temporary employees is split even at 50%-50%.
The operations on site, performed in several buildings, include pressroom, welding, paint, assembly and inspection. The welding building contains 480 computerized robots hitting over 5,000 hit points (spot welds) on average per vehicle. All the doors, lids, hoods, etc are removed after the paint process, then re-fastened in assembly for easier access during assembly. The entire plant is air-conditioned for climate control. A total of over 2,800 different components are assembled on the painted bodies.
The assembly operation is divided between two buildings, the Lexus line in one and the Harrier/Kluger models in the other. The Lexus building was not open for tours for some "top secret" reason so our access was limited to the Harrier/Kluger line. In this building, all the models were run across a single assembly line with the line woven back and forth 11 times. Each of the 11 sections of assembly line is about 100 meters long and run independent of each other with a 5 car buffer between them. This buffer was a employee suggestion to keep portions of the assembly line running when one section was having a problem. A key example of Standard Work in Process.
Another implemented employee suggestion was a seat for the assembler working inside the vehicle called a "Rakuraku Seat". This seat moved with the conveyor line, with some stock bins attached, allowing the operator to swing inside the interior of the vehicle to perform their tasks then swing out while seated. It reminded me of those baby walkers as the operator propelled themselves down the line with their feet while sitting on the seat.
During our tour, assembly operators on several occasions pulled the stop cord on the assembly line due to a problem. In a matter of seconds, the floater for that area rushed over to the problem site. If the problem could be resolved in the remaining takt time, the line was started up again. Otherwise, the team leader was called in to help. If the problem could not be solved in 2 Takt Time cycles, the Line Leader was called in to help. At each level, the question was a simple matter of what degree was the problem, promoting quick response.
An interesting point is that the assembly line had a goal of only 97% uptime. They did not want 100%. It was believed that a goal of 97% was better (more realistic) and prevented quality problems from being slipped through. If the goal is 100%, the employees would say that something was not really a problem and let it go to keep at a target of 100%. With a target of 97%, the employees would not be pressured to let things go and stop the line to correct the problem!
The floater was the pivital position on the assembly line. This person's span covered about 4-5 line operators and performed tasks ranging from filling up bins (waterspider role), quick quality double checks, first responder to line problems from pulling the stop, absentee coverage, relief for line operators, etc. From my observation, this is a key role in the successful flow of Toyota's assembly line.
Another observation is the general material flow. I saw operators performing ONLY assembly tasks while the material handlers moved parts. With the Kanban card system and material coming in on multiple carts, it was like a well choreographed dance. Toyota made it look simple using only about a 1/2 day of inventory on the line. Except for the receiving and between buildings, there were no fork trucks handling material in the assembly plant. Electric carts pulled the material around the assembly line on flat bed carts. I saw as many as 5 material carts hooked together and pulled by one electric cart.
Overall, the flow of operations appeared well planned, very organized and made to look simple. For visual management, there were plenty of floor marks, small signs and other signals mainly dealing with material. Even the visual mangement was simple and did not clutter the walls or overtake the plant floor. With the number of line stops I saw today, it was apparient that Toyota is not perfectly run. I did not expect to see perfection today but Toyota comes very close.
Sunday, September 10, 2006
Japan Kaikaku Experience
I landed in Japan last night after a 27 hours journey but only 16 hours in the air. Here is the cool view from my 21st floor hotel room of the city of Kitakyushu, Japan. This trip is not a vacation but a learning experience hosted by Gemba Research called the Japan Kaikaku Experience. It is more of a lean learning mission in the heart of Japanese manufacturing. If you want to really see Japanese manufacturing first hand, there is no better way than joining the first class run tour experience that Gemba provides. So this week, I'll report my first experiences visiting Japan and most of all, my lean learning.
Wednesday, September 06, 2006
Lean Insider, a New Lean Blog
I just discovered a new lean blog called Lean Insider. The Lean Insider is written by Ralph Bernstein at Productivity Press and blogs about the latest news, research and trends on all things lean. Welcome Ralph to the lean blogging world!
Tuesday, August 29, 2006
Lean Blog Podcast Interview with Dr Jeffrey Liker
On our lean journey, we must continuously improve and continuously learn. Check out the podcast interview with Dr Jeffrey Liker, author of The Toyota Way, conducted by Mark Graban at Lean Blog. Mark continues to provide excellent lean lessons on his blog and check out his other podcasts featuring Norm Bodek.
Team Leaders Resource Library
Check out Karl McCracken's cool lean articles at Team Leaders Resource Library. Excellent work by a fellow lean guy from the UK including a closer look at shadow boards, etc. Karl helps companies improve using lean tools though his company, sevenrings. co.uk . He also has a site listing all the latest lean news from the web. Keep up the great work Karl!
Saturday, August 26, 2006
Stop Bumping Your Head
"Here is Edward Bear, coming downstairs now, bump. bump, bump, on the back of his head, behind Christopher Robin. It is, as far as he knows, the only way of coming downstairs, but sometimes he feels that there really is another way, if only he could stop bumping for a moment and think of it."
A. A. Milne, from Winnie-the Pooh, Chapter 1.
Art imitates life, so I am told. Based on what I see repeatedly at manufacturing facilities in America, it seems that a lot of us keep bumping our heads. It amazes me that, very much like Winnie-the-Pooh, we don't take a moment to think. We are too busy with the chaos of running (surviving) the day-to-day challenges of work that we never stop to find another way (a better way!).
For example, how many of us take the time to collect data on our plant efficiencies like First Pass Yield (FPY) and go so far as record the reasons for the non-conformance (putting them in fancy Pareto charts). The next day we repeat the same data collection and chart making activities only to repeat the whole data collect process the following day. (Bump, Bump, Bump!) Yet we never take the time to really go after the root causes of these recurring problems and put in the proper countermeasures (our moment to think).
What about when we collect data like downtime on our assembly lines or equipment complete with stratification by shift, by day of the week, by product? What about our safety audits and injury reports? What about our quality complaints from our customers, returned products and warranty claims? What about our scrap reports? What about our on-time delivery and delivery in-full reports?
Wherever I go, all this information is collected, organized, charted, reported and reviewed yet many times the reports you see on Monday will look strangely similar to the reports from last week, or the week before. Same old problems, different week. (BUMP, BUMP, BUMP).
There really is a better way, if only we can stop bumping for a moment and think of it!
Friday, August 11, 2006
Kaizen Hot-Wash
This afternoon, we completed another successful Kaizen 5-day event at an aerospace company in Indiana. The team was outstanding, the results were excellent and the kaizen event process was far from perfect, really meaning our kaizen implementation. Taking a page out of the military handbook, let's look at this kaizen event for lessons learned. Our military has long utilized the process of debriefing, or a "hot-wash" from what I have been told, to examine the lessons learned on the battlefield or training session for improvement and evaluation, providing a critical review of one's action. Here's what I learned from this kaizen event.
Lesson 1. Keep the kaizen training to what is actually needed for the event.
I learned this lesson long ago, abandoning the idea of packing as much training into the event as possible to increase value to the participants. It makes absolutely zero sense to go into the details of a SMED system (Single Minute Exchange of Dies) if your event has no change-overs as an obstacle to improvement. Yet, I have attended kaizen events where the training package was a canned program for the full day regardless of the scope of the kaizen event. Our kaizen event this week concentrated on throughput to the customer so the training was only a 1/2 day focusing on seeing waste, standard work and process flow. I spent too much time on some of the tools, time observation for one, which could have shortened the training time by 30 minutes.
Lesson 2. Provide the kaizen training at the right time.
Many kaizen event training programs spend valuable training time the first day teaching how to complete a report out on Friday. By the time Friday rolls around, they end up teaching this portion of the training all over again because everybody has forgotten the lesson during the week. Sounds like muda (waste) to me. I only mention the report out on Monday morning, leaving the details for Friday morning prior to the report out. When Friday arrives, I bring the team together for the quick "How-to-do-a-report-out" session and then the team goes to work without many questions. Did a good job on this one.
Lesson 3. Properly scale the scope of the kaizen event.
How many kaizen events bring an elephant to the table for a small team of five people to try to eat in one week? Although we love a challenge and admire a team that tries to tackle a huge project, the size of the scope matters. Keep the scope in line with the resources at hand. Our project was huge, covering over 30 process steps that encompassed over 10 days of well documented cycle time to complete one unit. It would have been impossible to cover all this work so we focused only on the waste in between these steps, walking and waiting. This scale could have been examined in more detail prior to the event.
Lesson 4. Measure twice, cut once.
After training on Monday at 12:30 pm , our kaizen team was ready for action. Time to go to gemba. With data collection activities through Tuesday afternoon, the team had a workable layout ready for maintenance support by 2:30 pm. A flurry of activity with equipment moves and scouring the area for our needs lead us to a transformed work area by 6:30 that night. Maintenance started without haste hooking up the new air and electric drops. The new layout was a tremendous improvement. Hurray!
But wait, the team started coming up with more ideas to try out. We asked the maintenance crew to hold up a bit while the team discovered the process of conducting multiple experiments to find the optimal layout. Only 5 layouts later, the team was satisfied with the results. Each of the 5 layouts shortened the distance traveled in the process, gaining an extra 5% improvement. Luckily, only a few of drops had any significant changes so we did not completely tick off our wonderful maintenance support crew. Do not become satisfied with idea A without trying multiple solutions (idea b, c, d, etc), you just might find a better way. Then call in the maintenance troops to action.
Lesson 5. Do not tick off your maintenance support crew.
Please see above.
Lesson 6. Pick the right lean tool for the job and use it well.
There are plenty of lean tools to choose for kaizen activities so your MUST determine the right tool and use it well. In our case, the spaghetti diagram was the best tool. It was simple to use although extremely time consuming for the large amount of travel in our process. The spaghetti diagram quickly showed the team the best areas for opportunity and was a great visual for comparison of layout options. Some of our time observations the first day did not end up providing much help with our focus on the in-between process wastes.
Lesson 7. Buy-in, Buy-in, Buy-in.
Without buy-in of the operators in a new process, the improvements of the week will not last past the Friday report-out. It is critical to get the process owners to buy-in to the new process. Of the five team members, we had one operator and one team leader of the process. All the other operators were asked for input and involved in the process of determining the layout each step of the way. Even with this high level of involvement, we had some unhappy campers. It took plenty of "please try it" and "what do you think?" before all the concerns were addressed. Several changes were not completely understood by those it affected and several detailed changes were not discussed outside of the team before we made them. It may take patience and effort on the part of the team to get buy-in. To be successful, you have no other choice!
Lesson 8. Watch out for collateral damage.
Our new layout had a ripple effect. We took over an area belonging to another process and ended up swapping areas with them. We had a layout for our area but not one for the ousted department. We moved our equipment around our plan with precision and piled up the other department's workbenches into our recently vacated area with reckless abandonment. Although we did provide air and electric to keep them running production the next day, they were not too happy with our thrown together layout. We ended up spending time the next day fixing the mess we left behind. The end results was a much improved process flow for both areas however we should have spent some quality time on the layout of the other area upfront.
Lesson 9. Keep your kaizen goals simple.
Many times a kaizen event will put a long list of targets or goals on the team to accomplish, productivity, cycle time, 5-S, floor space, quality, etc. All these goals are noble and beneficial however they may leave a team running in too many directions. Pick one goal to focus your kaizen team. Our kaizen goal was to improve the throughput of the process to the customer. We measured this goal with 1) time and 2) distance. Clear, simple and measurable. Good Job!
Lesson 10. Go to gemba and stay there the entire week.
With the exception of our Monday morning training and eating lunch, our kaizen team remained in our kaizen area the entire week. We had a meeting table, a few chairs and a flip chart placed in our kaizen area sharing information with the area (along with all those that passed by) throughout the kaizen process. Not only did this remove the muda of walking back and forth to an offsite meeting room, it also limited the team debates on the actual process. We shared information on display with our kaizen newspaper for all to see. No secrets, nothing to hide. Even the daily team leader meeting and the final report out were conducted at gemba. In fact, our Friday report out was attended by the owner of the company and his entire staff along with interested management from other departments seeing the actual improvements at gemba instead of relying on just descriptions of the changes in a stale conference room. Have the final report out at gemba, it will have a huge impact!
As stated earlier, the kaizen event results were excellent. We reduced the customer leadtime in days by 36% and shortened the distance traveled by 68% (from over 6, 800 feet to 2,199 feet). The spirit of kaizen was ignited at this company and they are ready for more!
Can the kaizen process be improved? Absolutely!
Lesson 1. Keep the kaizen training to what is actually needed for the event.
I learned this lesson long ago, abandoning the idea of packing as much training into the event as possible to increase value to the participants. It makes absolutely zero sense to go into the details of a SMED system (Single Minute Exchange of Dies) if your event has no change-overs as an obstacle to improvement. Yet, I have attended kaizen events where the training package was a canned program for the full day regardless of the scope of the kaizen event. Our kaizen event this week concentrated on throughput to the customer so the training was only a 1/2 day focusing on seeing waste, standard work and process flow. I spent too much time on some of the tools, time observation for one, which could have shortened the training time by 30 minutes.
Lesson 2. Provide the kaizen training at the right time.
Many kaizen event training programs spend valuable training time the first day teaching how to complete a report out on Friday. By the time Friday rolls around, they end up teaching this portion of the training all over again because everybody has forgotten the lesson during the week. Sounds like muda (waste) to me. I only mention the report out on Monday morning, leaving the details for Friday morning prior to the report out. When Friday arrives, I bring the team together for the quick "How-to-do-a-report-out" session and then the team goes to work without many questions. Did a good job on this one.
Lesson 3. Properly scale the scope of the kaizen event.
How many kaizen events bring an elephant to the table for a small team of five people to try to eat in one week? Although we love a challenge and admire a team that tries to tackle a huge project, the size of the scope matters. Keep the scope in line with the resources at hand. Our project was huge, covering over 30 process steps that encompassed over 10 days of well documented cycle time to complete one unit. It would have been impossible to cover all this work so we focused only on the waste in between these steps, walking and waiting. This scale could have been examined in more detail prior to the event.
Lesson 4. Measure twice, cut once.
After training on Monday at 12:30 pm , our kaizen team was ready for action. Time to go to gemba. With data collection activities through Tuesday afternoon, the team had a workable layout ready for maintenance support by 2:30 pm. A flurry of activity with equipment moves and scouring the area for our needs lead us to a transformed work area by 6:30 that night. Maintenance started without haste hooking up the new air and electric drops. The new layout was a tremendous improvement. Hurray!
But wait, the team started coming up with more ideas to try out. We asked the maintenance crew to hold up a bit while the team discovered the process of conducting multiple experiments to find the optimal layout. Only 5 layouts later, the team was satisfied with the results. Each of the 5 layouts shortened the distance traveled in the process, gaining an extra 5% improvement. Luckily, only a few of drops had any significant changes so we did not completely tick off our wonderful maintenance support crew. Do not become satisfied with idea A without trying multiple solutions (idea b, c, d, etc), you just might find a better way. Then call in the maintenance troops to action.
Lesson 5. Do not tick off your maintenance support crew.
Please see above.
Lesson 6. Pick the right lean tool for the job and use it well.
There are plenty of lean tools to choose for kaizen activities so your MUST determine the right tool and use it well. In our case, the spaghetti diagram was the best tool. It was simple to use although extremely time consuming for the large amount of travel in our process. The spaghetti diagram quickly showed the team the best areas for opportunity and was a great visual for comparison of layout options. Some of our time observations the first day did not end up providing much help with our focus on the in-between process wastes.
Lesson 7. Buy-in, Buy-in, Buy-in.
Without buy-in of the operators in a new process, the improvements of the week will not last past the Friday report-out. It is critical to get the process owners to buy-in to the new process. Of the five team members, we had one operator and one team leader of the process. All the other operators were asked for input and involved in the process of determining the layout each step of the way. Even with this high level of involvement, we had some unhappy campers. It took plenty of "please try it" and "what do you think?" before all the concerns were addressed. Several changes were not completely understood by those it affected and several detailed changes were not discussed outside of the team before we made them. It may take patience and effort on the part of the team to get buy-in. To be successful, you have no other choice!
Lesson 8. Watch out for collateral damage.
Our new layout had a ripple effect. We took over an area belonging to another process and ended up swapping areas with them. We had a layout for our area but not one for the ousted department. We moved our equipment around our plan with precision and piled up the other department's workbenches into our recently vacated area with reckless abandonment. Although we did provide air and electric to keep them running production the next day, they were not too happy with our thrown together layout. We ended up spending time the next day fixing the mess we left behind. The end results was a much improved process flow for both areas however we should have spent some quality time on the layout of the other area upfront.
Lesson 9. Keep your kaizen goals simple.
Many times a kaizen event will put a long list of targets or goals on the team to accomplish, productivity, cycle time, 5-S, floor space, quality, etc. All these goals are noble and beneficial however they may leave a team running in too many directions. Pick one goal to focus your kaizen team. Our kaizen goal was to improve the throughput of the process to the customer. We measured this goal with 1) time and 2) distance. Clear, simple and measurable. Good Job!
Lesson 10. Go to gemba and stay there the entire week.
With the exception of our Monday morning training and eating lunch, our kaizen team remained in our kaizen area the entire week. We had a meeting table, a few chairs and a flip chart placed in our kaizen area sharing information with the area (along with all those that passed by) throughout the kaizen process. Not only did this remove the muda of walking back and forth to an offsite meeting room, it also limited the team debates on the actual process. We shared information on display with our kaizen newspaper for all to see. No secrets, nothing to hide. Even the daily team leader meeting and the final report out were conducted at gemba. In fact, our Friday report out was attended by the owner of the company and his entire staff along with interested management from other departments seeing the actual improvements at gemba instead of relying on just descriptions of the changes in a stale conference room. Have the final report out at gemba, it will have a huge impact!
As stated earlier, the kaizen event results were excellent. We reduced the customer leadtime in days by 36% and shortened the distance traveled by 68% (from over 6, 800 feet to 2,199 feet). The spirit of kaizen was ignited at this company and they are ready for more!
Can the kaizen process be improved? Absolutely!
Wednesday, July 26, 2006
Tuesday, July 25, 2006
Signs that You Might Need a 5S Program #2
If you constantly drop oil dry or some other fluid absorbent supplies around your leaking equipment and it is starting to attract all the cats in the neighborhood, you might need a 5S program.
Monday, July 24, 2006
Signs that You Might Need a 5S Program #1
If you can't make out the red emergency stop button from the other buttons on a machine because it's colored dirt brown like the machine, you might need a 5S program.
Sunday, July 23, 2006
Bringing Work In-House
A week ago, I worked on a kaizen event at a client site in Indiana. This kaizen event was not only successful but it had the best target goal of all, to bring work in-house that was currently being outsourced.
It seems lately that the current corporate direction is to chase the low labor dollars abroad to turn a quick improvement to the bottom line that will satisfy the Wall Street crowd. This kaizen project took the lean approach of increasing product velocity in-house first.
In one week, we opened up over 25% of the floor space (over 3,000 sq feet) by reducing and standardizing the work in process along with re-aligning the machines in the department to match the product flow. The product velocity in the department went from 5 days to 1-2 days depending on product complexity. Finally, the existing MRP system has tweaked to respond daily to the changing requirements. Yes, we are still going with a MRP based system (Got to learn to walk before we run). A few kaizen newspaper items were recorded as homework items that required additional work before the new process is 100% on-line however the team has a great action plan to succeed. All done without adding a single new employee. For the customer, our turnaround time went from a 3 week leadtime with the outsourced product to under 1 week with the work in-house.
What a great reason to form a kaizen team, bring the work in-house!
It seems lately that the current corporate direction is to chase the low labor dollars abroad to turn a quick improvement to the bottom line that will satisfy the Wall Street crowd. This kaizen project took the lean approach of increasing product velocity in-house first.
In one week, we opened up over 25% of the floor space (over 3,000 sq feet) by reducing and standardizing the work in process along with re-aligning the machines in the department to match the product flow. The product velocity in the department went from 5 days to 1-2 days depending on product complexity. Finally, the existing MRP system has tweaked to respond daily to the changing requirements. Yes, we are still going with a MRP based system (Got to learn to walk before we run). A few kaizen newspaper items were recorded as homework items that required additional work before the new process is 100% on-line however the team has a great action plan to succeed. All done without adding a single new employee. For the customer, our turnaround time went from a 3 week leadtime with the outsourced product to under 1 week with the work in-house.
What a great reason to form a kaizen team, bring the work in-house!
Time Waste
"Time waste differs from material waste in that there can be no salvage. The easiest of all wastes, and the hardest to correct, is the waste of time, because wasted time does not litter the floor like wasted material." Henry Ford, Today and Tomorrow, 1926.
Sunday, July 09, 2006
5S Footprints on the Manufacturing Floor
I spent yesterday at a client's manufacturing plant conducting a 5S Day. The 5S stands for Sort, Straighten, Shine, Standardize and Sustain to create an organized, clean and productive workspace. This 5S day was held on a Saturday when normal production was not scheduled to run allowing the team to focus on the target area and not disrupt daily production. We started the day with a quick 1 hour 5S training session followed by working in the target area on the first 3 S of Sort, Straighten and Shine. Our 5S team included members of their management, associates and even temporary help working side-by-side to transform our target area from one of typical chaos to organized flow.
One of the dilemmas facing the team was how to improve the manufacturing floor. As shown in the picture above, this area has falling into a multiple footprint trap. Since this company began their lean journey just last fall, they eagerly jumped into it with both feet. Over the course of about eight months, They have already completing over 20 kaizens throughout the plant. Our target area changed several times from previous kaizen activities causing footprints to change and increase in numbers. The problem is that the majority of the footprints were painted on the floor and old ones were never eliminated.
The purpose of footprints is to designate a home location. As you kaizen an area, if outdated footprints remain on the floor and new ones go in, all you get is confusion. I was told that it too much trouble to remove the old footprints.
Not to let a little paint create further confusion, I took a small group aside to tackle the issue. The shop floor was a typical concrete floor, unpainted but sealed. The painted lines criss-crossed the floor with several coats of paint. Our first attempts to scrap up the paint were painfully slow and not very effective. I quickly realized why they previously gave up. Our second attempt called for stronger action. We pouring a combination heavy duty paint thinner on the lines plus aggressive hand scraping. It worked however it still was not the fastest job of the day. After lots of elbow grease, the old footprints were eliminated.
The team members discussed the line issue trying to decide if paint or tape was the best solution for the future. Paint is more durable but more difficult to change for future kaizens. Tape is very flexible for change but wears out quicker. With some debating, the team arrived at a unified solution to go with floor tape. With the certainty of future kaizens, tape is the most flexible option. To help us sustain the improvements, monitoring and replacing the floor tape as needed was added to the walk through 5S evaluation form as a special item.
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