Lean Concepts

Just-In-Time | it just makes sense

Thursday, April 16th, 2009

Just In Time Manufacturing About fifteen years ago I moved from Central Europe to the USA. Back then many things were different between these two places (not anymore, though). I almost felt like I was on another planet. I was so excited about the New World I was discovering that everything seemed better to me [...]

Kaizen | Continuous Improvement

Friday, April 10th, 2009

Toyota Kaizen During the exciting days of learning about and implementing the Toyota System I asked one of our youngest workers – Lukas, what he would change in our production plant if he owned it. His reply was: “I’ve never thought about it.” But he started looking around and thinking about it. I know this [...]

One Piece Flow

Wednesday, March 25th, 2009

System of One Piece Flow Most people associate Henry Ford with the development of the Mass Production (also known as Series Production) system. The more cars Ford produced the lower the cost of making an individual car. In many respects the Toyota System is the very opposite of the Mass Production System (as the alternative [...]

Toyota System perspective

Friday, March 20th, 2009

Toyota Production System The Toyota System inspires people to examine things from the right angle. Looking at the same issue from two different perspectives may lead to clashing conclusions. For example: compare these two equations: Cost + Profit = Price Price – Cost = Profit The two equations are mathematically identical. However, the thinking behind [...]

Muda | What is it?

Tuesday, March 17th, 2009

Muda is any kind of activity that the customer will not pay for. Looking for tools is muda, making too many items that then acquire dust is muda, making 100 parts that eventually get thrown away because the engineering department changed the shape a little bit is muda, disorganization that makes people stand and wait to be told what to do next is muda, buying and installing a cool little gadget on a car that impresses only our engineers but no customers is muda also. All those things need to be eliminated and this is one of the main points Shingo and other guys from Toyota make.

Lean Philosophy | Idea behind

Monday, March 16th, 2009

Lean Philosophy: inventory, water, ship and rocks Shigeo Shingo, leading expert on the Toyota Production System, used an awesome analogy which shows what the Toyota Production System is all about. It’s simple. There are only three elements in the analogy: • a ship – representing a business, let’s say – a production plant, • expensive [...]

The Toyota System | Is it worth it?

Friday, March 13th, 2009

Toyota Production System | Lean Manufacturing Imagine there was a lottery offering real business opportunities instead of cash. You win the biggest prize: a sure position as a manufacturing plant manager. Your phone rings and this is what you hear: “Hi, this is the Teach A Man To Fish Lottery. We would like to congratulate [...]