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.