Indo Lean Institute

5S " A PlaceFor Everything, and Everything In IT's Place"

2008-04-02T23:21:00.000-07:00

Thorough implementation of the 5 pillars of 5S is the starting point in the development of improvement activities to ensure any company's survival. And of course survival of the company is necessary in order for the company's employees to keep their jobs.

The word "Pillar" is used as metaphor to mean one of a group of structural elements which together support a structural system. In this case 5 pillars are supporting a system for improvement in your company.

The 5 Pillar of 5S :

Sort ; means that you remove all items from the workplace that are not needed for current production (or clerical) operations.
Set In Order ; can be defined as arranging needed items so that they are easy to use and labeling them so that they are easy to find and put away.
Shine ; means sweeping floors, wiping off machinery, and generally making sure that everything in the factory stays clean.
Standarize ; is the method you use to maintain the first 3 pillars.
Sustain ; means making a habit of properly maintaining correct procedures.

Many companies when introducing 5S is likely to encounter resistance, below are some common resistances :

What's so great about Sort and Set in order ?
Why clean when it just gets dirty again ?
We already implemented Sirt and Set in order.
We did 5S years ago.
Sorting and Setting in order will not boost output and productivity.
We're too busy for 5S activities.
Why do we need to implement the 5 pillars ?

5S benefit to you :

Give you an opportunity to provide creative input regarding how your workplace should be organized and laid out and how your worj should be done.
Make your job more satisfying.
Make your workplace more pleasent to work in.
Remove many obstacles and frustrations in your work.
Make it easier to communicate with everyone you work with.
Help you know what you are expected to do, and when and where you are expected to do it.

5S benefit to your company :

Lower defect and bring higher quality.
Less time changeovers bring product diversification.
Zero delays bring reliable deliveries.
Lower waste bring lower costs.
Zero red ingk bring corporate growth
Zero injuries promote safety
Zero breakdown bring better equipment availability.
Zero complaints bring greater confidence and trust.

Good Luck , try now

POKA YOKE or MISTAKE-ERROR

2008-03-25T21:05:00.000-07:00

What causes defects ?

1.Inappropriate procedures or standards
2.Excessive variability happens during actual operations
3.Damaged or excessively variable materials
4.Worm machine parts (for example, bearings or tools)
5.Human mistakes

The fact is, human geings are very forgetful and tend to make mistakes. Too often we blame people for making mistakes. Especially in the workplace, this attitude not only discourages workers and lowers morale, but it does not solve the problem. POKA YOKE is a technique for avoiding simple human error at work.

Poka Yoke or Error Proofing has existed for a long time in various forms, it was Japanese manufacturing engineer " Shigeo Shingo " who developed the idea into a formidable tool for achieving Zero Defects and eventually eliminating quality control inspection. Generally translated as "Mistake-Proofing " to avoid = Yokeru , Error = Poka ". The idea behind Poka Yoke is to respect the intelligence of workers. By takng over repetitive tasks or actions that depend on vigilance or memory, Poka Yoke can free a worker's time and mind to pursue more creative and value adding activities.

There are 10 different of errors :

Forgetfulness ; Sometimes we forget things when we are not concentrating. Safeguards : Alerting operator in advance or checking at regular intervals.
Errors due to misunderstanding ; Sometimes we make mistakes when we jump to the wrong conclusion before we're familiar with the situation. Safeguards : Training, checking in advance, standardizing work procedures.
Error in identification ; Sometimes we misjudge a situation because we view it too quickly or too far away to see it clearly. Safeguards : Training, attentiveness, vigilance
Errors made by amateurs ; Sometime we make mistakes through lack of experience. Safeguards : Skill building, work standarization.
Willful errors ; Sometimes errors occur when we decide that we can ignore rules under certain circumstances. Safeguards : Basic education and experience.
Inadvertent errors ; Sometimes we are absentminded and make mistakes without knowing how they happened. Safeguards : Attentiveness, discipline, work standardization.
Errors due to slowness ; Sometimes we make mistakes when our actions are slowed down by delays in judgment. Safeguards : Skill building, work standarization.
Errors due to lack of standards ; Some errors occur when there are no suitable instructions or work standards. Safeguards : Work standaridization, work instructions.
Surprises errors ; Errors sometimes occur when equipment runs differently than expected. Safeguards : Total productive maintenance (TPM) , work standarization.
Intentional errors ; Some people make mistakes deliberately, crimes and sabotage are example. Safeguards : Fundamental education, mindset training with positive thinking, discipline.

3 Strategies for Zero Defects

Don't make it !!! Don't make products that you don't need. More products you make, then greater the opportunity for defects as they sit in inventory. That why follow " Just In Time " principle and make only what is needed, when it is needed and in the right amount needed.
Make it to withstand any use !!! The user in an expert at finding defects. Therefore it is important to build safeguards into the production process to ensure that product can withstand any use. Quality can be built inti products by thoroughly implementing Poka Yoke, automation, and work standarization.
Once you have made it, use it right away !!! If a product cannot be made to withstand any use, then make sure it is used as soon as possible by using continuous flow production.

Have a nice try and find "POKA YOKE" in your production system.

4P of Toyota Talent

2008-03-19T01:15:00.000-07:00

Toyota Talent really breaks new ground, rather than re-hashing things we've all read before. Unless you have a strong background in the Training Within Industry methodology, much of the book will be an eye opener, giving you approaches and tools that can be implemented immediately. Toyota Talent is written more along the lines of the Fieldbook, in the sense that the authors give you specifics that can be implemented, rather than just a description of Toyota's system.If you're an active lean change agent (as a line manager or a consultant), this book is a must read. The book demystifies the world of Standardized Work and breaks it down into something concrete and practical. The book not only explains how to develop and implement a standardized work system, it also (in typical Toyota style), explains much of the "why" -- why do we implement standardized work?

The book sets a tone of not standardizing for the sake of standardizing. The methodology focuses on figuring out what matters, and doing so by getting input from the value adding employees. Focusing on safety and quality is a key part of Toyota Talent's methodology. The book gives a method for breaking down the work content of existing jobs, using highly repetitive manufacturing examples as well as a highly variable healthcare environment (a nurse in a hospital). The method is presented in a way that DOES make sense for both environments, which might be a surprise to many readers.Toyota Talent covers the entire standardized work process:
Deciding what to standardize
Breaking work content down and documenting standardized work
How to train in a highly effective mannerThe book builds upon the Training Within Industry methodology, as written about in other books . But, Toyota Talent explains how Toyota built upon the TWI framework to create something uniquely Toyota, but adaptable to almost any environment.Even with my caveats (and maybe my cynicism about executive attention spans), I highly recommend Toyota Talent. It carves out a very unique, and helpful, place in the lean literature. It's a very readable book, written in a down to earth and practical style.Have you also read the book? What did you think? What did you find to be helpful?
Toyota first caught the world’s attention in the 1980s when consumers started noticing that Toyota cars lasted longer and required fewer repairs than American cars. Today, the company is the world’s most profitable car manufacturer, consistently producing high-quality cars using fewer man hours and less on-hand inventories. To this day, Toyota continues to raise the bar for manufacturing, production development and process excellence.
The Toyota Way explains the management principle and business philosophy behind Toyota’s success. It narrates Toyota’s approach to Lean Production (known as the Toyota Production System) and the 14 principles that drive Toyota towards quality and excellence. The book also explains how you can adopt the same principles to improve your business processes, while cutting down on operations and production costs.

The World Class Power of the Toyota Way
The Toyota Way: Using Operational Excellence as a Strategic Weapon
The Toyota Production System (TPS) and Lean Production
Toyota invented Lean Production in the 1940s and 50s. The company focused on eliminating wasted time and material from every step of the production process (from raw materials to finished goods).
The result was a fast and flexible process that gives the customers what they want, when they want it, at the highest quality and most affordable cost. Toyota improved production by:

> Eliminating wasted time and resources.
> Building quality into workplace systems
> Finding low-cost and yet reliable alternatives to expensive new technology.
> Perfecting business processes.
> Building a learning culture for continuous improvement.

The “4P” model of the Toyota Way

Phylosophy ; Toyota has long term thinking Long-term goal should supersede short-term decision making or goals.
Develop, work, grow and align the company towards a common goal that is bigger than making money. Your philosophical mission is and should be the foundation of all your other principles.
Toyota is aligned around satisfying the customer. It believes that a satisfied customer comes back and gives more business through referrals. It generates value for the customer, the society and the economy.One of the keys to success of Toyota is that it lives by the philosophy of self reliance and a “let’s do it ourselves” attitude. This can be best illustrated when it ventured into the luxury car industry.
Process ; the right process will get the right results and strong with kaizen mindset for perfection.
People ; developing your people and partner and organization
Problem Solving ; everybody as a good problem solver and root cause analysis for continuous learning.

WASTE OF THINKING

2008-02-14T16:56:00.000-08:00

The Sources of Waste
Waste of Thinking

Watch your thoughts,,,,
Watch your thoughts ; they become words
Watch your words ; they become action
Watch your action ; they become habits
Watch your habits ; they become character
Watch your character ; it become your destiny

START NOW , OTHERWISE YOU WILL GET LOOSE

SMED STAGES

2008-02-14T16:52:00.000-08:00

Quick Changeover Through SMED System

2008-01-28T17:20:00.000-08:00

If you don't care your machine you will have problems with operation .

You will have Six Big Losses :

Equipment Failures
Setup & Adjustment
Idling & Minor Stoppages
Reduced Speed
Defects in Operation or Process
Startup & Reduced Yield

Machine availability is the actual time left for production after you subtract all planned downtime.

What Kills Machine Availability ?

Breakdowns
Machine Idle Time
Setup & Adjustment Time
Minor Stoppages

SMED " Single Minute Exchange of Die " ---> the "single" here means a single digit number of minutes less <>wow is it crazy ? No, everyone can do that if you apply SMED system .

Quick changeovers are critical for any company that want to apply JIT and one piece flow manufacturing system. The SMED will reduce difficult, time consuming and wasteful activities in your company and SMED has been used to reduce setup and turnaround time in all types of manufacturing, assembly and even service industries, from process and packing plants to airlines.

SMED is really about thinking about changeover in new way. Shigeo Shingo, the developer of SMED, learned a great deal by observing what people actually did during changeover and thinking carefully about how the necessary setup work could be done with the shortest possible downtime.

The Benefits of SMED for Companies.

SMED changes the assumption that setups have to take a long time. When setups can be done quickly, they can be done as often as needed. This means companies can make products in smaller lots, which has many advantages :

Flexibility; Companies can meet changing customer needs without the expense of excess inventory.
Quicker delivery; Small lot prouction means less lead time and less customer waiting time.
Better quality; Less inventory storage means fewer storage related defects. SMED also lowers defects by reducing setup errors and elimnating trial runs of the new product and the last is Higher productivity.

OHNO CIRCLE ' LEARNING THROUGH GENCHI GENBUTSU '

2008-01-24T16:00:00.000-08:00

Data is important , but go direct to the problem place that accured ( go and see ) is more important. And Gemba will develope your thinking way ,analysis and Lean eyes.

Problem analysis methodology in the Toyota Production System (TPS) requires participants to "step inside the circle." Those manufacturing companies that accept Toyota's offer of help in optimizing production processes with TPS will encounter the phrase during the genchi genbutsu ("go and see") step in problem solving. It is a reference to the shop-floor focus of the company's TPS pioneers, Taiichi Ohno and Eji Toyoda.
For example, Ohno, when teaching TPS, would take his students to a problem area and draw a circle on the production floor where they could observe, think, and analyze, says Teruyuki Minoura, president and CEO, Toyota Motor Manufacturing North America Inc. "He wanted us to watch and ask 'why' over and over again. If we did that, he knew the better ideas would come. Mr. Ohno realized new thoughts and new technologies do not come out of the blue -- they come from true understanding of the process."
Toyota began its TPS missionary efforts soon after it dispatched Fujio Cho, now president, to Kentucky to initiate manufacturing in the U.S. "The idea was to offer North American manufacturers the benefits possible by focusing on internal logistics," says Hajime Ohba, vice president and general manager of the Toyota Supplier Support Center (TSSC) in Erlanger, Ky. Cho, Ohba, and Minoura all were trained by TPS guru Ohno. Since the operation's start-up in 1992 TSSC's crew of consultants has worked with 88 companies. Participants outside Toyota's supplier circle include companies with products as varied as toys, home kitchenware, and premium leather goods, says Ohba.
Like a religion, converting to TPS takes time (about two years or more), an organ izational commitment to cultural change, and the acceptance of new values by everyone -- especially management. In return the process optimization that TPS makes possible can lead to huge paybacks in inventory reduction, increased product quality, and a relentless elimination of any waste that hinders efficiency. If not a religion, TPS is at the very least a rigorous philosophical approach to organized activity, says Christine Parker, TSSC's assistant manager of research and training. (Jan, 2001 )

" Let start now ,,

Draw a circle in center of your processes
Don't forget bring a pencil , A3 blank paper and stopwacth
Also , for your drink
Stand up in the circle
Watch your enviroment
See, people, motion, process, flow, layout, machineries, ect.
Write on your paper improper or ubnormal things
Get solving those kinds of no.7

I suggest to stand up for 4 hours every learning.

The importance of “Gemba”
• Go to see the actual place
• Make first hand observation
• Talk to the people
• Know the real situation-don’t rely on old data or reports.
• Insist problems are defined from facts.
• Look for current measurement tools and methods

" GEMBA TIME DON'T WAIT UNTIL YOUR COMPANY GET BLEEDING "

A3 Thinking Process

2008-01-18T00:29:00.000-08:00

"The Japanese Call it " Thinking Way "

A3 Thinking

2008-01-17T23:36:00.000-08:00

The A3 report is so named because it is written on an A3 sized paper (metric equivalent of 11” x 17”). Toyota has developed several kinds of A3 reports for different applications. We have adapted the problem-solving report for use by healthcare workers, most of whom do not have engineering or business backgrounds. A template for our version of the A3 problem-solving report can be found as an appendix to this paper. The report flows from top to bottom on the left-hand side, then top to bottom on the right-hand side. The three-hole punch on the left-hand combined with a tri-fold enables A3 reports to be stored in standard three-ring binders. While the names of the boxes can change, the basic storyline remains the same, as will be explained in the following subsections. Successful A3s are done at the frontline, either directly by or validated by the people doing the work. This paper presents an A3 report template, describes the problem-solving approach it represents followed by an example, and discusses implementation, deployment issues, and potential benefits.

Some people may look at an A3 and think it's "too complicated or too busy" a normal reaction to a detailed A3. We're considering a lot into a small space. But you will find that good A3 stories have an intuitive flow and can be told in five to 10 inutes. The author tells the story, we follow along on the paper until he or she finishes, and a question and answer session follows.

By the time the A3 is presented to senior management, everybody in the room has already seen and agreed to it. At companies like Toyota it's not unusual for an immediate decision to be made after a five minute presentation.

There is a danger that A3s can be appealing to people short of time and overwhelmed with paper and electronic reports. One piece of paper looks pretty good and that A3 becomes a dictate from management, a shiny new toy that everyone must use."from now on, everything will be A3!"

Additionally, people often try to outdo one another by creating fancy grapichs or by considering more and more information on the page. Please remember the purpose of A3s is to gain a shared understanding of a critical issue in order to solve problems and get results. " Now we can write our strategic plan," Karras said " The most important thing is to tell a clear, concise story on one page."

A3 Intuitive Flow

2008-01-17T21:51:00.000-08:00

TRUE NORTH

2008-01-13T16:47:00.000-08:00

If we don't know where we're going, we will never get there. " True North " expresses business needs that must be achieved and exerts a magnetic pull. True North is a contract, a bond, and not merely a wish list. For Atlas Industries, True North means, above all, stopping the hemorrhage in revenues and achieving a healthy level of profitability. That is not to say other needs will be ignored, only that business needs form a changing hierarchy.

For companies whose condition is less dire, True North can be expressed in a more balanced manner. At Toyota for example, True North usually comprises something for the company and its shareholder, customers, team members, and the community :

Company and its shareholders: revenue, return on sales, market share and margins.
Customers: in plant and in service quality, warranty costs and quality awards.
Team members: safety, ergonomics, good working conditions, training and development opportunities and employment stability.
Community: enviromental leadership, involvement in communities and stable employment.

Karras began by giving them an overview of the strategy deployment system.

He explain 6 steps :

Define True North-Atlast Industries' strategic and philosophical purpose.
Develop the plan.
Deploy the plan.
Monitor the plan.
Solve problems.
Improve the system.

Elements 2,3,4 and 5 , he explained correspond to the PDCA cycle, also known as the scientific method.

This article will be continued to " Yearly Strategic Plan Beyond A3 Thinking " .

( Taken from Workbook " Getting the Right Things Done " by Pascal Dennis foreword by Jim Womack )

HEIJUNKA OR LEVELING

2008-01-10T18:22:00.000-08:00

" In general, when you try to apply TPS, the first thing you have to do is to even out or level the production. And that is the responsibility primarily of production control or production management people. Leveling the production schedule may require some front-loading of shipments or postponing the shipments and you may have to ask some customers to wait for a short period of time. Once the production level is more or less the same or constant for a month, you will be able to apply pull systems and balance the assembly line. But if production levels the output varies from day to day, there is no sense in trying to apply other systems, because you simply cannot establish standardized work under such circumstance."

( Fujio Cho, President, Toyota Motor Corporation )

Focusing on MUDA is the most common approach to implement lean tools, because it is easy to identify and eliminate waste. But what many companies fail to do is the more difficult process of stabilizing the system and creating "Evenness" a true balanced lean flow of work. This is the Toyota concept of Heijunka, Leveling out the work schedule. Achieving hejunka is fundamental to eliminate MURA, which is fundamental to eliminateing MURI and MUDA.

Heijunka is the leveling of production by both volume and product mix.

There are four benefits of Heijunka :

Flexibility to make what the customer wants when they want it.
Reduced risk of unsold goods.
Balanced use of labor and machines.
Smoothed demand on upstream processes and the plant's supplier.

Heijunka in service operations :

Fit customer demand into a leveled schedule.
Establish standard times for delivering different types of service.

Basic Thoughts

Eliminating waste is just one-third pf the equation for making lean succesful. Eliminating overburden to people and equipment and eliminating uneveness in production schedule are just as important yet generally not understood at companies attempting to implement lean principles.
Work to level out the workload of all manufacturing and service processes as an alternative to the stop/start approach of working on projects in batches thatis typical at most companies.

LEAN LEADERSHIP

2008-01-03T21:52:00.000-08:00

To be successful in transforming it self into a lean enterprise, the one quality your organization will need more than any other, is leadership.

It is the key to implementing the lean system that could help you achieve world-class competitiveness.

The Case for Leadership ,,,
Leadership is often the most important factor in a Lean Manufacturing implementation. The paradigm shift of Lean Manufacturing demands visionary leadership .

Lean Leadership … A Model for the New Millennium

Below is Lean Leadership key points :

• Direction setter
• Ensure team goals support vision
• Monitors and audits team’s metrics
• Set expectation
• Information conduit
• Facilities ‘root cause’ analysis
• Technical resources
• Provider of forward workload
• Appraise team performance to team goals

Finally, a leader must posses the ability to be a linking agent (Facilitator) with a wide array of knowledge and information coupled with an unquestionable trust, professionalism, and an open invitation for dissent.

If we can agree that we are indeed in a leadership deficit and that leadership is meant to cause dramatic, useful change, then as these necessary changes to our way of operating become more global , so should our approach to leadership. For this to occur, a leader should possess some degree of the following ;

* Superb written and oratory skills

* Interactive / Proactive attitude

* Ability to recognize / reward

* Compassion / Openness

* Ability to listen

* Passion for risk
* High energy level
* Patience
* Humor
* Vision

.
Good Leaders motivate people in a variety of ways ,,,, 3 of which are basis to our “LEAN” approach :

Leaders must define the organization’s vision in a way that highlight the value of their group
Leaders must support people’s efforts to achieve the shared vision through
coaching, feed back, and role modeling .
A good leader will recognize and reward success .

The true Lean Leader is one who can detach themselves from the team to allow empowerment to flourish where the team provides itself with such a services as peer reviews, rewards and even team recruitment.
These leaders delegate responsibilities and coach others in ways that nurture their growth, bring out their best and inspire support for organization goal’s .
Level of Leadership :
Transactional Leaders
Relation Leaders
Transformation Leaders
Charismatic Leaders
What is Charismatic Leader Do ?
o Challenge the status quo
o Create a compelling vision
o Establish shared values
o Enable others to act
o Model the way
o Encourage the heart

Charismatic leaders do these things constantly in large and small ways. Cumulatively, these actions change attitude, responses, and methodologies within the organization.

Ten Things Our Sensei Told Us ( Lessons From Early In the Lean Journey )

2007-12-27T21:52:00.000-08:00

" Lean " can have bad connotations, have a very clear "Leaned employee" re-deployment policy.

Lean is not Lean Manufacturing. There are probably more gains available outside of manufacturing.

Lean is not voluntary; People who don't like it need to be re-educated or leave, Management needs to deal with the "antibodies".
Ideas come out of the closet; Lean provides an opportunity for employees , good ideas to be heard. They have often had these ideas before Lean. They have often expressed these ideas before Lean. As management be humble.
It's a journey of continuous improvement with perfection unattainable.
Lead by example ; Interest, Knowledge, Support, Involvement and Dirty Hand.
Get a teacher , you want a teacher not consultant.
Strong Leaders are essential.
You need to master the tools, but they are only tools, you need commitment, energy, stamina and ability. Follow through is an essential act and an essential message. Consolidate your gains while you push ahead for new ones. Need accountability.
You cannot communicate too much with stakeholders, Lean team leaders cannot be managers of area being improved and the co-leader needs to own the process. Lean can drive your accounting people nuts, so get them on board early.
Lean will not leap tall mountains ,,, that's why we call it a journey, becareful with the scope of events.
Measure Accomplishments, in dollars , quality and customer service.

Lean is not about improving customer service and quality while cutting costs in unconnected parts of the company although that is nice , Lean is about managing the value that your deliver to your customers so that all the elements of delivering that value work together in a seamless, coordinated fashion and driving through the organization horizontally instead of vertically.

( Markem Lean Enterprise )

How do I convince my leaders and companies to practice lean ?

2007-12-26T19:52:00.000-08:00

We find it hard to distinguish "technical" issues from people issues. Indeed the two cannot be separated. And so the real question that matters is this; what does it take for lean to become part of the company's culture? The answer is ; a critical mass of people who both think lean and act lean. Regardless of how much has been published about the topic, thinking lean is not that obvious. Most people who observe their operations conclude that while they might understand this lean concept very well, it hust does not apply to their particular circumstance. They need help in seeing the connection.

One of the most powerful insights from Womack and Jones is that lean is not simply a toolbox, but a total perspective. In other words, you must trust people to solve their problems, regardless of the way the problem has been defined. A plant manager for example, typically defines a problem as, hit your numbers, keep the factory loaded, and avoid too much union or vendor problems. This effectively forces him to stay in his office, manage by the numbers, run large batches, and so on. A lean approach redefines the problem completely. His new goals would be ; produce only what has been consumed ( ordered ), never by pass a problem or let an operator face a problem alone and continuously improve all processes. This has dramatic implications for the work of the same plant manager. The only way to solve problems in this lean perspective is to spend most of his/her time on the shop floor trying to understand what goes on, and challenging teams to be more precise and improve their operation.

" So the first real difficulty with lean deals with both technical and people challenges. The change begins by framing the problem, which one recognizes in the factory from a lean perspective."

IN ORDER TO GET STARTED, PEOPLE NEED TO, IN ESSENCE, DEVELOP A LEAN EYE.
You can read , Jhon Shook and Mike Rother's book " Learning to See " , refer to genchi genbutsu ( go and see ) .

( Article is Taken from Lean Enterprise Institute )

How do I get started the Lean ?

2007-12-26T19:32:00.000-08:00

While every individual or company embarking on a lean journey will have different challenges based on their particular set of circumstances, there are several crucial steps that can help reduce resistance, spread the right learning and angender the type of commitment necessary for lean enterprise.

Here are the key steps :

1. Find a change agent

2. Get the lean knowledge

3. Find or create a crisis

4. Forget grand strategy for the moment

5. Map the value streams

6. Begin as soon as possible

7. Demand immediate results

8. As soon you have got momentum expand your

scope.

For beginners seeking an overview of the entire lean system, as well as a sense of the types of human challenges which lean leader encounter.

( Jim Womack with the workbook " Lean Thinking " ).

Customer demand is the universal driver in change

2007-12-23T23:57:00.000-08:00

Conditions that were satisfactory yesterday are not acceptable today. Tomorrow's demands will be even greater.

VALUE ADDED METRICS

2007-12-23T17:07:00.000-08:00

TPS HOUSE

2007-12-18T20:56:00.000-08:00

Framing The Toyota Production System

2007-12-18T17:24:00.000-08:00

Framing is a well studied concept in social science. It can be described as implicitly selecting some aspects of perceived reality as more salient thatn others, thus orienting problem definition, causal interpretation, moral evaluation and eventually action recommendation.

The lean movement has been responsible for changing some frames in the industrial world. For instance, large inventories which werre once viewed as healthy assets that could be tapped when needed, are now generally seen as sources or symptoms of waste. Large batches produced to fulfil "economics order quantities" are increasingly unacceptable as a result of a new framework for seeing inventory. Toyota's expertise in creating level of flow of goods through a "pull" manufacturing system has changed the frame by demonstrating that the real issue was reduction of inventory, rather than the management of it.

In Toyota Production System , we have 4 frames that support our quality mindset to be delivered highest quality to customer.

4 Frames :

Improving Performance
Problem Awareness
Problem Solving
Developing People Before Making Parts

1. Improving Performance

Improving performance is the first goal of TPS, not implementing tools fot the tools sake.

Quality improvement, through building in quality 100% at the process rather than inspecting it in later.
Improving customer service by reducing response time, how can I please my customers by delivering to them exactly what they want, exactly when they want it, in the right quantity at the highest quality and lowest cost ?
Cost reduction through waste elimination, anything other than the minimum amount of equipment, materials, parts and working time absolutely essential to production are merely surpluses that only raise cost.

2. Problem Awareness , Developing a kaizen conciousness

The 2nd deep frame of TPS is problem awareness, in which lean thinkers continually know precisely where the system falls short of perfection and relentessly pursue these "problems" everyday. In the word of Nampachi Hayashi : "The biggest problem is thinking you are okay".

A generally and understandable, human tedency is blame circumstances when run into difficulties. The TPS frame looks to take responsibility, challenge assumptions and conduct the framed "5 WHY" exercise of asking" WHY? until the root cause of a problem is uncovered.

3. Problem Solving , Go and See Quick Experiments and Rigorous Result Checking

3rd, TPS also conveys a deep frame for experiential problem solving. As Ohno said: "In a production plant operation, data are highly regarded but I consider facts to be even more important." The difference is more than sematic: TPS consider facts to be events that you have your self witnessed at the real place, with the real parts and the real people.

4. Developing People Before Making Parts

Recalling his days aas an Ohno dicipline. Teruyuki Minoura muses, " I don't think he was interested in my answer at all. I think he was just putting me through some kind of training to get me to learn how to think." Hajima Ohba depict TPS as fundamentally a system of training where everyone solves problems uner the guidance of a mentor. Kenji Miura, head of Toyota's Operations Management Consulting Division, on recent visit to a european plant chided the plant management , " Don't have kaizen-men and observers." This was strong way of saying that developing a "kaizen consciousness" was the responsibility of the management, not of staff "expert".

In fact, TPS frames every manager's job very strongly as :

Build the performance mindset
Establish the standard method
Track actual performance (make problems or abnormalities visible)
Teach a basic way for analyzing work
Develop employees through solving probems or improvement tasks.

Indo Lean Institute

What's Lean ???

2007-12-18T16:32:00.000-08:00

Lean '
A manufacturing philosophy developed by Toyota Motor Corporation aimed at optimal levels of efficiency through the elimination of waste.

"Waste = anything that does not add value to the customer "

TPS is 90% operational/cultural
10% Physical/equipment

" Problem is Good and No Problem is Problem " ( Teruyuki Minoura )

Goals of Lean :

Deliver the highest quality to customer.
Deliver product with the lowest cost for overall operations .
Shortest the lead time , fastest collect the cast.
Flexibility for any of changes.
High Safety
High Morale ( Mutual Trust and Respect )

Phases of Lean Implementation :

1. Physically

2. Culturally

3. Operationally

Indo Lean Institute

Consult Needed kiki.risyandi@gmail.com