I wanted to dedicate this article to the topic of Lean Culture and Leadership because I think we don’t care enough about the social part of the whole Lean environment. Lean Management means more than process flow optimization, or waste elimination is the entire culture. What I mean by this, that Lean is a mindset,... Continue Reading →
The 5S System
The 5S method is used basically for workplace organization, originally come from 5 Japanese words: Seiri (Sort), Seiton (Set in order), Seiso (Shine), Seiketsu (Standardize), Shitsuke (Sustain). The 5S process describes in 5 steps, how to organize a workspace for efficiency, identifying, and removing items that are unnecessary in your environment. Through this process, we should understand... Continue Reading →
Kaizen
The word Kaizen in Japanese is written with two characters meaning ‘to change’ and ‘for the better’. Kaizen is behind the Continuous Improvement philosophy, teaching employee different methods for visualizing opportunities for improvement and eliminating waste.These tools are developed and used for many years with success in Toyota manufacturing, focusing on the answers for many... Continue Reading →
Muda, Muri, Mura
1.Muda Muda means waste, and represents those processes, or activities that don’t add value to the process flow of the product.They increase costs and make tasks take much longer than they should.Muda is a main pillar in the JIT (Just In Time) system because waste is considered, as a huge financing cost. In the JIT... Continue Reading →
Genchi Genbutsu
Genchi Genbutsu means in English go and see for yourself. It's a well-known fact, that the best solution for a problem can be found, in the exact right location, where the actual work is being performed. Anomalies can be fixed more quickly and efficiently on the shop floor with analysis and product tests. Before being... Continue Reading →
Just in Time
JIT manufacturing is well known as lean manufacturing described by the Pull System. This philosophy is used for efficient inventory control and all the benefits coming with it.We distinct 2 main types of production, named Push or Pull System. Push system can be associated with the traditional production, we made as much as we can,... Continue Reading →
Andon
Andon is a system that notifies management, production, and operators about a technical, or a quality problem. It allows employees to stop a process, machine in work if the quality of the product is affected. A visual sign shows immediately where the action is required. This alert is usually a button, a pull-chord or an... Continue Reading →
Jidoka
Jidoka is a combination of automation and human intelligence. Equipment is designed to stop automatically and detect problems. Jidoka method is related to Andon because the operator is equipped with the means to supervise the production and to stop whenever they observe something suspicious. An example for Jidoka would be, an automatic welding line, where... Continue Reading →
Hansei
In Japanese culture, Hansei means self-reflection to improve our actions, decision making or behavior. It’s part of continuous improvement, but in this case, not the process is analyzed and improved in fact, the human itself is improved. In the Plan-Do-Check-Act cycle in the DO part, we think about our actions, result, failure, expectations from ourselves... Continue Reading →
Poka-Yoke
Poka-Yoke in English means a mistake-proofing system. This method helps employees to avoid mistakes during production. This system ensures safety production without errors, taking off the pressure of employees to not doing something wrong. Safety is the most important factor in our lives, more than that, Poka-Yoke methodology, offers the opportunity to work protected, and... Continue Reading →
REIV 