Category: Methods and Tools

In my next several posts, I’m going to be talking about good ol’ 5S.

I did a keyword search this morning on “lean manufacturing”.  I got a list of terms with data that told me how many times each term is searched for on Google.  Which term do you suppose has more Google searches, “5S” or “Lean manufacturing”?  Well, the winner is…5S.  Yep, I was surprised, too.  I think it says that, while folks are still eager to learn about lean manufacturing in general, they’re even more eager to learn how to implement the tools.

I’ll tell you now, I approach 5S differently from the way it’s usually presented.  I’ve found that supervisors and managers have a difficult time wrapping their heads and hands around 5S all at once.  I’ve also found that it’s hard to teach 5S all at once.  Yeah, it’s easy enough to go through each of the S’s and give a quick definition and a bit of overview but…then what?

So, I’ve broken it up into two phases: Sort and Shine, then Straighten and See.  What about Standardize and Sustain, you ask?  Well, as you’ll see they are embedded into those two phases.

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

Part 2(b)?  Really?  Sheesh.

At any rate, last time we covered two methods for getting the word out when you begin to implement lean manufacturing.  Let’s look at a couple more.

Continue reading “How to Implement Lean Manufacturing – Strategy and Spread the Word: Part 2(b)”

I don’t like to have blog posts that have “Part 2(a)” in the title.  It’s just…I don’t know…persnickety or something.  But I did want to add a word or two (or…couple of hundred) about Spread the Word before moving on.  Specifically, I wanted to add something of a list of Spread the Word activities an organization starting a lean implementation should engage in.  I mentioned a few of these activities in my earlier post, but a re-reading of it prompts me to expand and elaborate.

Continue reading “How to Implement Lean Manufacturing – Strategy and Spread the Word: Part 2(a)”

So, let’s get down to the business of actually implementing lean manufacturing.

Step number one: do some planning (Strategy), then tell everyone about those plans (Spread the Word). That’s not hard, right?

No, it’s not hard but you need to do it right if the rest of the steps are to go well.  So, let’s start with Strategy and we’ll get to Spread the Word in a later post.

Essentially, you need to develop some overall goals, some metrics, and a calendar for the overall program.  And you need to get leadership together in a series of meetings to develop these goals, metrics, and the calendar. Continue reading “How to Implement Lean Manufacturing: Strategy and Spread the Word – Part 1”

I’ve noticed that I get a lot of hits whenever I post about 5S.  (“Lot of hits” being relative when ten hits a day for the blog as a whole is a lot.)  I confess that I’m a bit surprised about this; 5S is the most straightforward of the lean tools.  I sometimes tell clients, jokingly, that my 5S training takes about ten seconds:

“First, you Sort out everything you don’t need.  Then Straighten up and Shine what’s left.  Standardize where you put things and how you check if they’re still there.  Then Sustain all this next week.  There.  Now, go do it.”

 

That said, I’ve found that 5S can, in fact, be difficult to implement.  I’ve made my share of mistakes and I’ve seen the bad results of others’ errors. Here are some of those mistakes.

Continue reading “Don’t Make These Three 5S Mistakes”

Last time, we laid out the five steps to implementing lean manufacturing and gave a bit of an overview as to the whole program.  Let’s work on that a bit more.  We’ll jump into the specifics of the five phases next post.

Over the years, I’ve found that clients often know about the various concepts and tools surrounding lean.  I rarely get asked, “What’s this ‘heijunka’ thing I’ve heard about?”  or “I don’t know much about 5S.  Can you explain it to me?” Rather, the more common questions are “How do I get started?” and “What do I do next?”

To tell you the truth, the best answer to those questions is, “We can’t really be sure where to start or what to do next until we dig in and talk more about your specific circumstances.”  I’ve found, though, that answer doesn’t do much to comfort prospective (or existing) clients.  They’re eager to hear the program.  Mind you, they’re often very willing to be flexible once the program gets started.  Heck, they are the ones that generate the need for flexibility once it gets started.  But, at the front end, they need to hear that the implementation has a beginning, an end, and a finite number of steps to get between the two.

Just as if you were building a house.  You wouldn’t be comforted if the contractor said, “We’ll start talking about your needs and interests and see what develops.”  You’d want to see a blueprint.  That’s what the five steps represent: a blueprint for implementing lean methods and tools.

Here’s a Youtube video that I think you’ll enjoy.  Truth be told, I don’t see a lot of lean manufacturing videos (I need to look for more good ones) but I stumbled across this one and have shown it to a few clients.

It does a very good job of illustrating the value and benefit of work place organization and visual factory.

In looking back to find this video, I see there are several others by Fast Cap about lean.  I need to check those out, as well.  In the meantime, enjoy this one.

OK, let’s get started…again.

The five, not so easy, steps to implement lean manufacturing are:

1. Strategy and Spread the Word
2. Sort and Shine
3. Straighten and See
4. Simplify and Solve
5. Standardize and Sustain

You’ll notice the alliteration around the S’s…that’s to make it all easier to remember.  I hope.

Truth be told, they aren’t really steps so much as they are stages or phases.  And they don’t have to be done in the order listed.  Except for Strategy and Spread the Word,  That one has to go first.

I’ve been using this model for a few years now.  Here’s why I like it:

1. It’s an approach that’s easy to use to explain to others what we’ll do and how we’ll do it. It also facilitates keeping track of where we’ve made progress and what’s left to accomplish.
2. The approach is flexible and customizable just about any situation I run into.  I’ve used this in small and large settings.
3. It provides appropriate “buckets” to put all the tools and tactics I use.  By that I mean, each tool, each tactic has “someplace to go”.  5S? Phases 2 and 3.  Visual Factory?  Phase 3.  Value Stream Mapping? Phase 4.  Leader Standard Work?  Phase 5.  You get the idea, I think.
4. And, finally, it formats nicely for a series of blog posts!