Remember that the goal is to create behavior that leads to a cultural change. Companies that create a favorable environment for changes are the most successful at changing behaviors. Such an environment has a positive, no-blame, attack-the-problem-not-the-person atmosphere. Companies also need a “reliable method” for creating cultural change, and 5S is a key technique in the reliable method. …
—McGrath and Skinner (2006, p. 17)
Just as a lean transformation often starts by implementing 5S, this book started off with an explanation of the 5S program. The 5S program is one of the standard practices and tools of Lean operations that is key to creating a Lean Work Design, since the basis for all Lean Work Design is the creation of a clean and ordered work place. Consequently, this book began by introducing the idea of visible control and how it can be achieved through 5S in Chapter 1.
Chapter 2 then extended the principle of visible control to Total Productive Maintenance. An important aspect of any lean work design is that it seeks to realize a high overall equipment effectiveness. Using Total Productive Maintenance to achieve overall equipment effectiveness creates a capacity buffer that can be used to reduce flow times and inventory. More importantly, Total Productive Maintenance is another tool to achieve a cultural change within the company. Along with the 5S program it helps to change the “frame” that managers and employees use to understand their shared world.
Frames are generalized mental models of real-world situations. Frames embody our understanding of systems and their behavior. When we encounter a new problem situation, we use a frame as a template for organizing our perception of the problem. Frames guide us in collecting information to build representations of specific instances of the class of system that the frame comprehends. (Parsons 2012, p. 22)
As 5S and Total Productive Maintenance change the culture, employees can begin to use tools such as Single-Minute-Exchange-of-Die. Single-Minute-Exchange-of-Die is a key technique for increasing overall equipment effectiveness that focuses on set-up time reduction. Single-Minute-Exchange-of-Die has been introduced in Chapter 3.
Lean Work Design aims at a swift and even flow of work through the system. Increasing overall equipment effectiveness is one means to achieve this. Another means is to directly improve material flows. Simple changes in the facility layout may have a major impact on performance. The layout decision, as discussed in Chapter 4, is therefore another major decision in any Lean Work Design.
To work effectively, employees need information.
She [Galsworth] adds, “We don’t talk about net and clean. That it was dirty didn’t bother me at all. What was troubling, and what should be troubling to organizations, is the scarcity of basic and vital information. That is the factor that erodes confidence in an organization, and a byproduct of that is a dirty environment.” (Bernstein 2006, p. 104)
Typically, the flow of material needs to be improved, but in addition, the material flow can also serve as a control in the system. This control plus other controls can be shared with all employees using a system of visual signaling. The visual signals provide the employees with a simple yet effective visible means to better understand the system of which they make parts. This was discussed in Chapter 5. These ideas were expanded in Chapter 6, which explored how to use pull systems to provide both visible control and visual signaling.
In order to effectively design a process using above practices and tools, a process must first be understood. A tool for making the production process visible is Value Stream Mapping as discussed in Chapter 7.
After focusing on the process in the first seven chapters, the book focused on how to improve quality in Chapter 8. While quality had not been specifically mentioned earlier, it was also an underlying force driving the improvement discussed in the earlier chapters. Chapter 8 discusses Total Quality Management.
TQM [Total Quality Management] concepts and practices have been developed over many years by companies seeking practical methods to improve the quality of their products and services. TQM has never been an abstract philosophy, nor has there been a single correct way to implement TQM, it must be customized to each company’s culture and history. (Shiba and Walden 2001, p. 42)
Lean work design requires an active and conscious effort to change the organization. Therefore it is called “design.” A major practice to structure change is continuous improvement as explored in Chapter 9. Continuous improvement underlies all tools and practices of Lean and it is the desired outcome of a Total Quality Management program discussed in Chapter 8. However, continuous improvement alone is not enough.
Continuous improvement must be supported by standardization. Change needs to be sustained to build the base for further change as on a ladder. In this way, a company builds its capability, step by step, climbing up the ladder. The role of standardization in maintaining improvements and creating a work structure was explained in Chapter 10.
But knowing all the practices and tools of Lean itself is not enough. Lean work design requires a systematic approach to direct change. In other words, the different tools and practices should be coordinated to best meet a firm’s strategic objectives. The final tool discussed in our book was therefore Hoshin Kanri, a tool for coordinating the different practices and tools of Lean (Chapter 11).
We hope that you gained valuable insights reading this book, and that you also enjoyed it. This book set out to introduce important practices and tools for a lean work design. It does not provide ready-made solutions, but rather it provides the building blocks for a lean work design. We cannot emphasize strongly enough the importance of developing a habit of continually watching real-life processes to discover your own solutions. We close this book with the following thought from Taiichi Ohno, one of the pioneers of the Toyota Production System:
With any problem I ask why five times. This Toyota procedure is actually adapted from Toyoda Sakichi’s habit of watching. We can talk about work improvement, but unless we know production thoroughly we can accomplish nothing. Stand on the production floor all day and watch – you will eventually discover what has to be done. I cannot emphasize this too much. (Ohno 1988, pp. 77–78)
References
Bernstein, R. 2006. “Visual Techniques Provide Key Workplace Information.” In Visual Tools: Collected Practices and Cases, ed. R. Bernstein, 101–6. New York, NY: Productivity Press, Inc.
McGrath, P., and C. Skinner. 2006. “Sustaining a 5S/Visual Management Implementation.” In Visual Tools: Collected Practices and Cases, ed. R. Bernstein, 15–23. New York, NY: Productivity Press, Inc.
Ohno, T. 1988. Toyota Production System: Beyond Large-Scale Production. 1st ed. New York, NY: Productivity Press.
Parsons, D. 2012. “Eight Principles of Effective Problem Solving: Strategies for a World that will Demand Innovation.” Version 1.5. Washington, DC: David Parsons. www.EffectiveProblemSolving.com
Shiba, S., and D. Walden. 2001. Four Practical Revolutions in Management: Systems for Creating Unique Organizational Capability. Portland, OR: Productivity Press.