Steve Beeler

You have a goal…I have a way to get you there.

Seven Wastes

5S

by

Lean thinking is not just for factories. 5S is an easy to implement process to organize any workplace. With a little pro bono coaching, my new friends at Holland Physical Therapy have completed their first 5S project. Here’s how we did it:

5S

We started out with this quick one-page lesson in 5S, the seven wastes, and Plan-Do-Check-Act. As you might expect from its name, 5S is a five-step process. It is a pathway to a clean, uncluttered, organized workplace reducing waste and improving productivity:

1) Sort
2) Set In Order
3) Shine
4) Standardize
5) Sustain

Introducing the seven wastes (defects, overproduction, transportation, waiting, inventory, motion, and over processing) sharpened the focus on waste reduction. Introducing the Plan-Do-Check-Act continuous improvement cycle reinforced 5S as on on-going, every day commitment, not a one-time event.

Next, with a shared understanding of terminology and principles, we did a quick walk through of the clinic. Five of the seven wastes seemed to apply the clinic’s lack of organization…we could not find examples of overproduction and over processing. Cleanliness was not an issue. However, the Holland Physical Therapy team was greatly concerned about not finding something when needed and the time wasted looking for it.

The cable column was selected as the initial application area.

We first sorted through the area and set aside what was not needed. Then we organized and labeled everything used at the cable column. Masking tape was used to temporarily identify parking spots for the many accessories. The team agreed to sustain the cable column 5S through an end of day tidy up: anything out of place would be put back to where it belongs. After a day or so, the team assessed the area, made improvements, and moved onto the next 5S application area. P-D-C-A.

5S Group Photo

Through 5S, the team at Holland Physical Therapy is on their way to better utilize their space and easily find what they need when they need it.

Spaghetti Diagram

by

A spaghetti diagram provides a visualization of the flow of material and/or people through a manufacturing or business process. A spaghetti diagram is primarily used to visualize transport and motion, two of the seven wastes in lean thinking.

A spaghetti diagram is easy to construct. The most important input is process knowledge. Assembling a small team is a great idea, especially if the process of interest spans multiple departments. Not much else is needed: a plant layout or schematic, colored pencils or felt tip pens, and maybe some sticky notes.

Start at the first step of the process. Where does this material go next? What happens when it gets there? Be sure to capture decision points. For example, defects go to a rework station before moving to the next process step. I like to use red for transport (e.g., forklift moves or conveyors) and blue for motion (e.g., picking, placing, stacking). Use whatever colors work best to visualize your process.

A spaghetti diagram is a qualitative tool. To make the analysis more quantitative, you can measure distances, take process times, count forklift moves, etc. There are no rules, use whatever metrics best quantify your process.

After establishing a baseline of the actual process flow, use a future state spaghetti diagram to visualize the benefits of plant and office rearrangements, capital investments in new or additional equipment, etc.

Here is a case study. A manufacturer was ramping up production of a new product line. Additional capacity was planned but where are the best locations for the new equipment?

Current State Spaghetti Diagram

The team was very surprised by the amount of transport in the current state spaghetti diagram. There were long red lines everywhere…a plate of spaghetti indeed!

Alt #3a Spaghetti Diagram

Future state spaghetti diagrams were developed for layout alternatives with the new mold cells and assembly cell, the two planned capacity investments. It was quickly seen that an additional curing oven (not in the capacity plan) would dramatically reduce transport distances and forklift moves: the red lines are fewer and shorter.

A spaghetti diagram is a simple and effective method to analyze and compare plant layouts. Put one in your Plan-Do-Check-Act tool continuous improvement kit.

 

 

 

Business Case for Manufacturing Plan Verification

by

An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. Everyone knows and accepts this adage but in today’s lean global economy, not everyone has the people and the budget to walk the talk. Quantifying the answers to these questions will build the business case for manufacturing plan verification.

The Business Case for Manufacturing Plan Verification

(1) What is the value of minimizing the seven wastes (over-production, inventory, motion, over-processing, waiting, correction, and conveyance?
o operating costs
o investment

(2) What is the value of reducing the risk of capacity shortfalls found after a new production line or business process is launched?
o lost sales
o overtime
o overmanning
o post launch trouble shooting and additional investment

(3) What is the value of predicting operational and financial metrics prior to launching a new manufacturing or business process?
o direct / indirect labor utilization
o overall equipment effectiveness (OEE)
o dock-to-dock time
o work-in-process inventory
o finished product inventory
o build-to-schedule
o total contribution margin
o cash flow
o profits
o return on investment

(4) What is the value of verifying operating plans prior to launching a new manufacturing or business process?
o direct labor
o indirect labor
o shift hours
o quality control plans
o preventive maintenance plans
o mix / sequence flexibility
o batch sizes / changeovers
o scheduling and sequencing algorithms

(5) What is the value of actively managing the constraint during the planning of a new manufacturing or business process?
o flexibility
o expansion

The answers to these questions will likely roll up into a pretty big $$$ number. With today’s commercially available discrete event simulation software, the business case for manufacturing plan verification is therefore quite strong.

The world is full of uncertainty and change. Robust manufacturing plans will stack the odds in your favor. Simulate first to drive business plan targets down to each cell. Then simulate again to verify that the system works. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. In a nutshell, that is the business case for manufacturing plan verification.

 

Theory of Constraints

by

“In isolation yes, in combination no” is a key concept in Theory of Constraints.

Consider the ten machine manufacturing process in the schematic below. Each machine had a team of manufacturing engineers managing their design and development. All ten teams hit their performance target: 50 units per hour and 98% availability. A separate team of plant engineers developed the plant layout. Their objective was to minimize work-in-process inventory. By carefully arranging the ten machines, they achieved perfect single-piece flow.

Theory of Constraints

Before the new manufacturing process went into production, the teams briefed senior management on the status of the project. Everyone had met or exceeded their objectives. Waste had been minimized. All the lean metrics looked great. Optimism for a successful launch was very high, and why not?

When the new manufacturing process was launched, production was only 42 units per hour not the 49 units per hour that was expected. If everyone met or exceeded their objectives, what went wrong?

The interactions between the machines were not considered. When Machine #6 is down, Machines #1 through #5 are immediately blocked and Machines #7 through #10 are immediately starved. In isolation, each machine could produce 49 units per hour. In combination, they could not.

Theory of Constraints

This manufacturing puzzle can be solved by inspection. Now replace the ten machines with manufacturing departments and functional organizations (marketing, sales, scheduling, purchasing, manufacturing, distribution, customer support, etc). No longer are interactions (blocks and starves) easily observed. In fact, they are likely going unnoticed as the multiple activities work hard to improve their local metrics. This is the first lesson in Theory of Constraints: In isolation yes, in combination no.

And that’s the Theory of Constraints opportunity. Think of your business not as individual silos but as a dependent system…the connections matter!

Terminology

Availability = percentage of time ready to work
Blocked = waiting with nowhere for completed work to go
Starved = waiting for work from the previous activity

Seven Wastes =

  1. Over-production (making more than customer demand)
  2. Motion (human or machine)
  3. Waiting (human or machine)
  4. Conveyance
  5. Over-processing (making features not valued by the customer)
  6. Inventory (raw materials or finished goods)
  7. Correction (scrap and rework)