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Lean Six Sigma toolkit with KanBan?

By on March 12, 2012 in Lean Six Sigma, Uncategorized

Kanban Definition, very usefull Lean Tool

  • A communication system used to signal starting work on the work items in processes – Kanban is Japanese for card or signal

Concept

  • The Kanban signal contains the specific information required to authorise the commencement of work and comes from the next step in the process; without the signal, no work is started

This means that the customer pulls the item through the entire value chain

Nothing is supplied until it is needed by the next process step (JIT)

This means all the links in the value chain have to be very, very close

Examples of Kanban mechanisms

  • Cards, faxes
  • Bins
  • Defined Floor Location
  • Call Light
  • Electronic Signal (email, EDI, RF, Bar Code Reader)
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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; 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 and the European economy long term.

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

Measurements for Lean Six Sigma project dealing with FTE’s; i.e. labour productivity is measured as real output per hour worked. Multifactor productivity, a broader measure of efficiency, is measured as real output per unit of combined inputs (capital, labour, etc). In essence, this is the efficiency of all or your factors of production.

Progress in productivity constitutes a significant source of increased standard of living. In the long run, increases in real hourly earnings are tied to productivity gains. The European economy has been able to produce more goods and services over time, not by requiring a proportional increase of resources such as labour, but by making production more efficient. The overall performance of any company, operating in any industry, is comprised of at least seven key criteria:

  • effectiveness
  • efficiency
  • innovation
  • productivity
  • profitability
  • quality
  • quality of work life
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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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lean six sigma and Parallel Processing

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

To save Lead time (calendar time) we can, through Lean Six Sigma or Lean engineering the process steps that are currently being completed in series.

Another possibility is to take out some process steps from the series and do them in parallel to other process steps.

This is often called concurrent engineering; the idea being that you can design the different parts of a product at the same time. Unless concurrent or parallel processing is carefully planned and coordinated, it results in chaos.

Two things are required for Parallel processing:

  • The customer (or the business) would value the reduction in lead time
  • Only process steps which are independent of each other can be done in parallel
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Lean and Value Streams.

By on February 23, 2012 in Lean Six Sigma, Uncategorized

The key to Lead Time & Waste (Lean) is thinking about Value Add form a customer perspective.

  • This leads us to think in terms of categories for all other activity; either it is Value Add or it isn’t.
  • If it isn’t then it is something we have to do to “enable” Value Add (like deal with regulators) or it’s waste.
  • Waste comes in many different forms and the 7 wastes shown here are usually found in all operations.

But there are other forms of waste which we also should be aware of particularly the waste of human potential.

Once we understand the value add we then think in terms of ‘streams’ of value (a type of process mapping) and we think in terms of ‘families’ of products/services that have the same value streams.

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