Tag Archives: Lean

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Below is a list of the Lean articles published at Five Minute Lean.   Click on any of the links below to learn more about these Lean methods.

 

Seth Godin on the Gemba

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Seth Godin, author of the fantastic book “Tribes” often brings great ideas to the marketplace and certainly has more than a few hungry customers ready to snap up his every word.

In the book Tribes, Seth notes that “the top isn’t the top anymore, because the streets are where the action is”.

What he’s describing, without knowing it, is the Gemba.  Otherwise known as “where the work is done”, the Gemba is where the action is, where the customer interacts with us, and where we have the power to make or break a company.

Leading from the top is no longer enough.  Simply decreeing change will no longer work, it has to be led from the ground up.  The best way to discover customer value is by being there on the front lines.  The best way to see wasteful processes is to be there performing them.

Leading from the bottom, by creating a movement, a groundswell, a crowd of raving fans, is also the way to incite positive change.  Whether it is in a company or an entire industry, change is led from the bottom more than ever before.

And when we have a movement, an idea worth believing in, then all we need is a means to connect and communicate with our tribe and create that groundswell.  We have the tools to do this already at our fingertips – with Twitter, with Facebook, with WordPress, with dozens of other tools, all free and easy to use.

So if you’re having trouble connecting to your customers or inciting change, go to the Gemba.  Those third-hand reports you’re getting are simply not going to cut it.

Yours in change,

Dave McLachlan

First Pass Yield: Lean Glossary

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First Pass Yield: What Is It?

First Pass Yield is the amount of times as a percentage that a process goes through perfectly the first time.  Or to put it another way, it measures how many times you need to go back through the previous steps to get additional information or fix a defect.  An example might be a car’s paint job that has bubbles or patches or in an office environment it might be a form that is not filled out correctly and needs more information from the previous department.

If our item comes through correctly 70% of the time, then we have a “First Pass Yield” of 70%.  Or if you prefer, you can note it as re-work which is one of the eight wastes, in which case it would be re-work of 30%.

Ideally we want our first pass yield to be 100%.

First Pass Yield is almost a by-product of a good Lean implementation.  To increase it, we are targeting the waste of defects or re-work.  We can use Poka-Yoke (Mistake-Proofing) to avoid errors.  We can add Visual Management and Jidoka to see if the process is broken and should be stopped, fixed or looked at.  We can ask our 5 Whys if something is continually happening that requires rework.  We can use Line Balancing and One-Piece-Flow (or get as close as we can to it) to reduce information silos that might be causing rework.

All of these tools work together to increase First Pass Yield.

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Design For Manufacture and Assembly: Lean Glossary

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DFMA: What Is It?

Design for Manufacture and Assembly (or DFMA) is where the process is designed for ease of manufacture and ease of assembly, so that everything fits perfectly together at the end.  This can help a product be made with fewer parts and at the best price.

A good example of this is IKEA – especially in Europe – where everything is made to fit together perfectly so the end user can assemble easily, and prices are much cheaper than can be found in other stores.

In your own work it might be a process that has all its parts come together at exactly the right time and fit seamlessly for the end result.  The idea is to keep it simple, or to quote a phrase that is attributed with Albert Einstein – “Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler.”

You will notice that DFMA also ties in with increasing First Pass Yield, reducing defects and reducing the wastes of “over-processing or over-designing” a product.

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Work In Process (WIP): Lean Glossary

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Work in Process: What Is It?

Work in Process are the items between process steps within a value stream.  In Lean systems, standardised Work in Process is the minimum number of parts, including parts in machines or queues, needed to keep a department of process step flowing smoothly.

A Supermarket is one of the most common standard ways for implementing Work in Process if necessary.

By David McLachlan

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Voice Of The Customer (VOC): Lean Glossary

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Voice of the Customer (VOC): What Is It?

The Voice of the Customer (VOC) is a term used to describe the gathering and analysing of data around what the customer needs and wants.

It can be collected using tools such as the Net Promoter Score and analysed using tools like Kano Analysis.  Either way, our customer is any department or step after us in the process, and also the most important – as Value can only be determined by our customer and to get this we have to ask.

By David McLachlan

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Value Stream Map: Lean Glossary

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Value Stream Map: What Is It?

A Value Stream Map is the accepted method for mapping a process flow or “Value Stream”.

It starts with the customer in the top right, and a Supplier in the top left corner, and shows the steps in the value stream from left to right.

lean value stream map basic

Value Stream Mapping icons have evolved over the years to include many different Lean tools, such as FIFO Lanes, Supermarkets, rework, inventories or queues, Push, Pull and many others.  For this reason it can seem quite complex, however a Lean practitioner will often argue that with a little practice or experience they are able to see the full process at a glance with the help of these icons.

lean value stream map icons list

Once you’ve added the icons, measures and wastes to your Value Stream Map, it will often look like this:

lean value stream map example

Other practitioners may prefer a Swim Lane Flow Chart.

By David McLachlan

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Value: Lean Glossary

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Value: What Is It?

Value in Lean terms is always determined by the customer.  And you can’t just guess, you need to ask.  Lean is about getting information from the source, from the Gemba, and determining Value is no different.

When mapping a Value Stream, it is important to note whether a process step is:

  1. VA:   Value Add
  2. NVA:  Non-Value Add
  3. NVAR: Non-Value Add but Required

NVAR steps might be something that doesn’t add value to a customer or the end product, but is required for regulatory approval.

A Value Stream is how a process flows from start to finish as it delivers value to the customer.

By David McLachlan

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Unevenness or Mura: Lean Glossary

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Unevenness or Mura: What Is It?

Unevenness or Mura in an operation is when a process has excessive wait time followed by excessively busy periods.  In other words, team-mates are forced to “hurry and then wait”.

Not only does Unevenness in a process reduce morale, it is often a wasteful use of team-mates time and resources.

Unevenness can be reduced by using Line Balancing, working towards One Piece Flow, and reducing Re-Work in a process.

By David McLachlan

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Total Productive Maintenance (TPM): Lean Glossary

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Total Productive Maintenance (TPM): What Is It?

TPM is a set of techniques used to keeps machines in good order, reduce downtime, increase quality and capacity and the life of the machine.

The four steps for TPM are very similar to a Lean Transformation:

  1. Return Equipment to Reliable Condition: Perform 5s to remove unnecessary tools or debris, change filters or lubricants and create a scheduled maintenance of the desired machine.
  2. Eliminate breakdowns: This means getting rid of the factors that contribute to failure.  Fishbone analysis or the 5 Whys are a great tool for this.
  3. Develop a TPM Information Database: Document all the preventative maintenance procedures and keep them in an easily accessible location.
  4. Eliminate defects: Here we look at ways to make it impossible for our machine to encounter defects or break down in the future.  Poka Yoke and Autonomation are great tools for this.

Often a short Kaizen event will be able to go through all of these steps and get your machines in good standing.

By David McLachlan

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