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Stages of perfection with Lean Transformation

By on March 15, 2012 in Lean Six Sigma, Uncategorized

The internal value adding system cannot meet external customer demands with high inventory, high staff costs, high waste, low quality and thus low profitability.

The internal value adding system only just meets customer demands for delivery and quality but costs are still too high.

The internal value adding system meets customer delivery targets without high inventory; staff and resources are focused on quality and delivery.

Internal value adding capability exceeds customer expectations and products are delivered on time and on quality.

Profitability is high and costs are low. The perfection stage. Fine tuning of the value adding system and advanced proactive discussions with customers regarding their needs in the future.

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Lean Six Sigma and Supermarkets

By on March 14, 2012 in Lean Six Sigma, Uncategorized

In Lean Six Sigma the word Supermarket is used to describe a central location for a group of products often held in Kanbans that are collected by a customer.

The obvious analogy is a retail Supermarket that has a range of food, electrical or clothing products held in one large store so customers do not need to visit many different locations. A constant product flow is something you might get in the chemical industry where they use pipes.

Although we aim to make things flow, in most industries constant flow is not possible; we need supermarkets. Basically a supermarket is a store; parts in the supermarket are there because supply cannot be linked directly to demand.

Supermarkets are a group of centrally located Kanbans;

the central location is to allow ‘customers’ the time saving benefit of one stop shopping and supplier consolidation In Lean thinking, supermarkets are a necessary evil;

they should be located as close as possible to the customer(s) and not confused with a buffer stock that may be held within the production chain.

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Lean Six Sigma and the Art of war by Sun Tzu

By on March 7, 2012 in General, Lean Six Sigma, Uncategorized

The art of war by Sun Tzu, is governed by five constant factors, to be taken into account in the field when laying plans. These are: (1) The Moral Law; (2) Heaven; (3) Earth; (4) The Commander; (5) Method and discipline. Which suits fine the need for Vision, Skills, Incentives, Resources  and Methodologies.

Lean Six Sigma programs are not just an ‘one-off‘, to keep the Culture of Continual Improvement, the constant presence of the methodology is essential.

Tu Yu quotes Wang Tzu as saying: “Without constant practice, the officers will be nervous and undecided when mustering for battle; without constant practice, the general will be wavering and irresolute when the crisis is at hand.”

The Lean Six Sigma approach was first introduced and developed at Motorola in late 1980s. Later in the mid-nineties, it was adopted by General Electric and Allied Signal. To maintain a critical mass one should keep up a 2% Black Belt and a 10% Green Belt of its company‘s popluation. Six Sigma is now adopted by many other reputed companies.

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Lean Transformation and the Art of War.

By on March 7, 2012 in General, Lean Six Sigma, Uncategorized

The success of any Lean Transformation depends on a few key factors.

 

In the “Art of War” of Sun Tzu, one can define 3 factors that will determine the outcome of a battle:

  • If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear a hundred battles.
  • If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat.
  • If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle.

 

what is needed to win a battle? What is the profit to be delivered from the process? VOB

Sun Tzu’s three conditions helps determine the success of a business:

If you understand the needs of your customers, What is the customer experience to be delivered? VOC

If you know the capabilities  of your own business but do not understand the needs of your customers or the strengths of your competitors, for every increase in sales revenue you will reduce profits and lose market share. VOP

If you do not know the needs of your customers, the strengths of your competitors nor the capabilities  of your own business, you will succumb to market forces and eventually lose everything.

The process for creating a high performance organization must start with a business knowing the limits of its own capabilities . The company must define and understand its current state before it can develop a plan to determine where it must improve its processes to create a future state. However, defining the future state cannot happen until the business understands the needs of its customers and the strengths of its competitors. Once a business has clearly defined these 3 factors it can develop a future state that serves its customer and is in a stronger position to compete in the market place. One way to do this effectively is to follow the “10 Steps to become a Lean Enterprise” model.

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Lean Transformation; From Old Cheese To New Cheese.

By on March 7, 2012 in General, Lean Six Sigma, Project Managment, Uncategorized

What Old Cheese are we holding on to in our organisation?

When working out our Lean Transformation approach through the Lean Six Sigma methodology, we often give our sponsors the booklet written by Spencer Johnson.

Who Moved My Cheese? is the best-selling business book on transformation and change. It’s has been translated into 42 languages. People have relied on it to get them through changes big and small.

You can put those same principles to work in your organization. Whether you are reacting to changes around you or there are changes you would like to make happen, we can help you harness the ideas in the book to get results.

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Lean Six Sigma applies Takt Time and Line Balancing

By on March 4, 2012 in Lean Six Sigma, Uncategorized
Takt Time is the principle that all activity within a business is synchronised by a “drum beat”, set by the customer demand. This brings ‘calendar time’ into the equation.
Notice how neatly Takt time links with line balancing. You set the capacity of each process step to the demand of the customer.

Linking the internal value adding system directly to the customer may seem difficult but is necessary to allow the customer to pull value from the value adding system.

Each process link working in isolation at full speed will cause a mismatch between links. Some areas over-produce, some cannot keep up…

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In the Lean Six Sigma methodology is Level Scheduling an important concept.

By on March 2, 2012 in Lean Six Sigma, Uncategorized

In the Lean Six Sigma methodology is Level Scheduling an important concept;

‘ The process of smoothing production volume and model mix over a given time period.’

This major component of the Lean philosophy is to smooth out the flow of value so that minimal waste inventory and waiting are incurred. To be able to provide a smooth flow when many product types are produced on the same lines it is necessary to even out the schedule, so Level Scheduling is often used. Benefits to be gained from employing level scheduling include; reduces inventory of raw materials, reduced quantity of finished goods and reduced lead times.

Not only the scheduling will do the job, with Lean Six Sigma, it will also require implementing other process improvements, e.i.;

• replacing the existing order entry process with an online system

• cross-training engineering / operations
• automating the BOM
• standardising parts where possible to allow suppliers to build-to-stock
• developing blanket orders to reduce the work involved in the purchasing
• initiating purchasing in parallel with the customer approval process
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Lean Six Sigma implementation have a first look at the Traditional Layouts

By on February 28, 2012 in Lean Six Sigma, Uncategorized

During your Lean Six Sigma implementation, have a first look at the Traditional Layoutsof the area, which are often complex and bottlenecks affect the flow of materials, information and value adding capability. Common disadvantages are

•Complex flows of material.
•Reduced vision and ownership of the
•Total value chain.
•Operators concentrate on islands of efficiency.

Better try out Cell Layouts, which are typically U shaped, operations are combined and single piece flow is adopted. Bottlenecks are eliminated by the use of multiple operators or machines. Immediate advantages are usually

•The flow of materials becomes smoother.
•There is no queuing between machines.
•Throughput time is reduced.
•Operators are trained in more than one task.
•Value stream visibility is much high.
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Standard Work and Multi-skilling during Lean Six Sigma

By on February 27, 2012 in Lean Six Sigma, Uncategorized

Standard Work and Multi-skilling during Lean Six Sigma is also important;

  • Value adding steps are broken down into standard work ‘packages’.
  • Standard Operating procedures are written for each package.
  • A skill matrix for a team can then be produced by showing team members vs. work packages that the team need to perform.
  • The skill matrix naturally leads to thinking about training to develop people and fill gaps in team capabilities.

This helps

  • Achieve CONSISTENCY in operations (reduce variation) which leads to robustness and better flow.
  • Process Management.
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