Showing results by author "Mohammed Ahmed" in All Categories

Having no standardization work process means no quality. Everyone will do this task differently. Tracking the source of errors is difficult without the work standard. When a leader perform gemba walk on shop floor to observe the situation, there is no benefit from the walk when there is no standard. In the classic old way of management, companies were and (many are still) following the Taylor’s principle, Taylor said that industrial engineers should be the only ones who initiate, create, modify, adapt and improve the process. And workers should follow what the industrial engineers are ...

Heijunka, which means "production smoothing or leveling" in Japanese, is a method that helps balance production in all areas and with suppliers over time. It aims to make Just-In-Time (JIT) production easier. Heijunka is an important part of Just-in-Time (JIT) production. It means finding and keeping a consistent level of production. The main purpose of using the Heijunka technique is to provide goods at a consistent pace, which allows other operationsto also run smoothly and predictably. This helps decrease wastes and the amount of inventory.

Changing how we manage people is important for making any business plan work. In his great book Toyota Kata (2009), Mike Rother talks about how Toyota changes the way its employees act and think by forming new habits and culture. Using the word "kata" to explain how Toyota solves problems instead of using the pharase "problem solving." Toyota’s way helps create a better work environment by teaching people to become better leaders and make positive changes.

At first, Taiichi Ohno, who helped create the Toyota Production System, didn't want to write it down because he was afraid people would only pay attention to the tools and theories. When he finally wrote it down, he described it as a house because a house can be considered as a system. If you remove any supports holding up the roof, the roof and everything connected to it will fall down. One of the students of Ohno said that Toyota made a mistake when they named it the Toyota Production System. Instead, Toyota should have named it the Thinking Production System because the main purpose was ...

Andon is a system that alerts people to problems before they happen, in order to make the process more efficient and prevent issues. In manufacturing, an andon is a system that tells managers, maintenance workers, and other employees about a problem with quality or the manufacturing process. But is this all that Andon being?Andon is a system that alerts people to problems before they happen, in order to make the process more efficient and prevent issues. In manufacturing, an andon is a system that tells managers, maintenance workers, and other employees about a problem with quality or the ...

By reducing waste and time spent waiting, the lean operational concepts and techniques aim to provide the greatest benefit for patients. It focuses a lot on staff being involved, making things better over time, and thinking about what the consumers want. All employees in the company, including doctors, staff, and managers, always work to find and remove any unnecessary things that don't help patients. They use lean concepts in healthcare to do this. To ensure that the staff on the assembly line always have the necessary parts and tools to finish their work, Toyota has established various ...

Poka-yoke is a Japanese word that means "error-proofing". It involves using simple and cheap tools to help workers avoid making mistakes in their work. These devices prevent errors like using the wrong parts, forgetting to put in a part, or installing a part the wrong way. In simpler words, in Japanese, "poka" means making a mistake by accident, and "yoke" means stopping or avoiding the mistake. Have you ever wondered why Japanese cars are known for being reliable. Even cars that are 20 years old can still run well and keep up with the newest and top cars in the automobile industry. This is...

Management has the important job of teaching and helping people get better. But they also need to give support, listen, motivate, give power, and give challenges. If you want people to do what you want them to do and do it well and passionately, you have to find the way to encourage and motivate them.

Yet many companies focus on the mechanisms of implementation--one-piece flow, pull production, takt time, standard work, kanban--without linking those mechanisms back to the pillars that hold up the entire system. JIT is fairly well understood, but jidoka is key to making the entire system stick. A lot of failed implementations can be traced back to not building this second pillar. Jidoka is one of the main pillars of the TPS. The TPS is presented as a house with two pillars. One pillar represents just-in-time (JIT), and the other pillar the concept of Jidoka. Take away any of the pillars ...

In recent years, financial professionals have been using outdated ideas and methods to judge how well companies are doing and give feedback to the bosses. This helps the executives and CEOs figure out what changes they need to make and make important choices. The boss wants assistance in locating the means to finance a new project. He wants to find areas where we can reduce costs in our products and services, as well as determine if changes made have led to making more money. The CEO wants assistance in understanding how the company has gotten better or worse and what the future will be ...

A way to control production where activities that come after in the process communicate what they need to activities that come before. Pull production aims to reduce or remove excessive production and is one of the three key elements of a complete just-in-time production system. In pull production, a step that comes after another step, either in the same place or somewhere else, tells the step before it what stuff or materials are required, how much is needed, and when and where it should be delivered. The supplier doesn't make anything until the customer asks for it. This means the ...

Genchi genbutsu is the Toyota way of thoroughly understanding a situation by personally observing and confirming information or data at the place where the situation is happening. For instance, when someone in charge is trying to figure out a problem, they will go to where the work is being done and watch how it's being done. They will also talk to the people doing the work to make sure the information is correct and to understand what's going on. They won't only trust information from a computer or from other people. This rule applies to both high-level leaders and lower-level supervisors....

Takt is a German word that means the speed or rhythm of something. Takt time is a number that helps make sure that the pace of making pacemakers matches the pace of selling them. One of the most important things to consider in lean manufacturing is takt time. This is the rate at which customers want a certain group of products to be produced by one step in the manufacturing process. Takt time is a number that tells us how much time we have to make each item that the customer wants. Takt time is the time available for manufacturing divided by the number of orders. In the 1930s, the German ...

Giving machines and operators the power to notice when something is wrong and quickly pause their work. This helps companies to increase quality at every step of the process and to have workers and machines work separately for better efficiency. Jidoka is a fundamental concept in the Toyota Production System, which is an important way of doing things in Toyota factories. It is one of the two main principles, along with just-in-time. Jidoka is a system that helps identify problems quickly because if a problem happens, work immediately stops. This helps make things better and prevents ...

The most important thing in standardized work is finding a balance between giving employees strict rules to follow and allowing them to be creative and come up with new ideas to consistently meet difficult goals like cost, quality, and delivery. The secret to finding the right balance depends on how standards are written and who helps create them.

Many businesses say that lean failed to meet their long-term objectives and that the improvements it brought about were only temporary. When businesses utilize lean as a toolkit, copying and pasting the methodologies without trying to adapt the employee culture, manage the improvement process, maintain the outcomes, and grow their leaders, 7 out of every 10 lean projects fail. The primary objective when the Toyota production method was developed was to eliminate wastes from the shop floor by utilizing some lean techniques and technologies. What wasn't made obvious was that Toyota would need...

Heijunka (Japanese for "production smoothing or leveling"): It is a technique used to smooth out production in all departments as well as that of the supplier over time in order to facilitate Just-In-Time (JIT) production. It means production leveling (finding and maintaining average production volumes). The fundamental goal of using the Heijunka technique is to supply goods at a steady rate so that upstream and downstream operations can likewise run at a steady and predictable rate, hence lowering the inventory. The heijunka technique works by leveling both the production volume and the ...

Lean healthcare is the practice of applying "lean" concepts to the healthcare industry in order to reduce waste, enhance patient outcomes, and lower costs. All employees of the firm, from clinicians to operations and administrative personnel, continuously work to identify areas of waste and eliminate anything that does not create value for patients using lean concepts in healthcare. If you visit Toyota assembly plants you can see how Toyota has put all the systems and supports staff in place to ensure that the production team members on the assembly line always have the parts and the ...

One of the main difficulties for people practicing lean is trying to find a clear and direct link between doing something that aligns with lean principles and the financial advantage it brings. Toyota follows certain principles in regards to cost-benefit analysis (CBA) by making management decisions based on thinking about the financial impact in the long run rather than focusing on short-term gains.

TPS is a Thinking Production System rooted in leadership and a comprehensive set of principles, we can begin to fully appreciate its potential and apply it effectively in diverse industries and contexts. So, what exactly is TPS? It is a holistic approach to production that requires a shift in mindset and a deep understanding of the principles that drive its implementation. TPS is not limited to a specific industry or a set of rigid techniques. It is a philosophy that can be applied to any organization, regardless of its context or sector. There is a common misconception about the true ...