Lean

Oct 30 2012

Implementing ‘5S’ Programs in Manufacturing Facilities | Hydrotech Motion Control Solutions

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This is one more misleading article about 5S. Following are a few of the more questionable assertions in it:

  • “5S is a system to […] optimize productivity” If all you do is 5S, you will not see a massive productivity increase.
  • “…the concept is especially attractive to older manufacturing facilities looking to reduce their costs.” Don’t expect any measurable cost reduction from just 5S.
  • “The 5S methodology is a simple and universal approach that works for companies all over the world.” It may look simple, but it is not, and most companies fail when they try to implement it. It is not for Lean beginners. If you try it with beginners, the most likely outcome is a mutiny.
  • “It is typically the first lean method that organizations implement.” Yes, due to simplistic advice, and it is a well-traveled shortcut to failure at Lean. Successful Lean implementations almost never start with 5S. Don’t take my word for it. Check out, for example, Art Byrne’s Lean Turnaround.
  • “The term refers to five steps — sort, set in order, shine, standardize, and sustain.” This is a common mistranslation of five Japanese terms that also start with S:
    • Seiri does not mean Sort. It means removing from the shop floor the items you don’t use routinely.
    • Seiton is not too badly mangled by “set in order.” It refers to having assigned locations and labels for everything you retain on the shop floor.
    • Seiso means Clean, not Shine. The idea is to have production operators clean their workplace at shift end, so that they notice details like spills, frayed cables, or broken lamps. It is not about making it pretty.
    • Seiketsu does not mean Standardize. It is the reduction of the first three S’s to daily practice by management enforcement, through things like checklists and audits.
    • Shitsuke does not mean Sustain, and it is not an action but the condition you reach when the performance of the first three S’s has become second-nature to the organization. As long as you tell your kid to brush his teeth every day, you are practicing Seiketsu; once he does it without prompting, you have achieved Shitsuke.

See on www.hydrotech.com

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Oct 28 2012

‘Lean’ approach to health care

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This article suggests that the implementation effort is both intense — with 50% to 60% of US hospitals and health care systems having launched some form of initiative — and confused.

The featured image shows what looks like a barcode scanner pointed at a prescription bag with no barcode. Is that what Lean is about?
While the title only refers to “Lean,” the content gives equal billing to Six Sigma, implying that both have had a comparable impact in Manufacturing.
The second picture shows nurses and administrative staff around a reception desk, suggesting that Lean is not about doctors and patients, but just about efficiency in support activities.

Patient experience is barely mentioned. A manager reports that UMass Memorial has reduced waiting times, which sounds great, but a nurse reports spending less time with each patient, which does not sound so great.
There is no mention of improvement in the quality of care, for example, by prevention of treatment errors, that one would expect out of Lean.

See on www.telegram.com

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Oct 26 2012

Lean Leadership

In the SME Society of Manufacturing Engineers discussion group on LinkedIn, Sam MacPherson asked for comments on the idea that Lean’s greatest need is he willingness and ability to lead.

Following is the response I posted:

“Willingness and ability to lead”  is too generic, and not what I would answer if asked what Lean’s greatest need is.

I look at it from a manufacturing perspective. As Art Smalley pointed out in his 2006 Shingo Prize conference presentation, what goes by the name of Lean in the US gives short shrift to the engineering of production lines. To me, the greatest need still is to put the proper focus on it.

Applications outside of manufacturing are not my focus, but I think that, likewise, the greatest need is to focus on the core of the activity. When the Gilbreths worked on hospitals 100 years ago, they didn’t try to streamline peripheral functions like billing; instead, they worked on the design of operating rooms, and came up with the now standard way, where nurses prepare tools and pass them to surgeons.

Of course, top management must be willing and able to lead, but it has to be in the right direction, to put the focus on the way work is done. And it is tricky.

On the one hand, Art Byrne tells CEOs to personally participate in Kaizen events, which certainly is a way to convey the message that this activity matters.

On the other hand, it can lead the organization to overemphasize Kaizen events, at the expense of other types of necessary actions. It is also impossible for other employees to forget who is on the team.

Generally speaking, whether on a Kaizen even or a Gemba walk, if the CEO expresses an idea on a technical issue, most will agree because it comes from the CEO, and a few will make a point of disagreeing, because it comes from the CEO. In neither case does the idea receive an objective assessment.

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Oct 26 2012

AME names four to 2012 Hall of Fame class | Plant Engineering

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-Honorees have diverse talents and skills, a common commitment to excellence.

See on www.plantengineering.com

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Oct 19 2012

Hospital uses ‘lean’ manufacturing techniques to speed stroke care | Science Codex

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A stroke team at Barnes Jewish Hospital in Saint-Louis used auto industry “lean” manufacturing principles to accelerate treatment times, according to new research in the American Heart Association’s journal Stroke.

See on www.sciencecodex.com

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Press Detroit Rivera

Oct 15 2012

Lean in a press shop

Andrew Turner, Managing Director at Ramsay Engineering, in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa posted the following question on The Lean Edge on 9/22/2012:

“Our company is split in 2 sections, the one a JIT assembly plant, the other a mass production Press Shop. Implementation of Lean in the JIT plant has been relatively simple (not that Lean is ever really simple), however, we are struggling with the implementation in our Press Shop. I know the importance of items like SMED and Heijunka in driving this journey, yet we are battling to get the ball rolling forward. Where do you think we should start the process in the Press Shop?”

To date, he has received responses from the following authors:

  1. Art Byrne: First link the logical value streams through product families, then get change over times under 10 mins
  2. Mike Rother: Depends on Your Goals
  3. Peter Handlinger: Establish a daily pattern production schedule to sequence your presses
  4. Tracey Richardson: Start with Production Control and Empower People through Standards

Of these, Art Byrne’s is the most specific and actionable. None of them, however, address the issue of skills development. At the outset, neither the press operators nor their managers can be expected to have a working knowledge of Lean or how to implement it. Therefore, feasibility by the organization you have is key in your initial choice of projects.

This is why, in shops where people work with machines, the first pilot projects are so often about SMED. This includes not only press shops but machine shops, injection molding shops and diecasting shops, with different technical specifics. On press operations, see Chapter 7 of Sekine & Arai’s Kaizen for Quick Changeover. Keeping in mind the skills development goal, you don’t start with your largest machine that currently takes 8 hours to set up, but with a small one that takes 30 minutes and that you can take down to 4 minutes in 2 months. This kind of success fires up your teams to take on tougher challenges.

After a successful pilot, when you want to apply SMED as appropriate in the entire shop, you need to analyze your activity to establish where it is most useful and easily achievable, and you need to realize the engineering implications. You usually cannot achieve SMED on presses with organization and standard work only; you also need to modify the machines, standardize the dies, and improve the flow of dies to and from the machines, including die maintenance, storage and retrieval. You have to know what and how long it takes to do it. This is not the sort of goals you reach with a few Kaizen events.

Peter Handlinger is the only responder to mention the issues of high- versus low-volume items, but only in the context of setting up daily schedules. I prefer to refer to this as demand analysis, and do it upfront, far upstream from production scheduling, with the objective of breaking down the output of your press shop into the following:

  • Runners, to each of which you dedicate on or more press or press lines.
  • Repeaters,  that you group in families by feature similarity to make in flexible press lines.
  • Strangers, that are items with low and sporadic demand that you make in small job-shop inside your press shop.

You use this breakdown to drive changes in the layout of your shop. In particular, it tells you which presses or press lines you can integrate with an assembly line, as Art Byrne recommends. Then you apply different approaches to production control for the different types of lines.

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