Category: Methods and Tools

You’ve finished with the Sort and Shine across your plant (or nearly so).  You’ve been working for awhile and the plant looks a lot better doesn’t it?  Just as important, you’re finding that it’s being sustained pretty well.  A few glitches here and there and, gosh knows, you’ve needed to stay on top of things, but overall the picture is good.

Congratulations…but now comes the harder phase: Straighten and See.  It’s not that this phase is any harder, per se, to carry out than the first one was.  It’s just that there’s more to it.  The first phase was Sort…then Shine.  This phase is…find a place for everything (and that might mean buying or fabricating places to put some things) including the stuff that moves through the area like work in process , mark and label the place where you put it, implement other visuals like communications boards, schedule boards, metrics boards, and develop all the procedures for making sure the right stuff is in the right place at the right time.  See what I mean?  There’s more to it.  So, we’d better get started.

Continue reading “How to Implement Lean Manufacturing: Straighten and See (5S) – Part 1”

We left off at Implementation Schedules and Red Tag areas.  So, by now, your teams should be regularly stopping their work for short periods and carrying out Sort and Shine.  That means they are:

1. Getting rid of stuff.  As in, putting it in the dumpster;
2. Taking other stuff to the Central Red Tag area;
3. Sweeping, cleaning, wiping down, degreasing, scrubbing…and inspecting everything that’s left.

Let’s talk about each of those in turn.

Continue reading “How to Implement Lean Manufacturing – Sort and Shine (5S): Part 5”

My experience is that good definitions, descriptions, and case studies of effective kanban are hard to come by.  It’s the same with takt time…everybody knows the formal definition and is happy to repeat it but not many seem to want to go past that and give illustrations and examples that help instruct and enlighten.

So, I was particularly happy to stumble across this video about the use of kanban for ob/gyn supplies in a Sasketchewan hospital.  It’ all below the fold, so watch the video first, then read my thoughts on it.

Continue reading “Video on Kanban in Healthcare that You Need to See”

I found this article, 5S Study and Research Page, via another blog, Beyond Lean.  It’s worth a look because it covers a lot of material and eventually gets around to some fairly useful “how to” information.  I could do with less of the “5S is…” material.  I find that most folks don’t care about definitions…they just want to know what it looks like in action and how to get it going.  (If that describes you, be sure to take a look at the How To Implement Lean Manufacturing right here at this site.)

That said, somebody put a lot of work into the article and it’s worth a look.

Sort and Shine Implementation Schedule

We’re going to talk later on about the Sort and Shine Sustain Schedule.  That will comprise the regular tasks that the team carries out to keep the area well organized.

Right now, let’s discuss the Sort and Shine Implementation Schedule, which is a bit different.  It’s the schedule of “mini-Kaizens” during which the team will Sort out everything that needs to be Sorted and Shining everything that needs to be shined.  For example, a team might decide that it will work on Sort and Shine every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday from 2pm to 3 pm. Another area might establish a schedule of every Tuesday and Thursday from 3pm to 4pm.  Another area might schedule every other Wednesday from 2pm to 4pm.

Continue reading “How to Implement Lean Manufacturing – Sort and Shine (5S): Part 4”

Sort and Shine Teams

Each area will have a team associated with it that will be responsible for actually carrying out the Sort and Shine activities in the area.  Generally, the team will comprise those who actually work in the area.  Some peripheral areas might need a team assigned to them.

Each team should have a Sort and Shine Leader.  (One of my clients referred to them as Agile Leaders because the overall initiative was referred to as Agile Manufacturing.)  That Leader might be the present supervisor or team lead. Or it might be someone new.

A word or two about the Sort and Shine Leaders…they ARE NOT, alone, responsible for implementing Sort and Shine in their areas.  It’s important to get this across to everyone.  They ARE responsible for most of the administrative part of the initiative.

Continue reading “How to Implement Lean Manufacturing – Sort and Shine (5S): Part 3”

Speaking of YouTube videos (which I was a week or so ago), I found a good one at The Lean Post.  The link below will take you to the article wherein the video resides.  Judy Worth does a better job than most at explaining value stream maps.

Value Stream Maps and Battle Plans – Are They Worth Nothing?.

If you had to choose just one lean method as the best lean tool, what would it be?  Yeah, that’s a hard one because they’re all important, right?  But…you can just choose one.  What would it be?

My vote goes to Visual Workplace.

Continue reading “The Best Lean Tool”

We’re on a roll regarding rolling out 5S that should go a couple of more posts.  In our last post, we talked about planning the Sort and Shine phase of the initiative.  In this post, we’re going to talk a bit more about getting prepped.

Continue reading “How to Implement Lean Manufacturing – Sort and Shine (5S): Part 2”