Lean Basics

Debunking Six Common Misconceptions of Standardized Work 0
- Lean Basics
- March 14, 2012
Last week I featured a guest post on standard work as a mechanism for facilitating and empowering improvement. By documenting the current best practice, standardized work forms the baseline for kaizen or continuous improvement. As the standard is improved, the new standard becomes the baseline for further improvements, and so on. Improving standardized work is
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Lean Rules to Live By 0
- Lean Basics
- February 13, 2012
Rules create structure in our systems. Without rules there would be in chaos. Lean rules provide the guidance needed to implement improvement, explaining the “why” behind lean tools and the Six Sigma methodology. Lean rules also help develop new solutions to problems. For everyone in an organization, these rules help structure activities, connect customers and
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That’s Kaizen – FastCap Style 0
- Lean Basics, Sharing Best Practices
- December 22, 2011
Many think Kaizen is about some sort of 5 day event where you shut down and make improvement. Maybe this idea is fed by consultants in some manner but Kaizen in fact is not this. It is about small incremental change. The type of change that makes it easier to do your job. Change in
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Using U Shaped Cells 0
- Lean Basics, Sharing Best Practices
- November 15, 2011
Generally a horseshoe or U-Shaped work area layout that enables workers to easily move from one process to another in close proximity and pass parts between workers with little effort. Work cells do not need to be in a U-shaped configuration though this is often common due to maximizing product throughput with minimal use of
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Bring Value to Your Value Stream Map with These Ten Tips 0
- Lean Basics
- November 3, 2011
Value stream mapping is a tremendously valuable tool for improving a process. Well suited for a broad range of industries and processes. A value stream map (VSM) illustrates the flow of materials and information as a product or service moves through a process. In short, it helps eliminate waste. But like any tool, VSM must
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An Introduction to 5S plus Safety 0
- Lean Basics
- September 12, 2011
A reader recently asked me for some information on implementing 5S in their factory. Even though I shared my 6S posters a couple weeks ago I thought I could still share some more. 5S was developed, as with so many of today’s best practice tools, in Japan. 5S is the name of a workplace organization
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