SUCCESS ENGINEERING

Lean tools

 

5S (Seiri, Seiton, Seiso, Seiketsu, Shitsuke)

It is a five-step procedure which aims to create an efficient working environment and minimize defects.

• Seiri: It could be translated as sort. It consists in marking all the items with a red tag in the working environment and get rid of them after a specified period of time without being used

• Seiton: It could be translated as storing. It is based on marking all the tools and working objects with a card, specifying where should be deposited these items after using them. Thereby, the following employee does not have to waste time looking around for the tools.

• Seiso: It could be translated as sanitising. It refers to have the entire working environment clean.

• Seiketsu: It could be translated as standardise. It refers to implement the previous concepts as a daily activity.

• Shitsuke: It could be translated as sustain. It consists in maintaining the improvement philosophy by integrating the Lean culture in the enterprise.

 

 

Affinity diagram (Clustering)

The object of this diagram is grouping ideas collectively without criticism among the participants. To organise these ideas, some post-its can be stuck in the wall to find how the proposals are interrelated.

 

 

Antisolution brainstorming

The procedure is very similar to the usual brainstorming. Nevertheless, in this case the participants have to answer the question of ‘what can go wrong or even worse?’ Afterwards, these participants should find some mitigation action to these potential circumstances.

 

 

Brainstorming

The idea of that widely known tool is to find solutions for a problem or improve an activity. Although there are several methodologies, most of them can be summarised in writing down (in silence) the proposals of all the members, collect them and see which suggestions fit better to the problem.

 

 

Clean sheet modelling

The purpose to develop such a tool is to pressure your supplier to decrease the cost of a supplied component, especially if you have the sensation the relationship price-quality is very low. It is a tool which helps to increase the competitiveness in the market as your enterprise can face lower costs.

To develop that clean sheet, true data must be obtained for the cost of each component of the piece supplied and include to that number an approximation for the cost of electricity, taxes, distribution, labour, packaging and an operating margin.

If there is a big difference to the purchase price for your enterprise, it is better to have a talk with the supplier and show the clean sheet

 

 

Cross Functional Diagram (CFD)

The object of this diagram is to have a visual representation of a process and identify areas for improvement. The six-step plan involves

• Identifying people involved in the process

• Marking start and stop points

• Sorting the process steps according to their actual sequence

• Assigning the steps to their respective function

• Mapping decisions and loops

• Identifying weak points

 

 

Determination of batch size

The objective of that method is to estimate the optimal batch size to achieve the highest quality with the lowest total cost. There are some formulas which are commonly used in the industry for a product p with a unique raw material

 

 

 

Effort-Benefit matrix

The intention of this tool is to provide a visual method showing the relationship between the effort involved in implementing a proposal and the benefit it could potentially bring to the enterprise. By rating all the ideas, a matrix could be drawn to decide which concepts are High-benefit-Low-effort and consequently, are worth to introduce in the company.

 

 

Generic pull system (flow pull system)

The target of that production thinking is to re-orient the manufacturing process to avoid overproduction, reduce the lead time and increase the process flexibility.

• Introduce a very straightforward FIFO (First-in-First-out)

• Connect an alarm that announces the end of a batch to allow the following batch to start. Reduce the variability in lead time.

• The inventories can be progressively cut down by process efficiency and process lead time

• Start a process control

 

 

Glass Wall management

The aim of this method is to motivate the working teams by exposing publically in key figures the most relevant results of each team or department. Each and every employee must have access to that information and see how his team and their workmates performance look like.

It is vital to reflect reliable information and award the success of the best teams to motivate the internal competition, thus improving the productiveness of the enterprise

 

 

Implementation plan

It is a technique to map the activities and responsibilities to ensure the execution of the idea according to a timeframe. The procedure is based in three steps:

• Set the scope for the implementation

• Define solution blocks and assign the concrete actions to an employee

• Develop a change management strategy to ensure there is no reluctance to the acceptance of the implementation.

 

 

Must criteria

This method could be applied both to ideas and processes. It involves the review of all the requirements of a procedure or order and decide, a posteriori, if all of them are satisfied by the current process or proposed idea.

To organise the requirements, all the parameters (legal and safety regulations, standards, environmental issues, corporate strategy…)  are suggested to be included in a table

 

 

N/3 Method

The end of this method is to simplify the selection of a proposal by a group of managers/employees.

Each component should vote for N/3 of the ideas. The alternatives with the majority of points are pursued further.  After a first round, the procedure can be initialised again.

Note: N is the number of alternatives which could potentially be implemented.

 

 

Nominal group technique

It is another way of finding the best alternative for projects or ideas. Each member of the group should rank the proposals with 1, 2 or 3 points. The highest-ranked options are the nominees to be implemented or analysed deeper.

 

 

Poka Yoke (Error proofing)

It is a five-step procedure which aims to produce with 100% of quality, eliminating all kind of mistakes. The USB connection is a clear example of Poka-yoke implementation, as it can only be introduced in one direction.

• Step one: Detection of defects (by an inspection method such as statistical or traditional examination)

• Step two: Check if Poka Yoke is a tool applicable for this defect

• Step three: Evaluation of defects and their causes

• Step four: Development and selection of a solution. Different methods, such as contact identification (by size or shape), fixed-value (an alarm warns the operator if a concrete number of movements are not made) or sequence (an alarm warns the operator if there is a missing step)

• Step five. Implementation of the selected idea and provide a method to guarantee the long-term effect of the solution

 

 

Process control

It consists in defining which measures are going to be executed in order to ensure the sustainability of the benefits of the new proposal. The procedure involves

• Selecting which key figures are going to be used to visualise a key parameter

• Preparing the data collection

• Selecting which KPIs are more suitable for the studied parameter

• Defining target for the KPIs

• Develop a RACI Chart (who is responsible, accountable, consulted and informed about the process)

• Monitoring the whole process

 

 

Process flow and process logic

The object of this process is to maximize the degree of value addition and minimise the necessary resources to do that. The procedure is relatively simple:

• Decide which tasks are currently being done in the manufacturing process

• Categorize the criticality of the previous tasks in 1) main, 2) important and 3) support activity

• Investigate if there is process logic in these activities and the ‘flow’ of the SC

• Introduce control tools to safeguard the requirements satisfaction

 

 

Pugh matrix

The objective of this tool is to prioritise solutions by ranking them according to some technical and weighted criteria. A previous benchmark can be used as a standard for the comparison. Once there is a ordering among the alternatives, strengths and weaknesses can also be discussed.

 

 

Reaction plan

The goal of planning this procedure is to describe specific and pre-agreed action to take when some specifications or requirements are not fulfilled.

• First, Critical to Business (CTB) and Critical to Customer (CTC) requirement targets have to be adopted.

• Second, specific measures should be defined in case the alarm warns a CTB or CTC is violated

• Third, identification of who is the responsible for the implementation of the measures must be carried on.

• This tool might be very helpful to organize the mitigation actions decided to cope with the SCR.

 

 

Replenishment Pull System (RPS)

The intention of that tool is to remove the delivery constraints, enable short-terms orders and relocate the investment of unneeded stocks in other places. It is a prerequisite to have a non-seasonal demand a variation coefficient  lower than one. To calculate the adequate inventory, there are three items to take into account:

• Replenishment time for purchase and manufacturing pull

• Accurate forecast

• Safety factor

• Send a new order when the sum of inventory plus non-delivered orders is higher than the re-order level

 

 

SCAMPER

The goal of this tool is to generate a further development of an idea and encourage the creativity to flourish in 7 phases.

• Substitute: Is it possible to re-design the process and substitute the less efficient activities?

• Combine: How can activities be combined to increase the productivity?

• Adapt: Is it possible to adjust an external solution to the case under study?

• Modify: How can the current situation be improved to minimise the waste?

• Put to other uses: Is the idea applicable for another use?

• Eliminate: Could any activity be erased?

• Reverse: If rearranging activities, would the process be more cost-efficient?

 

 

SCRUM

The aim of the tool is to be more reactive and increase the agility in the decision-making. It was firstly introduced for software development, but today it has been demonstrated the applicability in other kind of industries. SCRUM is specially indicated for SMEs, as they tend to be more capable of having a faster adaptation to changes.

SCRUM essentially consists of a series of sprint loops, in which activities are organised in a SCRUM board and the whole process is directed by the SCRUM master

 

 

Setup time reduction (or SMED)

The objective of this methodology is to reduce setup times (interval between the last piece of a batch and the following piece of a new batch) and increase the percentage of theoretical capacity of a bottleneck in 4 steps.

• Identify internal setup times (activities which can only be done when the machine is switched off) and external setup times (activities which can be done when the machine is switched on)

• Brainstorming how to convert internal into external setup times

• Coordinate and simplify (as far as possible) the residual internal setup times

• Eliminate setup estimation times and use visual mechanisms to reduce non-productive time

 

 

Spaghetti diagram

The goal of this tool is to identify the movement of raw material, employees and goods in a plant to optimise the flow of the process by eliminating non-value-adding activities.

To implement this tool is necessary a detailed map of the plant, including the machinery and raw materials situation. Then, the spaghetti-diagram’s responsible must draw all the movements involved in the process and remark all the waste activities. Finally, it might be necessary to take some decisions regarding the eradication of unnecessary actions.

 

 

Should be process map

The purpose of this technique is to visualize graphically how the implementation of an idea should take place.

The procedure involves de ‘should be’ definition, the designation of responsibilities and the determination of the visual method to use. Then, the result can be scored with a formula

 

 

The six thinking hats

The aim of the tool is to increase the complexity of an idea while decreasing the uncertainty of the problem. Therefore, better and more accurate the implementation of a proposal can be.

The procedure is discussing the idea by changing the ‘hat’ of the members in no more than 3 minutes. Each hat has a meaning: blue is for the presentation, yellow is for positive aspects of the idea, black is for negative aspects of the idea, green is for improvement, red is for gut feeling and white is for information/data.

 

 

Theory of constraints

This theory is based in two premises: the goal of a business is to generate cash and a system’s constraints determine its output.  It recommends taking a global perspective of decision making by considering three economic measures (Throughput, inventory and operating expense).

To implement the theory, 5 steps should be considered.

• Identify bottlenecks

• Plan to maximize outputs from the constraint

• Improve reliability in everything else (non-constraints) to have a potential effect on the constraint

• Invest in elevating the technical capacity of constraints

• Re-identify new bottlenecks

 

 

Total cost of ownership (TCO)

The reason to develop such an activity is to understand the real cost of the equipment. It is a tool suggested by E4 which allows a decision-making based in facts.

The procedure involves obtaining data about the overall cost of running a machine (or a part of it, like a conveyor belt) to decide if it is worth to substitute the current mechanism for a new one. Such data should include all the cost, e.g. purchase price; maintenance; electricity; depreciation; opportunity cost for cleaning stops; opportunity cost for change-over-time and spillage.

 

 

Total productive maintenance

‘TPM is a combination of American preventive maintenance and Japanese concepts of total quality management and total employee involvement’ a chairman said once. TPM is an innovative approach to maintenance that optimizes equipment effectiveness, eliminates breakdowns, and promotes autonomous maintenance by operators through day-to-day activities involving total workforce. Consequently, the purpose of this plan is to reduce the maintenance costs and decrease the inventories in three stages.

• Stage one: analyse the current situation and determine the overall equipment effectiveness

• Stage two: introduce rapid inspections to ensure the correct operation of the machinery

• Stage three: introduce the concept of planned maintenance taking preventive actions.

By guaranteeing the right maintenance of the machinery, it could be avoided expensive reparations and decreased the stock (the rate of unexpected breakdowns is supposed to decrease)

 

 

Value stream mapping (VSM)

VSM is probably the most well-known Lean tool presented by Toyota a few decades ago.  It is widely used to identify opportunities to eliminate waste, increase value added, and improve flow main stream. VSM method can be divided in current state VSM (as is) and future state VSM (as should be) after applying Lean. Both VSM should include the KPIs relevant for the process such as lead time, number of products finished and partial cycle times.

 

 

 

Workplace Layout

The goal of that tool is to re-design the workplace in order to reduce the idle and production time to improve the efficiency and be narrowly adjusted to TAKT time (the forecasted production per hour to satisfy the demand).

The designer should locate closely the similar work operations and introduce, if necessary, cost-effective equipment. It is highly recommendable for the engineer to visit the physical location (‘Gemba’ in Lean terms) to choose the best possible flow during the process.