Lean Six Sigma Academy

I never seem to stop learning from my friend Jon Miller.  I wanted to write a post about hansei and thus decided to dig around to see what other bloggers had to say on the topic. I typed hansei into Google and mid way through the first results page I saw a link to Jon’s blog on this very topic – imagine that!

Elightened

After reading Jon’s post I was enlightened to say the least.  I have always used the term hansei in the same way I might use the word reflection. It seems this may not be the best translation of the term after all.

You see hansei should always be used in the spirit of what went wrong even though in some cases we think everything went great.   Jon writes:

“Where people in the U.S. or Europe might celebrate the completion of a project with an office party, and maybe PowerPointing some lessons learned, the Japanese would have a somber hansei-kai and then drown their hansei sorrows in drink.”

There seems to be a fine line here as you can reflect and come to the same thing as described above. But you can also reflect and say, “hmm… fancy that happening, eh?” This type of reflection is not what hansei is about.

Repent!

Jon goes on to explain a better English word for hansei may actually be repent. You know, like repent and believe all ye wasteful sinners!

I must admit there are aspects of the Japanese culture that depress me a bit. I may be way off but it often seems they are never satisfied, never happy, never content. Perhaps this is the true secret to Toyota’s success.

After all, many companies are “doing lean” but few get the results Toyota does. Why is that? Perhaps hansei is in order… the real hansei that is.  You can read Jon’s entire hansei post here.

Subscribe to LSS Academy

If you enjoyed this article please consider subscribing to our full feed RSS. You can also subscribe by email and have new articles sent directly to your inbox.

I am a big, OK fanatical, Ohio State University football (American football) fan. I grew up in Ohio and as my Mom says, “You can take the boy out of Ohio, but you can’t take Ohio out of the boy.”

I grew up watching Ohio State play football before I even realized what it was. Thanks to satellite TV my children are learning the same lesson – even though we now live in Texas. Yes, this past year has been tough (losing to the same school in two successive National Championship games) but nonetheless I love the Buckeyes and always will.

My favorite Ohio State website is theozone.net where I recently read about the difference between “playing fast” and “being fast.”

“When 40 times are measured there aren’t a whole lot of variables. You have a runner, a start line, and a finish line. When the timer says go, the runner runs as fast as he can from the start line to the finish. Pretty simple. It isn’t all that simple on a football field.”

It goes on to say,

“When the ball is snapped, players have to determine a whole lot of things before they can take that first step to show off that great 40 speed, and that’s where the difference between being fast and playing fast starts. It doesn’t matter how fast you can run. If takes you forever to determine just where to run, you’re going to get there late no matter how fast you are.”

Like Lean?

I see great parallels between “playing fast” on the football field and “playing fast” on the shop floor or office area.  For example, if a company focuses solely on “flow” and creates the smoothest running production system known to man kind, yet they don’t build to what their customer actually wants they are not playing fast.

Additionally, if a company lives and dies with MRP scheduling the entire shop, thus creating a massive push system, instead of only producing what is needed when it is needed (i.e. pull) they are not playing fast.

Next, if operators or office workers do not have clear work standards or instructions and there is no indication of a visual workplace it is impossible to play fast since they are playing blind folded and likely running into walls (not literally but you know what I mean)!

Lastly, if machines are breaking down, changeovers take too long, and defects are often passed on we are not playing fast.

Stop Thinking

The article spoke about how the best football players are those that don’t have to think and can instead simply react to what is happening in front of them. This seems to contradict what TPS (‘Thinking’ Production System) is all about, right?

To some extent I would agree. However, if we take this comment to mean operators should know exactly what to do and when to do it without having to wonder what to do next speed and efficiency results.  It is in this spirit that I would agree with the “no thinking” mindset. 

However, when we are encountered with problems or opportunities for kaizen we do have to put our thinking caps on. I parallel this with a football team’s “half time adjustments” (something my Bucks failed to do in Arizona this past January but I digress).If you have any more analogies to how a company can “play fast” please do share.

Subscribe to LSS Academy

If you enjoyed this article please consider subscribing to our full feed RSS. You can also subscribe by email and have new articles sent directly to your inbox.

A few posts ago I went on about my Sensei wife. I told you how she was teaching my kids about lean concepts, etc. Well, I must be fair and balanced with my blogging and need to confess something to you all.

Tonight, my beautiful wife is with two of her friends doing “once a month” cooking. For those not familiar with the concept once a month cooking is when a few people get together and cook for 2~3 hours and then divide up all the food into meals.

My wife does this with two other ladies so they will, for example, prepare enough Teriyaki Chicken to feed 3 families.

It’s so mass production, right?

So I was thinking about how “mass production” this is. I mean they make all this food and then we store it in the freezer and pull it out as needed. Then, I thought that maybe this is not as bad as I originally thought. Perhaps, my Sensei wife has properly sized our finished goods supermarket and tonight has taken all the “kanban” and is simply replenishing the supermarket with her other, Sensei wannabe, friends.

They cook about every 4 weeks and we never waste any of the food so one could argue this really isn’t overproduction in the truest sense. The quality of the meals are fantastic and we always have a variety each month which is nice.  Best of all, all my wife has to do to get dinner ready is pull something from the freezer, chuck it in the oven, throw together a salad and some bread and bam - she is done.

So what do you think? Is once a month cooking lean or mass production?

Subscribe to LSS Academy

If you enjoyed this article please consider subscribing to our full feed RSS. You can also subscribe by email and have new articles sent directly to your inbox.

Since the mission of this blog is to offer ideas for how to align the strengths of both Lean Manufacturing and Six Sigma I wanted discuss a topic I firmly believe all continuous improvement practitioners should practice. This topic is standard work.

There are three components of standard work:

1. Takt Time
2. Work Sequence
3. Standard Work in Process (SWIP)

Takt Time

Formally defined, Takt Time is the rate at which your customer buys a product. It is often called the heart beat of production since once Takt Time is calculated all processes should operate at, or preferably a bit below, Takt Time.

A common mistake is when people think they can measure Takt Time with a stop watch. This is incorrect as Takt Time must be calculated as follows: Takt Time = Net Available Time per Day / Customer Demand per Day.

American football helps me remember this formula. By remembering TD for touchdown I get T (time) / D (demand).  Typically we note Takt Time in “seconds per piece.”

Takt Time is the law of the land and once it is understood all processes must work to this pace. Toyota, for example, operates at a Takt Time of around 50~60 seconds. How amazing is that?

Work Sequence

Next up is Work Sequence which is simply the order in which an operator performs manual operations (including walking and waiting). It is extremely important to determine the best and most efficient way for operators to perform their work. It helps ensure your process maintains consistency and stability. Whenever possible our aim should be to limit wasted motion, reaching, or any other non value added action.

Standard WIP

Finally, we must discuss Standard Work in Process (SWIP). SWIP is calculated as follows:Standard WIP = (Manual Time + Auto Time) / Takt TimeWhen a process is operating at, or slightly less than, Takt Time SWIP will usually be 1 piece.

An exception to this rule would be if two sequential processes summed cycle time was less than Takt Time. In this case you may only have one piece of SWIP for these two processes. If a process has a cycle time greater than Takt Time SWIP will be at least 2 pieces, possibly more depending on how the formula works out.

Summary

This evening I have introduced the basics of Standard Work. There is much more to Standard Work including things such as the cycle time / Takt Time bar chart and the standard work combination sheet.

But if you understand the basics outlined in this article you will be well on your way to a better and more efficient process no matter if your title is black belt or lean specialist.

Subscribe to LSS Academy

If you enjoyed this article please consider subscribing to our full feed RSS. You can also subscribe by email and have new articles sent directly to your inbox.

Those familiar with lean manufacturing have likely heard the word muda many times. Muda is the Japanese word for waste and is the enemy of us all whether we know it or not.

Strangely enough muda is not the only enemy of a lean system. There are two more, less popular (at least in Western companies), M’s we must also be aware of – namely mura and muri.

Mura

Mura in its simplest form means “unevenness.” For example, mura results when your operators are told to work like crazy early in the morning only to stand around and do nothing late in the day. Heijunka may be the answer to this problem but let us save that for another blog.

Muri

Muri means to “overburden” equipment or operators. For example, if your entertainment center is only meant to hold 200 pounds and you place your new 425 pound super duper HD Ready TV on it we have muri. We also have other issues like a very real safety concern!

Leads to Muda

So the next time someone drops the word “muda” in their attempt to show you how much they know about lean you may be able to educate them on the other two M’s that are just as important as the infamous muda. Of course you should be humble and polite during this education process.

For the overachievers out there who can tell me which of the three M’s (muda, mura, muri) are visible in the donkey picture above?

Subscribe to LSS Academy

If you enjoyed this article please consider subscribing to our full feed RSS. You can also subscribe by email and have new articles sent directly to your inbox.