| Volume 7 No. 12 December 2006 www.superfactory.com | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| From the Editor | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
2007 will be the 10th anniversary of Superfactory! Look for some special features about how we've developed from a simple set of internet links into the most comprehensive lean manufacturing resource site on the internet!
We are embarking on a major project to significantly increase the depth of our content. As part of this project we added RSS/XML feeds to most pages, which will allow those of you with newsreaders like Bloglines or the latest Internet Explorer version 7 to automatically be notified of new content. Just click on the
As always we appreciate your support for our mission to spread manufacturing excellence knowledge. Click here for more information on sponsorships.
- Kevin Meyer |
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| Book Review | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The Lean Product Development Guide The Lean Product Development Guidebook describes over two dozen powerful and practical methods for slashing development waste and improving resource utilization, spanning the full spectrum from inception to successful product launch. An integrated methodology for slashing time to market is presented, based on best in class practices gathered from Toyota Motor Company and many other leading firms. This book includes over 150 figures and diagrams, real-world examples and step-by-step instructions. |
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 TPS: The Thinking Production System by Dan Markovitz
Teruyuki Minoura of Toyota, and John Shook, co-author of Learning To See and senior advisor in the Lean Enterprise Institute, say that “TPS” should really stand for “Thinking Production System.” In their view, more than anything else, a manager committed to Lean must constantly ask questions: Why do we have parts piled up here? Why is this worker falling behind? Why are there errors in this process? Managers need to think, to ask questions, to find ways to improve the system.
But what do you look for in a business process? What are the signs of waste? How do you spot the problems? When you’re dealing with knowledge workers in an office, critical process inefficiencies aren’t as visible as they are in a factory. Value stream mapping is only part of the answer. You also need to see and eliminate the waste inherent in how people work.
Here’s a guide to some of the questions you should be asking.
Sclerosis of the inbox
How often does your IT department have to buy new storage space for the mail server? How often do they suspend mail privileges because people are storing emails about mission-critical issues like, say, the decision to have Chinese food for lunch. . . last April?
Your knowledge workers’ inboxes are gorged with junk like late-career Orson Wells because they don’t have a Lean process for managing the tidal wave of email. The real cost of these clogged inboxes isn’t the server space, however – that’s pretty cheap these days. It’s the terrible “signal to noise” ratio that makes it more difficult to identify and respond to what’s truly important. Consider this: in 1999, NASA’s Mars Climate Orbiter burned up in orbit due to a miscommunication regarding English and metric units. A task force found that a simple, unanswered email about the correct measurement units led to the disaster. The total loss to NASA – $327 million.
Each email contains information and ideas that are part of the value streams that flow through your knowledge workers. When that information gets stuck in someone’s inbox – when the value stream stops flowing – you’re looking at nothing more than another form of excess inventory. And as NASA learned, when the value stream backs up and puddles of inventory form, the consequences can be very expensive, indeed. What’s lurking in your inbox?
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| Other Perspectives | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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For more than 40 years, “Lean Manufacturing” techniques have been achieving outstanding success rates. First, in Japanese plants and now in advanced factories throughout North America, it has proven to be a cost effective and flexible approach to achieving superior customer satisfaction. Many shop floors, however, still look and perform as they did years ago, simply because sustaining the transition to Lean has proven to be a task of monumental proportions.
You can’t go partway with Lean; you have to go all the way. If you don’t marry yourself to 5S concepts, commit to continuous Lean efforts and learn to make tough choices – as needed, on an ongoing basis – you always end up slipping back into the same bad habits.
A lot of manufacturers think that once they successfully implement Lean in an ailing area of their facility or on one problem production line, their troubles are over. In fact this is the time to use what you’ve learned and apply it somewhere else, multiplying your successes.
One of my clients, Mississauga, Ont.-based Tempress Ltd., a manufacturer of safety mixer valves and bathroom and kitchen faucets for the plumbing industry, learned this lesson well. Applying Lean concepts to its assembly line for pressure balancing valve production, we actually took a batch-based process and turned it into single-piece flow. After developing and reviewing several layouts, we completely rearranged the shop floor and restarted it, to great success. But we didn’t stop there. We took the same Lean approach to the company’s other line, the lavatory assembly cell. Here we also noted very positive results. Now on both lines, employees rotate efficiently through their new modular work cells.
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Superfactory is proud to announce that it will be a sponsor of the 
Thanks to popular demand we have categorized, edited and updated our most popular blog posts into a 400-page book to be published at the end of this month. To learn more or to be notified when it becomes available, 
