Archive for August, 2009
How much Planning is enough – Use Lean and Standardize
Posted by: | CommentsWhen you listen to consultants and so called experts, all they talk about is planning. The reason they exist is for the planning stages. Where are these guys at when it is time to get the work done anyway? Many companies will just take the attitude of let’s just get it done – there is not time for all this planning. If something happens, we will just have to deal with it anyway, plan or no plan. So let’s get started, right?
Slow down Cowboy! How much time does it really take to plan? From my experience you should use a baseline of around 5% of your projects time in planning. So if you have a project that will consume 400 hours that would be 20 hours. Do you think that is unreasonable? Do you believe that a plan would produce fewer negative consequences or less than 20 hours of non-productive fire fighting?
Now, what happens if planning takes longer? You need to treat your planning process like any other process. Using a standard methodology such as lean and the toolset that it employs will allow you the opportunity to get the most out of your planning cycle. It will allow improving your planning process removing the waste that you have accumulated in it. I have found most companies actually enjoy planning, the collaboration and decision-making that take place during it. What everyone doesn’t like is the waste in planning, so get rid of it!
The first thing you can do is plan the planning process. Take 5% of your planning time to improve your planning. Set objectives, milestones, create key performance indicators and most of all create a standard work plan. You could even have a Kaizen to 5S your planning process. After doing this a few times, planning will become very easy, intuitive and more productive. Consider that if you significantly improve your planning process, you will create considerable down-flow opportunities of greater savings. Try it!
Related Post:
LEAN TRANSFORMATION IDEAS FROM A HITCHHIKER
HOSHIN KANRI AKA POLICY DEPLOYMENT
Related Category: Project Management
Simple, Easy to use Lean Six Sigma Software tools
Posted by: | CommentsWhen talking to most Lean Six Sigma Consultants they will tell you the 2 lean tools that you start with are 5S and Standard Work. Looking for a simple way to describe the Standard Work process, I ran across this software company and their set of tools. I found them quite interesting and have started “Testing” them out. I wonder has anyone else tried them?
Here is a description and a picture of their template. Tools for standardized work are the most important tools in your Lean toolkit – because they avoid backsliding into old habits
The Standard Work Sheet Excel template is 5 tools in 1:
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Value Add Analysis (auto-calculates pie chart)
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Work Balancing (auto-draws work load balancing bar chart in relation to Takt Time)
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Standard Work Instructions & Analysis
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Quick Changeover tool for setup reduction.
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Standard Work Combination Sheet visual time chart.
What makes these templates unique is that they are built on Excel spreadsheet platform.
You have options to:
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Auto-draw a Standard Work Combination Sheet with a single click of a button.
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Create a separate time chart for each operator, or display all operators in a single chart.
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Use either stopwatch or video Time Observation to observe and time your standard work procedures
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Split your Value Add Pie Chart into your own user-defined types of waste
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Plot as many as 4 chart lines – for Takt Time, Target Cycle Time, Cycle Time, and even a 4th user-defined chart line (perhaps for out of cycle work?)
Draw the chart with or without labels -
Include up to 200 lines of work elements on a single chart
(and spread even larger processes over multiple charts – perhaps with summary data rolling up to each higher level) -
Define your own header data field labels
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Link to or from another worksheet for calculations such as Working Time Available, product mix, or master scheduling…
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Paste a picture of your Spaghetti Diagram on the same page with your Standard Work Combination Table!
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Use this as a Quick Changeover tool for Lean SMED setup reduction
I think it is a pretty unique product. You can download a free trial but I think it will ake a commitment to use these templates so if it is free, you may just never commit.
Lean Six Sigma Initiatives: Training and Mentoring
Posted by: | CommentsManny O. Laveria of Northrop Grumman Corporation was my recent guest on the Business901 Podcast. Manny is leading a new group of Black Belts in 
organizing continuous improvement activities focusing on Lean-Sigma initiatives including training and mentoring. He is also the coordinator for the Green Belt program with about two dozen candidates working on their certifications.
Manny will be presenting “Continuous Improvement in a Manufacturing Operations Environment” at The Global Lean, Six Sigma and Business Improvement Summit. This summit represents the largest gathering of leading experts and senior executives across various industries who are passionate about achieving process and business excellence.It is held October 13-16, 2009 in Orlando, FL.
Podcast no longer available.
