108 Quality Assurance
concepts and activities associated with Lean. Fundamentally, he has sug-
gested three steps for a successful implementation. They are
1. Design a simple manufacturing system. A fundamental principle of
Lean manufacturing is demand-based ow manufacturing. In this
type of production setting, inventory is only pulled through each
production center when it is needed to meet a customer’s order. The
benets of this goal include
a. Decreased cycle time
b. Less inventory
c. Increased productivity
d. Increased capital equipment utilization
2. Recognize that there is always room for improvement. The core of
Lean is founded on the concept of continuous product and process
improvement and the elimination of non-value-added activities. The
value-adding activities are simply only those things the customer
is willing to pay for; everything else is waste and should be elimi-
nated, simplied, reduced, or integrated (Rizzardo and Brooks 2003,
2008). Improving the ow of material through new ideal system lay-
outs at the customer’s required rate would reduce waste in material
movement and inventory.
3. Continuously improve the Lean manufacturing system design.
A continual improvement mindset is essential to reach the com-
pany’s goals. The term continual improvement means incremental
improvement of products, processes, or services over time, with the
goal of reducing waste to improve workplace functionality, customer
service, or product performance (Suzaki, 1987). In other words, con-
tinual improvement may be characterized as a never-ending pursuit
of excellence.
Easier Application for Lean
To be sure, both approaches just mentioned are available for any organiza-
tion to use in their implementation of Lean. After all, Lean transformation
cuts across organizational boundaries of department and job description:
• The aim is to create smooth-owing consumption streams (custom-
ers with needs) matched up with smooth-owing provision streams
(production or services) so that customers get what they need, where
they need it, and when they need it, without waiting.
109Lean Manufacturing
• Consumption and provision streams run across organizational
departments.
• Most improvement efforts have been aimed at particularly decient
single points within discrete departments along the stream rather
than viewing the whole stream.
This means that the implementation must be easy to understand and be
implemented. Whereas the two approaches assume that the organization
has no or little quality initiatives on board, the reality is that most organiza-
tions start with some good quality practices in their organization. As such,
a more practical approach is recommended. We believe that a more realistic
method is available and is based on the following principles.
In any endeavor, no one tool will help; it may be necessary to invent one’s
own. However, just start doing something. Even if it is wrong, learn and
start again. Because Lean naturally looks at the whole stream or process,
it requires a chief process ofcer (CPO). This person does not have to be
managerially locked into the pathway. He or she must report to the chief
executive ofcer (CEO) because the CPO’s plans will require major organi-
zational change. Above all, the strategy developed should not be formulated
around the processes and structure currently in place. One is looking for
improvement with a change in the process. Therefore, the old has to be side-
tracked and new ways of approaching the process must be thought of. There
is another way of viewing this:
• The strategy of a Lean transformation is to create smooth-owing
consumption streams matched up with smooth-owing provision
streams.
• The processes must be reorganized to achieve this.
Organizational structure must change to support the new processes sup-
porting the new strategy. It is a misconception that Lean is a tool or a toolbox.
Rather, as we have already mentioned, it is a methodology that provides a
way of thinking about work via six principles (Stamatis 2011):
1. Philosophy as the foundation. It is imperative that management rec-
ognize that successful Lean implementation depends on making
management decisions for the long-term goal of adding customer
value. This is easier said than done. However, practical things to do
include
a. Change the focus of all board meetings to look at key value
streams. All other considerations are secondary, including per-
formance targets.
b. Board members must ask for new-style board reports that
inform them of the performance of the whole process from the
110 Quality Assurance
customer’s perspective. A good start is to utilize quality operat-
ing system (QOS).
c. Board members must devise and promulgate a simple, clear
message or mission statement that encapsulates the aims of the
Lean transformation that all staff locally understands.
d. This is usually intrinsic (i.e., not “we must meet targets,” but
rather, “customers will experience no unnecessary waits or
errors for their products or services”).
2. Level out workloads. Have stability in all work processes so that
problems are easily seen and continuous improvement is possible.
Understand deeply the nature of the demand placed on the process
and the capacity it has to meet that demand. Seek to match the two
as a basis for all other improvement efforts. Practical things to do
include
a. Perform capacity and demand analysis by day, hour, or what-
ever is applicable and appropriate, using run charts. Feedback
should be given to all relevant managers and reasons for varia-
tion discussed.
b. Analyze actual versus planned capacity and root-cause reasons
for any difference.
c. Analyze demand: source, type, urgency, and appropriateness.
3. Work on owing work faster and without batching or delays.
Processes should work at the rate of demand placed on them. Queues
or waiting lists are signals from a process that this is not happening.
Process steps should quickly and automatically signal to each other
along the value stream; they should act and think in a coordinated,
customer-centric way. Practical things to do include
a. Map the process, adding timings to each step and waiting list
counts.
b. Involve everyone touching that process and ask why queues
develop.
c. Look to where demand is coming from and seek to smooth that;
eliminate inappropriate demand.
d. Foster ownership of a value stream, rather than just process
steps, with a value stream group, customer group, chief process
owner, and value stream-oriented reports rather than specialty-
or department-oriented reports (i.e., total journey time measure-
ment, demand versus overall capacity reports).
4. Get quality right the rst time. Stop and x problems right now. Do
not ignore them or invent work-arounds. Management must invite
alerts to problems and be prepared to solve them as quickly as pos-
sible. Foster a culture of designing-out problems from occurring in
111Lean Manufacturing
the workplace with visual clues, for example. Practical things to do
include
a. Never blame the person; blame the process.
b. Encourage staff to x the problem, learn, and disseminate the
information.
c. Have a method agreed to by all staff to report problems easily
and quickly.
d. Have an agreed on escalation protocol so that everyone knows
who is responsible for diagnosing and xing.
e. Enable quick ofine testing and remedying.
f. Keep a local problems log and have regular reports on errors and
xes.
g. Celebrate and advertise successes.
5. Standardize tasks. This is not to be confused with rigidity. Use
standardized procedures simply as the commonly understood base
point to improve the process from now on and to ensure sustainabil-
ity as people move on. Practical things to do include
a. Standard work does not start with writing, laminating, and
hanging up standard work charts. That comes last.
b. Start discussion on what the repeatable, standard elements of
work are.
c. Establish a lead person in charge of identifying these, measuring
the variation, and investigating why. Do all this from the stand-
point of wishing to improve and help the staff have dependable
processes.
d. Investigate the relationship between the variation in demand
coming in and work processes. Is variation due to the complex-
ity of customer demands (specications) or poor processes (i.e.,
missing materials, lack of space, etc.)?
6. Grow Lean leaders and managers. Leaders instill the intrinsic moti-
vation for this new way of thinking. Managers are doing it every
day. Managers must be highly visible and near the value-adding
work. Managers are there simply to improve the value stream. They
should make improvement decisions through consensus and imple-
ment swiftly. Practical things to do include
a. Make other site visits; provide short-term Lean consultant sup-
port to management.
b. Encourage study, training, and education in this area. Create a
succession plan; aim to keep promising leaders.
c. Improve the management selection process and learn from oth-
ers doing it well.
112 Quality Assurance
d. Encourage experimentation, allow mistakes (from which you
can learn something), and see who takes up that challenge.
A key tenet in Lean thinking is that no matter how many times a process is
improved, it can be further enhanced. The idea of perfection rests on the notion
of continual improvement through incremental change based on outcomes
(Tsasis and Bruce-Barrett 2008). Use of the plan-do-check/study-act (PDC/SA)
cycle helps in pursuing the idea of perfection. In any process improvement
initiative using Lean thinking, a small incremental change is recommended
based on study of the process. The recommendation is put into place and then
studied to determine its impact. If the impact is positive, the change is incor-
porated in the process, and the cycle begins anew. (We are not suggesting that
big changes do not occur. They do, but they are infrequent. Big changes come
with re-engineering. Small changes are cumulative and come with the Kaizen
approach.)
Thus far, we have been talking about the general concepts associated with
Lean thinking. We have not talked about specic tools. Part of the reason is
that we cover some of the most important ones (6S, value stream mapping,
SMED, and Kanban) in Chapter 8, and part of it is that there are so many spe-
cic tools that one can use depending on the organization and product that
it is beyond the scope of this book to cover all of them. However, the reader
is encouraged to see Stamatis (1996), Brassard and Ritter (1994), and Tague
(2005) for a plethora of tools to be used in both implementation and sustain-
ment of Lean practices. In addition, Appendix V provides many forms and
tools that one may use in pursuing continual improvement.
Warning
One criticism of Lean perennially heard among rank-and-le workers is that
Lean practitioners may easily focus too much on the tools and methodolo-
gies of Lean, and fail to focus on the philosophy and culture of Lean. The
implication of this for Lean implementers is that adequate command of the
subject is needed in order to avoid failed implementations. Another pitfall is
that management decides what solution to use without understanding the
true problem and without consulting shop oor personnel. As a result, Lean
implementations often look good to the manager but fail to improve the situ-
ation (Hopp and Spearman 2011).
Let us all remember that only in the dictionary is success ahead of work. In
the real world, however, we all must strive to drive excellence all the time in all
we do (work) and the result will be an unequivocal success. After all, any way
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