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May 1 2016

Tesla Plant Visit And Non-Disclosure Agreement

Before we entered the Tesla plant, tour guide Adam Slusser ran through the stipulations of the Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA) we had just signed: we couldn’t take pictures, draw sketches, or even post accounts of the visit on social media. To honor this NDA, I will therefore limit myself to quoting what others have already posted elsewhere.

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Apr 7 2016

The A3 Report – Part 3: Limitations and Common Mistakes | Christoph Roser 

Even if the A3 report is sometimes paraded around like a sacred relic, it is in my view only a minor tool. The main work is still identifying and solving the problem. If I have the choice between a sloppy root cause analysis on an A3 report and a good one on the back of an used envelope, I would go with the envelope any time. Using an A3 report will offer no advantage at all if the content is garbage!

Sourced through Scoop.it from: www.allaboutlean.com

Michel Baudin‘s comments:

This is the 3rd post by Christoph Roser about A3. I only wrote two, What is an A3? and Beyond A3s. I agree with him that it is a minor tool, but our perspectives differ on details. Christoph sees A3 as primarily for problem-solving; I see them as a communication tool with many more applications, in particular work instructions. And Pascal Dennis likes to use them in Hoshin Planning/Strategy Deployment.

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Mar 9 2016

How is Lean Different From Taylorism? | Michael Ballé | LEI

“They are completely different indeed. They differ in their purpose, their practice and their outcomes. Lean is about self-reflection and seeking smarter, less wasteful dynamic solutions together. Taylorism is about static optimization of work imposed by ‘those who know’ on ‘those who do.'”

Sourced through Scoop.it from: www.lean.org

 

Michel Baudin‘s comments:

Yes, “Scientific Management” was just a marketing label for theories that weren’t truly scientific but were instead based on a simplistic view of human nature. And Taylor’s stopwatch time studies were just aimed at increasing production at every operation with no consideration of flow. I would, however, ask for a more accurate and complete story

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Mar 6 2016

Investing In The Future | Bodo Wiegand | Wiegand’s Watch

Bodo WiegandBodo Wiegand heads Germany’s Lean Management Institute. In his latest newsletter, on Wiegand’s Watch, he discusses the case of a company he recently visited that is rushing to invest €12.3M ($13.4M) in a new warehouse and new machines but “doesn’t have the resources” to improve current operations.

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Mar 3 2016

Improving  50% is easy, improving 5% is difficult | Chris Hohmann

“It is with this enigmatic sentence that one of my Japanese mentors introduced the growing difficulty with continuous improvement. What it means is that at the beginning of an improvement program or when starting in a new area, the first and usually the easiest actions bring big improvement, hence the “easy” 50%. This is also…”

Sourced through Scoop.it from: hohmannchris.wordpress.com

 

 

Michel Baudin‘s comments:

I have been using this method, but for the categorization of improvement ideas within a project rather than whole projects. For example, starting a SMED project on a machine with a 30-minute setup time, you find that you can get it down to 12 minutes in one week for $300 by organizing and prepositioning tool carts. This is your A idea.

Then you find that, by modifying a fixture on the machine, you can get it down to 4 minutes, in three months for $5,000. That’s your B idea. Finally, you discover that an automation retrofit can get it down to 2 minutes, in a year for $50,000, and it is a C idea.

The one issue I have with applying this kind of thinking to whole projects is that the scope of “low-hanging fruits” changes over time with the skill level of the work force. Much of what appears inaccessible at the outset of your transformation becomes cheap and easy by its third year.

I also find that how long and how much money it will take to implement an idea is easier for teams to work with than a metric like ROI. The economic justification of improvement projects is a difficult and sensitive subject.

See on Scoop.it – lean manufacturing

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Mar 2 2016

Sorry, But Lean Is About Cost Reduction… | Rob van Stekelenborg | LinkedIn

“It seems to be popular these last years and more recently to explicitly state that Lean is not (only) about cost reduction or cost cutting. See the recent posts by Mark Graban or Matt Hrivnak. So let me be somewhat controversial in this post (which I think is allowed to spark the discussion) and drop a bombshell: I think Lean is about cost reduction.”

Sourced through Scoop.it from: www.linkedin.com

Michel Baudin‘s comments:

I know that much of the TPS literature is about “reducing costs,” but it never includes any discussion of money! Ohno is even quoted as saying “Costs are not there to be measured, but to be reduced.” On the face of it, it makes no sense, because cost is an accounting term intended to represent the monetary value of all the resources spent to achieve a result.

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