Month: December 2020

Seven Forms of Waste

When a facility produces too much of a product, it is a form of waste. Even if the product does eventually sell, it causes certain types of waste. For example, if you have too much of a product, it needs to be stored in a warehouse, which is wasting space.

When speaking about waste, lean experts usually refer to seven specifically. These include: transportation, inventory, motion, waiting, over processing, overproduction, and defects. Elimination of these seven kinds of waste can help companies reduce costs, increase employee engagement and customer happiness, and increase profits.

The waste of inventory involves storing products or materials that are not needed at this time. Excess inventory results in a waste of space, and it wastes the cost associated with the physical inventory. Although it is a significant concern in manufacturing, it occurs in other sectors as well.

Kaizen Design Principles

Please try again later. There are 5 Fundamental KAIZEN™ Principles that are embedded in every KAIZEN™ tool and in every KAIZEN™ behavior. The 5 principles are: Know your Customer, Let it Flow, Go to Gemba, Empower People and Be Transparent.

The kaizen methodology works at constant improvements through the elimination of waste. It’s been around in Japan since after World War II, though influenced by quality management ideas from the United States. It’s part of The Toyota Way, which is a set of principles that support the company’s management approach to production.

When used in the business sense and applied to the workplace, kaizen refers to activities that continuously improve all functions and involve all employees from the CEO to the assembly line workers. It also applies to processes, such as purchasing and logistics, that cross organisational boundaries into the supply chain.

Process Management –DMAIC Approach –- Define Measure Analyze Improve Control

The DMAIC improvement cycle is the core tool used to drive Six Sigma projects. However, DMAIC is not exclusive to Six Sigma and can be used as the framework for other improvement applications. DMAIC is an abbreviation of the five improvement steps it comprises: Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve and Control.

The DMAIC methodology has its roots in the PDSA (“plan, do, study, act”) cycle developed by statistician Walter A. Shewhart at Bell Laboratories in the 1930s. But the technique as we know it today has been shaped by some of the largest organizations in the world such as Toyota, Motorola, GE, and Ford Motor Company.

Here are 4 key guidelines: Make sure there is potential to reduce lead time or defects while resulting in cost savings or improved productivity Once you’ve selected a good project, you and your improvement team can apply DMAIC to dig into process issues and deliver quantifiable, sustainable results. Now, on to the DMAIC process!

Ishikawa Fishbone Root Cause Analysis Diagram

The following steps will help you get started using a Fishbone Diagram for root cause analysis on your shop floor: 1. Identify the problem and write it in a box. This is the fish’s head. Draw an arrow leading into the head. 2. Brainstorm categories for potential causes and write them as branches from the arrow. 3.

The Ishikawa Diagram A fishbone diagram is a tool that can help you perform a cause and effect analysis for a problem you are trying to solve. This type of analysis enables you to discover the root cause of a problem. This tool is also called a cause and effect diagram or an Ishikawa diagram.

This cause analysis tool is considered one of the seven basic quality tools. The fishbone diagram identifies many possible causes for an effect or problem. It can be used to structure a brainstorming session. It immediately sorts ideas into useful categories.