Lean Intro
Lean Intro
Lean Intro
The main idea of “lean production” is about highlighting the things that add value
by reducing everything else (waste).
As a proven consequence, when you eliminate waste, the quality of products
improves, while production time and costs are reduced
The biggest waste of time, money, energy, passion, and life skills is building or
doing something that nobody wants or appreciates.
In business, customers vote how much they value products and services with their
money. Building the right things is a prerequisite for business success. That’s not
part of lean production deals with, but rather the lean startup concept.
Next to that, when you know what to offer to the market (doing the right things),
you want to be as efficient as possible in doing that (doing things right).
Efficiency is about achieving peak performance, where we use the least amount of
inputs to achieve the highest output. To minimize inputs, all waste must be
eliminated.
Using a good time & attendance system and project time tracker and similar
technologies supporting business processes can greatly help to reduce different
types of waste listed above, especially those that are connected to time waste.
2. Inventory – All the access products and material that are not being processed
Inventory or inventories are all the components, works in process, and finished
products not being processed. Every piece of raw material, all finished goods, and
every other item not being sold is actually a cost for a company.
Additionally, inventory is a cost because it has to be stored, and transported, and
sometimes needs packaging. It can also be damaged.
Inventory waste might also be cash not used to generate income, space not
completely utilized, paperwork which is unnecessarily stored, etc.
The most frequent cause of excessive inventory is:
1. Overproduction of goods
2. Overspending on inputs
3. Inventory defects
The solution: Don’t store any extra inventory. Make purchases only when needed
and in quantities that are actually required.
3. Motion - All movement of equipment not done in the easiest possible way
The waste of motion includes all movements that are not done as simply as
possible. It’s similar to the transportation of products, but movement refers to the
motion of equipment and operators. We are talking here about people or
equipment moving or walking more than is required to perform processing.
All excessive motion represents big stress. In business, there is a saying that even
machines wear out. You want to save as much energy and resources as possible,
even at the micro level.
Try to simplify and optimize all motion in the production line, placing equipment
nearby, providing an ergonomic workspace, and implementing visual signals so
things are easy to find.
4. Waiting – idle production time where processes are not optimally synchronized
Waiting, also known as queuing, is another type of waste. It simply means waiting
for the next production step or dealing with interruptions of production during a
shift change.
When two interdependent processes are not synchronized, idle time is produced,
and we have waiting waste. An example of this is waiting for an answer from
another department so you can take action, system downtime, or waiting for shared
equipment.
Underutilization
Underutilization is a waste of talent, and it means failing to make use of the people
within an organization. People are the greatest assets by far, and their
underutilization is the greatest waste possible. Every manager should strive
towards developing and applying the company’s talents in order to provide as
much value as possible for the markets. Make sure you fully utilize your people
with a good project time tracker with powerful time use visualization.
1. Delays
2. Duplication
3. Unclear communication
4. Lack of information
5. Lost opportunities
6. Equipment breakdowns etc.
Some tools that are easy to get started with are Backchannelchat, Padlet, YO teach!
Each of these promote asynchronous as well as synchronous conversations and are
good for promoting communication during the learning process
Step 1: Define the problem. Are you certain you have articulated the right
problem to solve?
Step 2: Frame the decision. You need to ask who-
is impacted?
needs to provide input?
should be part of the discussion?
should make and review the decision?
Step 3: Implement the decision. You need to ask: “Who needs to know? Are
the people identified for implementing the decision capable of doing so?
How long will it take?”
Step 4: Monitor the results. Once the decision has been implemented, you
have to monitor the situation to see that the implementation was successful.
You can see that decision-making encompasses more than just formulating a
decision.