Comments on: 10 Benefits of One Piece Flow http://lssacademy.com/2008/03/27/10-benefits-of-one-piece-flow/ Lean Manufacturing, Six Sigma, Lean Six Sigma, and Kaizen Thu, 18 Mar 2010 08:32:21 -0600 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 By: Mark Timmins http://lssacademy.com/2008/03/27/10-benefits-of-one-piece-flow/comment-page-1/#comment-4197 Mark Timmins Fri, 22 Jan 2010 19:21:45 +0000 http://lssacademy.com/2008/03/27/10-benefits-of-one-piece-flow/#comment-4197 I am admittedly fairly new to OPF, though most of the advantages you list are readily obvious. The one I struggle with (and frankly so do our customers) is that OPF improves scalability. Sure, scaling is easy, by simply replicating the line via mass parallelization, but there are no obvious inherent economies of scale inherent in such an approach. This makes it hard to sell "low tech" manual assembly for large-scale manufacturing to engineers (particularly in the high tech realm) who associate scale-up from prototype to production scale with capital automation and labor elimination. Elimination of labor is desirable both in terms of manufacturing cost and in terms of contamination reduction. It strikes me that manual OPF is inherently unsuited to high-volume manufacture. But need OPF necessarily be manual? Why couldn't the precepts of OPF and JIT be applied to an automated process? I would welcome your thoughts on this topic, and how it impacts the argument of reducing cost by hiring lots of cheap labor vs. investing in labor-reducing automation. I am admittedly fairly new to OPF, though most of the advantages you list are readily obvious. The one I struggle with (and frankly so do our customers) is that OPF improves scalability. Sure, scaling is easy, by simply replicating the line via mass parallelization, but there are no obvious inherent economies of scale inherent in such an approach. This makes it hard to sell “low tech” manual assembly for large-scale manufacturing to engineers (particularly in the high tech realm) who associate scale-up from prototype to production scale with capital automation and labor elimination. Elimination of labor is desirable both in terms of manufacturing cost and in terms of contamination reduction.

It strikes me that manual OPF is inherently unsuited to high-volume manufacture. But need OPF necessarily be manual? Why couldn’t the precepts of OPF and JIT be applied to an automated process?

I would welcome your thoughts on this topic, and how it impacts the argument of reducing cost by hiring lots of cheap labor vs. investing in labor-reducing automation.

]]> By: Curious Cat Management Improvement Blog » Management Improvement Carnival #32 http://lssacademy.com/2008/03/27/10-benefits-of-one-piece-flow/comment-page-1/#comment-1781 Curious Cat Management Improvement Blog » Management Improvement Carnival #32 Tue, 01 Apr 2008 13:11:04 +0000 http://lssacademy.com/2008/03/27/10-benefits-of-one-piece-flow/#comment-1781 [...] 10 Benefits of One Piece Flow by Ron Pereira - “we are better able to respond to last minutes changes from the customer. And everyone knows, no matter what industry you work in, customers love to change their mind.” [...] [...] 10 Benefits of One Piece Flow by Ron Pereira – “we are better able to respond to last minutes changes from the customer. And everyone knows, no matter what industry you work in, customers love to change their mind.” [...]

]]> By: Ron Pereira http://lssacademy.com/2008/03/27/10-benefits-of-one-piece-flow/comment-page-1/#comment-1767 Ron Pereira Fri, 28 Mar 2008 20:08:34 +0000 http://lssacademy.com/2008/03/27/10-benefits-of-one-piece-flow/#comment-1767 Thanks Mike and Brian. I'm glad the post was helpful. The idea of one piece flow can be scary to folks... and truth be told can be painful when first implemented. In fact, sometimes things get worse before they get better... but we must focus on the long term, not the short term. And in the end, one piece flow wins the battle 9 times out of 10. People just need to take a deep breath... and go for it. Thanks again for the comments gents. Have a great weekend! Thanks Mike and Brian. I’m glad the post was helpful.

The idea of one piece flow can be scary to folks… and truth be told can be painful when first implemented.

In fact, sometimes things get worse before they get better… but we must focus on the long term, not the short term.

And in the end, one piece flow wins the battle 9 times out of 10. People just need to take a deep breath… and go for it.

Thanks again for the comments gents. Have a great weekend!

]]> By: Brian Buck http://lssacademy.com/2008/03/27/10-benefits-of-one-piece-flow/comment-page-1/#comment-1762 Brian Buck Fri, 28 Mar 2008 14:10:08 +0000 http://lssacademy.com/2008/03/27/10-benefits-of-one-piece-flow/#comment-1762 Great post. I was so excited to see you mention WATER SPIDER and I knew what you were talking about this time (thanks to you)! Keep up the outstanding posts! Great post. I was so excited to see you mention WATER SPIDER and I knew what you were talking about this time (thanks to you)! Keep up the outstanding posts!

]]> By: Mike Lombard http://lssacademy.com/2008/03/27/10-benefits-of-one-piece-flow/comment-page-1/#comment-1761 Mike Lombard Fri, 28 Mar 2008 13:15:10 +0000 http://lssacademy.com/2008/03/27/10-benefits-of-one-piece-flow/#comment-1761 This is an excellent post, Ron. Getting people to understand that "exposing the rocks" through flow is a good thing is one of the hardest hurdles I face, and these types of posts make that task much easier. As a corollary to benefit #9, one-piece flow necessitates so much problem-solving that we have to learn to deal with problems systematically, instead of haphazardly. Moving to a lean management system allows our leaders to predict problems before they become catastrophes, and deal with them preventively. Additionally, the standardization of the problem-solving function allows leaders to normalize their days and build discipline. Not a bad side-effect! This is an excellent post, Ron. Getting people to understand that “exposing the rocks” through flow is a good thing is one of the hardest hurdles I face, and these types of posts make that task much easier.

As a corollary to benefit #9, one-piece flow necessitates so much problem-solving that we have to learn to deal with problems systematically, instead of haphazardly. Moving to a lean management system allows our leaders to predict problems before they become catastrophes, and deal with them preventively. Additionally, the standardization of the problem-solving function allows leaders to normalize their days and build discipline. Not a bad side-effect!

]]> By: Ron Pereira http://lssacademy.com/2008/03/27/10-benefits-of-one-piece-flow/comment-page-1/#comment-1759 Ron Pereira Fri, 28 Mar 2008 03:08:11 +0000 http://lssacademy.com/2008/03/27/10-benefits-of-one-piece-flow/#comment-1759 Absolutely Michael. Thanks for the comment. Absolutely Michael. Thanks for the comment.

]]> By: Michael http://lssacademy.com/2008/03/27/10-benefits-of-one-piece-flow/comment-page-1/#comment-1758 Michael Fri, 28 Mar 2008 02:44:21 +0000 http://lssacademy.com/2008/03/27/10-benefits-of-one-piece-flow/#comment-1758 Inspired by your video, how about one piece flow helps you get products to your customer faster than batching. Of course your customer has to be willing to take partial shipments. If this is the case, they will be very happy when you switch to one piece flow. Inspired by your video, how about one piece flow helps you get products to your customer faster than batching. Of course your customer has to be willing to take partial shipments. If this is the case, they will be very happy when you switch to one piece flow.

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