Welcome to World of Lean!

Welcome to World of Lean! This is a discussion by and for people that are interested in Lean Manufacturing, Six Sigma, Management Consulting, VAVE, and the Toyota Production System. This is an open forum, so all questions / topics / comments regarding the above are welcome. Thanks!

The In’s and Out’s of 5S

by ScottECornell

Let’s talk about 5S. This is usually one of the big things that people think of when they hear about lean. 5S is just one of the tools to a successful lean program. It stands for 5 Japanese words that all start with the letter “S”. Seiri (Sort), Seiton (Set), Seiso (Shine), Seiketsu (Standardization), and Shitsuke (Sustain). So in English, 5S stands for; Sort, Set, Shine, Standardize, and Sustain.
Simply put, “Sort” is just putting things in order, keeping only what you need, and getting rid of things that you don’t need. Think about the attic in your house. Odds are, if it’s anything like mine, you’ve got Star Wars action figures missing arms and legs stored in a box up there. Or maybe a dozen cans of half full bottles of oil on a shelf in your garage. The “Sort” of 5S tells us to get rid of these things. If they are needed, then put them in some sort of easily accessible order.
“Set” takes these things that we’ve determined are actually needed, and puts them in an efficient order. “A place for everything, and everything in its place.” Home positions should be created for these items. In a factory setting, an example of designated home positions, is painting (or taping) yellow squares around everything on wheels, and then labeling the square. For instance, If there is a cart that has material on it that is periodically used, then there should be a designated home position for that cart. The position should be close to the point of use. The floor where the cart sits should be painted with a yellow outline square, and the square should be labeled with whatever is going into the square. So in this case, the label might say, “Materials Cart.” The cart should always be in that square, unless it is actively in use. Whenever it is not being used, it should be put back in this square.
“Shine” is just what it sounds like. Making things shiny! This should be a daily activity of sweeping, scrubbing, mopping, cleaning, etc. This helps prevent problems by keeping things clean, and it helps improve morale. No one wants to work in a dirty environment.
“Standardize” and “Sustain” are the two 5S areas that most companies miss. They are also the two most important areas. If there are no standards in place, then there is no way to hold people accountable for not following the standards. How can we say to an employee, “You didn’t 5S your area well enough!” if we don’t define what “well enough” actually is! Standards can be communicated through 5S keypoints. These are pictures of an area that has been thoroughly organized, ordered, and cleaned. These pictures are then laminated, and posted in that area. The employee now knows what the standard is. The supervisor can then hold them accountable for not “making it look like that.” However, keep in mind that it is the manager’s responsibility to make sure that the proper 5S tools are available, and in the correct position for the employee.
“Sustain” is perhaps the most difficult. How do we keep it on track? Once we get the areas looking perfect, once we get the 5S key points posted, how do we keep it from looking bad after a month? Well, there are several ways. One is a 5S kamishibai system, which I will spend a lot of time discussing in a future post. Another is a 5S audit system. Once the area is cleaned and organized, we can make a checklist of various items in the area that would need continuous work to keep it looking good. This should be an audit document that also has pictures on it, so that the auditor can pull a sheet, and walk from area to area looking at their sheet, the picture, and then the actual area. The auditor then grades the area on a grading scale (I usually use 1 to 5, with 5 being…it looks just like the picture, and 1 being…..”what the heck happened?”
I mentioned accountability above, and I will discuss this a lot more in a later post as well, but I want to make sure that everyone understands some of the true purposes of 5S. If things are clean, problems stand out much more clearly. If a machine is spotless, an oil leak, even if small, will be quickly noticed. Also, if tools are located exactly where the employee needs them, in an efficient, and ordered manner, they will be able to accomplish their tasks much faster, and with a higher degree of satisfaction.
I have worked in some areas that could use some “serious” 5S! I’m interested to hear others’ 5S stories, positive, or negative.

Toyota Production System Success

Toyota is arguably the most “lean” company in existence. Their success is rooted in many things, one of which is the Toyota Production System, or TPS. There are literally dozens of books out there that discuss this success, and how they have done it, and many of them are quite good. The problem with a book is, that once you read about a particular topic (unless your spouse is a TPS expert…then just ask him / her), there is no one to bounce ideas or questions off of. I spent over 6 years working to set up, and manage various departments in a Toyota Production Facility. I’ve learned that they are successful for a reason….their teachings work! Over the next several weeks, I’m going to be writing articles about how Toyota is able to be so successful, and how they are able to sustain this success. I will discuss; OA versus OEE; Job Instruction Sheets as a tool to create and audit standardized work; Kamishibai Systems for Quality, TPM, Pokayokes, and 5S; Genchi Genbutsu; Hoshin Kanri; Yokoten; Kanban; KYT or Kiken Yochi Training; Visual Management; Supervisor Training the Toyota Way, Sustainability, Root Cause Corrective Action, A3’s and Performance Dashboards; and finally….Kaizen, or Continuous Improvement!

Toyota - Starting Points for Lean

By ScottECornell

As the economy starts to crunch more and more businesses, business leaders are looking for ways to cut costs and increase profitability. Many of these leaders are looking for innovative ways to do this. Some cut retirement and benefits, some try to cut inventory, most look for any creative way to cut costs, and some spend time and money learning about lean. Learning as much as possible about lean is a good thing, but if you don’t learn how to apply it to your organization, it can be dangerous. Let me tell you a story about one of my first experiences with lean. Several years ago, my boss told me he wanted me to “go lean.” Having never heard about lean, I was initially insulted, thinking he was telling me to go on a diet! After some more discussion though, I realized that’s not what he really meant. In fact, even after talking with him about it for 10 minutes, I still didn’t think he knew what lean was. I was a manager of a large machining department that made pistons. We made 12,000 pistons per shift, in a three shift operation. Assembly used everything we made, plus a little more. Due to the current customer demand, assembly worked 6 days a week. Due to this, my machining department had to work 7 days a week! Obviously this left Zero time for preventive maintenance (which we will discuss in a later article). Back to my bosses discussion about going lean. He said, “Scott, we’ve got WAY to many pistons in inventory between machining and assembly. You need to cut your inventory by half.” At this point, I’m thinking….”What an idiot.” However, what I said was, “Sir, you are right, we do have a lot of inventory between machining and assembly….we have about 7 days worth. The reason for that is if the LaSalle (one of the machines) goes down, it has historically taken 6 to 7 days to get it back up again.” His reply was, “I don’t care. I just went through a lean manufacturing class, so I know what I’m talking about! We’ve got way too much inventory between machining and assembly. Cut it by half. That’s an order,” Then he walked away. At this point, you can probably all guess what’s going to happen, but I’ll tell you anyway. Over the next several weeks, I bled our inventory out until we had about 3.5 days between machining and assembly. Sure enough, a few weeks later, the Lasalle went down. It was down for almost 5 days (which was a record getting it fixed that fast by the way!). Assembly ran out of parts after 3.5 days, and the automotive plant ran out of finished product shortly thereafter. The cost to the company was staggering (several million dollars!). Read the rest of this entry »

Toyota - Job Instruction Sheets as a tool to manage Standardized Work

By ScottECornell

Standard Work is one of the foundations upon which Toyota’s success is built. Job Instruction Sheets (JIS) are tools to help manage standard work. A JIS lists the step-by-step tasks that are done in order to complete a job, and provides a picture for each task. For example, if I wanted to write a JIS on drinking a beer while I was watching a football game, I could break the actions necessary down into steps. Step 1 - Get lazy butt off the couch by standing up. Step 2 - Walk to the fridge. Step 3 - Open fridge door. Step 4 - Get beer from 2nd shelf. Step 5 – Step back as you close the door. Step 6 – Walk to the drawer next to the fridge. Step 7 – Open the drawer. Step 8 – Dig through the sharp utensils (without cutting yourself on your girlfriend / wives cooking knives) until you find the bottle opener. Step 9 – Open the bottle. Step 10 – Drop the bottle opener back into the drawer. Step 11 – Shut the drawer. Step 12 – Walk to the trash can. Step 13 – Throw away the bottle cap (Note – Steps 12 and 13 are optional if you have a seriously understanding wife / girlfriend….if not, then make sure you follow these two steps). Step 14 – Walk back to the couch. Step 15 – Sit back down again. Step 16 – Empty beer bottle into mouth. Step 17 – Repeat until the football game is over….or you fall down.
The next step in creating a JIS for this activity, is to have someone photograph each and every step. This detail is critical, since a picture leaves less room for interpretation than words. When making a JIS, I typically have only 6 tasks and pictures together on a page.
Now, on to kaizen (continuous improvement). Thinking about the above example, how could we turn this into a much more simple JIS, and still accomplish our goal? By the way, what is our goal? Simply put “Beer…..in my tummy…..with as little effort as possible.” So, what simple improvements could we have made to accomplish this goal with out getting my lazy butt off the coach? First, we could buy one of those tiny fridges that fit conveniently next to the couch. Second, we could have a magnetic bottle opener attached to the tiny fridge. Third, we could face the fridge toward my seat on the couch, so that I don’t have to move to open the door. Okay, now what would our JIS look like? Step 1 – open fridge door as I grab the bottle opener from the front of the fridge. Step 2 – remove lid from bottle. Step 3– place bottle opener back on front of fridge as I am closing the fridge door. Step 4 – stuff the bottle cap under the couch seat (Odds are she’ll find them eventually, but probably not while I’m watching the game….so I’m not going to worry about it now).
So we’ve taken a 17 step, dangerous Job Instruction Sheet, and turned it into a 4 step JIS, by improving the 5S just a bit. We will discuss 5S in more detail in one of the next articles. Read the rest of this entry »