Lean Management

32 Essential Lean Manufacturing Tools

lean manufacturing tools and techniques

Identifying The Essential Lean Manufacturing Tools!

I found this article on Newcastle Systems website. In the infographic,  they are identifying 32 essential lean manufacturing tools. Our Lean Expert online training course includes instruction on these same 32 tools, and more. There are approximately 140 continuous improvement tools available today, and in use within the lean improvement field, but not all are used or known by all lean practitioners.  To learn more about our training courses…click here

32 Essential Lean Manufacturing Tools

When you hear “lean manufacturing,” you have your own world view of what it means. Every lean manufacturing consultant offers expertise but few will be an expert with every tool. The following infographic will help you understand the diverse options and language with a collection of 32 essential lean tools and a short description of the value they bring to your manufacturing, warehouse or distribution center.

 

32 Essential Lean Manufacturing Tools [infographic]
32 Essential Lean Manufacturing Tools [infographic]  

Radical Lean Transformation

radical lean transformation

Radical Lean Transformation

One of the common questions that crops up during my conversations with my clients is – Why do companies have problems sustaining improvements through thelean manufacturing training online application of lean manufacturing principles?

The generic answer to this question is – Well, those companies are implementing lean manufacturing principles incorrectly! I personally find this answer to be a little on the vague side. The management team in every organization is trying to do the best they can with the resources and knowledge that are available to them.  However, the one thing that every person in every organization is fighting against is the organization’s internal culture.

An organizational infrastructure is created and deeply influenced by the original founders who had responsibility for establishing the business. These original founders would insert their personal values and philosophy into the company.  Those who follow on after them, inherit the status quo and participate in the same processes defined by the original founders. New people coming into the organization will often challenge the system but eventually they fall in line out of fear or frustration. History has show us that organizations are complex systems, which means they are not easy to change. In other words, old habits die hard!

Radical Lean Improvements

When we break lean manufacturing improvements down to their most basic activity, what is it? The application of Lean Manufacturing principles into any business boils down to one thing, which is a shift in the mindset and get people to make the move from optional to required behaviors. This practice is called “Develop Standard Work” for critical processes. If an organization truly wants to be successful with their lean implementation and transformation, they must have the resources available to make this important shift and start to define their best practices. The company will benefit from this in many ways. One of the most important benefits is the establishment of a baseline process and metric for every critical process. Without a defined process and baseline performance metric, the management team has no idea if a process improvement is trending in a positive or negative manner.

Radical Lean Videos

I created a series of three short videos in which I ask and expand on some critical questions:

  1. How did companies perform before and after the 2007/2008 recession? Why is this important?
  2. How does a typical company implement lean manufacturing principles? Why do they often fail?
  3. What is a tried and tested methodology for successfully implementing lean manufacturing principles?

Enjoy the videos!

Please accept YouTube cookies to play this video. By accepting you will be accessing content from YouTube, a service provided by an external third party.

YouTube privacy policy

If you accept this notice, your choice will be saved and the page will refresh.

«
Prev
1
/
1
Next
»
loading
play
Radical Lean Transformation Part 1
play
Radical Lean Transformation Part 2
play
Radical Lean Transformation Part 3
«
Prev
1
/
1
Next
»
loading
.

Below, we offer our most popular online lean manufacturing training course. This is a must-do course if you want to learn about Radical Lean Transformation!

This is our most popular online lean manufacturing training package!

.

Please feel free to share this post with your colleagues and friends. We would be truly appreciated if you would like our Facebook page.

Good Bosses vs Bad Bosses

lean leadership

Good Bosses vs. Bad Bosses

I read this article from Stanford Graduate School of Business, and I thought it would be great to share with everyone.

The key questions in the article are:

  1. What are the traits of a good boss?
  2. How do the behaviors of a boss influence employee productivity?
  3. What do employees expect from their boss?

I am sure you either have your own experience or know someone who shared their story about a bad boss. Sadly, there are too examples demonstrating the behaviors of bad bosses and not enough about good bosses. It is certainly true that people don’t leave organizations, they leave because of bad management practices i.e. bad bosses! Take a look at this short video, and feel free to share it with your colleagues and friends.

Three Things All Good Bosses Do!

Please accept YouTube cookies to play this video. By accepting you will be accessing content from YouTube, a service provided by an external third party.

YouTube privacy policy

If you accept this notice, your choice will be saved and the page will refresh.

10 Step Training & Implementation Model

Lean Manufacturing 10 training and implementation model

Lean Manufacturing Transformation Starts With Education!

A forward thinking company starts their Radical Lean Transformation by educating their employees to understand lean principles. Employees need to develop the know-how to apply lean principles to improve their own workplace. An important aspect of any Lean Transformation is process improvement, and this involves bringing about change.

Employees, and the management team must all be thinking ans speaking the same language. They must all be on the same page for any change to be implemented successfully. Prior to any journey, one would look at a road map to identify the best route to reach the destination. Radical Lean Transformation is the same as it requires a road map to allow the individual, group or organization to identify the best route on their lean journey.

Here is our own Radical Lean Implementation Roadmap that was designed and developed by Chris Turner:

PageLines-radical-lean-raodmap917x425_mini.jpg
Click for larger image!

The road map identifies three phases of activity throughout the implementation process.

  1. Phase 1 is focused on educating and coaching the change agents about the 10 Step Model.
  2. Phase 2 is focused on educating and coaching the management and improvement teams about the 10 Step Model.
  3. Phase 3 is focused on the implementation of each of the 10 Steps.

Understanding the 10 Step Training and Implementation Model is critical to the success of any lean transformation process. The model was designed and developed by Chris Turner to help individuals, groups and organizations to know what to do, how to do it, and when to do it!

Here is a graphic which demonstrates the sequence of events in the 10 Step Training and Implementation Model:

lean manufacturing transformation
Click for larger image!

By following the sequence of events defined in the 10 Step Model, the right processes are being implemented at the right time to achieve the best results.

You can learn more about the 10 Step Training and Implementation Model in our Level 2 – Lean Practitioner training course. This is our most popular training course:

Lean Manufacturing ROI

lean manufacturing return on investment

Implementing a Lean Strategy Can Improve Your Company’s ROI!

 

If you’re truly interested in the application of lean principles I have a link below to a great article in which Orry Fiume discusses how a lean strategy can improvelean manufacturing return on investment a company’s return on investment. He is a true legend in the lean accounting field and has given many incredible presentations over the years about this subject. He has co-authored an award winning book about Lean Accounting, and how it differs from standard cost accounting practices. If you or anyone in your organization needs to understand how lean manufacturing can improve return on investment (ROI), you need to read this article.

Orest (Orry) Fiume was vice president of Finance and Administration and a Director of The Wiremold Company, West Hartford, Connecticut, which gained international recognition as a leader in lean business management in “Lean Thinking.” Orry led Wiremold’s conversion to lean accounting in 1991 and developed alternate management accounting systems that supported the company’s entire lean business efforts. He has studied lean production in both the U.S. and Japan and has been a guest speaker at conferences around the world. Orry is the co-author of the 2004 Shingo Prize winning book Real Numbers: Management Accounting in a Lean Organization.

Here is the link where you can download a pdf version of the entire article: Lean Strategy can improve your company’s ROI.

Strategy Deployment

hoshin kanri, strategy deployment

What is Strategy Deployment?

Strategy Deployment was translated from the Japanese term “Hoshin Kanri.” It is loosely translated  into “Ho” which means “direction” and “Shin” which means “compass needle.” The second word is separated into two terms of “Kan” which means “control” and “Ri” which means “reason or logic.”

The process was developed by compiling the best practices of companies who competed for the Deming Award in Japan. Strategy Deployment is a tool to help a business define how it must improve its business practices to reach its vision (or North Star). The process is a method of guiding an organization to align its practices so everyone is moving in the same direction, and at the same pace.

Inputs for Strategy Deployment?

Strategy Deployment Requires Three Inputs:

1. What is the desired future state (vision)?
2. Collect the performance data for each key business process
3. Completion of a gap analysis to identify the difference between the current and the future state

Outputs from Strategy Deployment?

Strategy Deployment generates four outputs:

1. Strategic initiatives which are improvements to reach the future state (vision)
2. Identifies the opportunities for improvement (Kaizen) in key business processes
3. Generates feedback and results from key business processes improvements
4. Develops Standard Work or best practices

Password Reset
Please enter your e-mail address. You will receive a new password via e-mail.