Jan 30 2015

Lean six sigma the oxymoron | Troy Taylor | LinkedIn

“In the beginning Toyota created TPS, then came Motorola in 1986 with their six sigma process. In 1988 John Krafcik coined the term Lean in his paper entitled“Triumph of the Lean production system” which was quickly popularised by Womack, Roos and Jones in 1991 with the publication of their book “The machine that changed the world”. Then in 2002 Michael George and Robert Lawrence junior published their book entitled “Lean Six Sigma: Combining Six Sigma with Lean Speed”.

Ever since this point organisations have been attempting to mesh the 2 methodologies into one business improvement technique and failing.”

Source: www.linkedin.com

Michel Baudin‘s comments:

Troy speaks from experience. Mine is similar, but I am not as negative on Six Sigma as he is. I think of Six Sigma as an approach that is useful within a range of applicability and is limited in scope.

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Jan 22 2015

When to Use “Kaizen Events” to Achieve and Sustain Results

This is a perennial topic in all groups related to Lean.  In the TPS principles and practice discussion group on LinkedIn, Bertrand Olivar and Kris Hallan recently started new discussions on the sustainability of Kaizen event results and on the means of achieving them. Most contributors hold extreme positions, the majority saying that Kaizen events are a panacea, and a growing minority that they are worthless.

In this you-are-with-us-or-against-us atmosphere, it is a challenge to get a hearing for the nuanced position I hold, which I summarize as follows:

  1. Kaizen events are not part of TPS
  2. Kaizen events are a valuable tool
  3. Kaizen events are not a panacea.
  4. Content should dictate how projects are managed, not the other way around.

Because it is a recurring topic, I have already accumulated the a trail of posts about it, that are referenced at the end.

Continue reading…

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Jan 20 2015

Don’t waste time on Strategy Deployment (Hoshin Kanri) | David Bovis

“Where people put the effort into it and understand the principles and why they work fully, Hoshin Kanri can unlock enormous potential throughout an organisation.”

Source: www.linkedin.com

Michel Baudin‘s comments:

Great article. As a condition for success in implementing Hoshin Planning, at least in Manufacturing, I would add timing. The organization must be ready for it, and it is, for example, after a number of successful, local improvement projects have led people to say “These are great, but what do they add up to? And where do they lead us?” Hoshin Planning can then help them figure out their own answers and provide a structure for moving forward.

In the list of failure causes for Hoshin Planning, I would also add the lingering influence of Management-By-Objectives (MBO), which keeps managers obsessed with gaming metrics instead of doing the work. I think it is what you mean when you say that Hoshins should not be formulated in terms of metrics, but it should be made clear that Hoshin Planning replaces MBO; it is not an add-on to it.

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Jan 18 2015

Does Historical Accuracy Matter?

Cuckoo clock from the Black Forest

The most famous line in The Third Man is Orson Welles’s addition to the script:

“In Italy for 30 years under the Borgias they had warfare, terror, murder, and bloodshed, but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, and the Renaissance. In Switzerland they had brotherly love – they had 500 years of democracy and peace, and what did that produce? The cuckoo clock.”

65 years later, Paul Krugman opened his editorial in today’s New York Times with:

“Ah, Switzerland, famed for cuckoo clocks…”

With all due respect to Paul Krugman, I believe this fame came from the movie, because cuckoo clocks are not from Switzerland but from the Black Forest region of Germany.

Continue reading…

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Jan 16 2015

The World’s Most Dangerous Job? | James Lawther

“You shouldn’t believe everything you read on the internet, but according to some of the more reliable sources, during World War II:

  • Over 12,000 Bomber Command aircraft were shot down
  • 55,500 aircrew died.
  • The life expectancy of a Lancaster bomber was 3 weeks
  • Tail-gunners were lucky if they survived four missions.”

Source: www.squawkpoint.com

 

Michel Baudin‘s comments:

This is a great story both about effective visualization of series of events in space-time and about proper interpretation in the face of sample bias.

Manufacturing, thankfully, is less dangerous than flying bombers in World War II was, but it is still more dangerous than it should be. Posting the locations of injuries on a map of the human body is also an effective way to identify which body parts are most commonly affected, and which safety improvements are most effective.

But are all injuries reported? Many organizations blame the victims for lowering their safety metrics, and discourage reporting. As a consequence, we can expect under-reporting and a bias towards injuries severe enough that reporting is unavoidable.

If you get data on an entire population, or if you thoughtfully select a representative sample, you can avoid bias, but many of the most commonly used samples are biased, often in ways that are difficult to figure out.

Customer surveys of product quality, for example, are biased by self-selection of the respondents. Are unhappy customers more likely to take the opportunity to vent than happy customers to praise? If so, to what extent? The effect of self-selection is even stronger for posting reviews on websites.

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Jan 14 2015

Not Exactly Poka-Yoke and Chaku-Chaku

“Japanese automobile manufacturing methods are adopted by American competitors. Watch the concept of poka-yoke, meaning “correct” and chaku-chaku, meaning “one worker, several tasks” in the manufacture of rear view mirrors.”

Source: www.youtube.com

Michel Baudin‘s comments:

An interesting video, but “Poka-Yoke” and “Chaku-Chaku” don’t mean what the narration says they do. And they are not “Japanese” methods but methods invented by specific individuals in specific companies that happened to be in Japan. Likewise, the assembly line is not an “American” method but a method invented by P.E. Martin, Charles Sorensen and others at Ford.

“Poka-Yoke” doesn’t just mean “correct.” More specifically, a Poka-Yoke is a device integrated in the production process to prevent human error or detect it immediately without adding any labor. Checking bar codes on parts, as shown in a video, doesn’t qualify as a Poka-Yoke because it adds labor, and error prevention devices that add labor are ineffective because they are by-passed under pressure.

The video shows an operator attending to a sequence of tasks and calls it “Chaku-Chaku.” There is, however, ,more to Chaku-Chaku than this, such as automatic processing at each station, with automatic unloading and chutes between stations, so that the work of the operator is focused on checking the part after an operation and loading it into the next.

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