Six Sigma is quality. Lean is speed. The synergy of both is the most powerful engine available today to sustained value creation. Lean Six Sigma is the ultimate formula for operational excellence, blending the precision of Six Sigma with the agility of Lean. Six Sigma, pioneered by Motorola, revolutionized quality control, gaining fame through adoption by giants … [Read more...]
Change can feel like a leap into the unknown, a gamble fraught with risks. What if it flops? What if it dents our income or threatens our job security? It’s no wonder we humans cling to the familiar, preferring the devil we know over the one we don’t. Yet, when it comes to process improvement, there’s a flip side: it’s not just a necessity, but an exhilarating … [Read more...]
The japanese language contains a word that is so powerful and expressive that it has gained widespread acceptance in the manufacturing industry: muda. Muda means waste, but it's more than that. It embodies the full essence of inefficiency, uselessness, and squandered potential. The word muda has become a cornerstone of lean manufacturing, which originated in Japan … [Read more...]
In the fast-paced world of manufacturing, efficiency is the heartbeat of success. Every process, every movement, and every second counts toward delivering products on time and within budget. At the core of this intricate dance lies a concept known as takt time—a term derived from the German word "Takt," meaning rhythm or beat. Often misunderstood or overlooked, takt … [Read more...]
In the world of lean manufacturing, few concepts are as intriguing and transformative as Jidoka. Often overshadowed by its more famous counterpart, Just-In-Time, Jidoka remains a hidden gem that holds the key to unlocking unparalleled efficiency and quality in production systems, a critical stepping stone in creating high performance cultures. This japanese principle … [Read more...]
Kaizen is a component of Lean Manufacturing which involves the steady, systematic removal of waste from the production line. In a lean facility, the components of the manufacturing process that produce value (the "value stream") are identified, and everything that is not absolutely necessary to produce that value is considered muda, japanese for waste. Kaizen, … [Read more...]
Poka Yoke is a component of lean manufacturing which involves error proofing of the production process. Like the square peg that doesn't fit into a round hole, it involves designing processes to eliminate the ability to produce poor quality products. Each task in a production process is inspected for defects. If the defects emerging from a task are particularly … [Read more...]
Many people have heard of Just-in-time manufacturing. But how does it really work, and how can you use it to improve your operations? Most importantly, what are the risks when there is a hiccup in the supply of parts? Just-in-time manufacturing originated in post-war Japan, where there were neither raw materials nor space to build large factories, hence … [Read more...]
Sometimes you come across one of those very simple, yet amazingly effective tools that most people who have adopted it wonder how they ever did without. Today is one of those days. Kanban is a task scheduling method originally developed by the Toyota Production System in the 1960's to track inventory levels. Although it is being still used in some manufacturing … [Read more...]
The world is a complex place. Ask any engineer. Most engineer's jobs generally fall into the category of trying to make the complex more simple, in order to understand its constraints. Particularly its upper and lower limits. Complex systems, like a manufacturing plant, or a project with many interconnected parts, contain so many related variables that it is often … [Read more...]
