Laboratory

Module three discusses the importance of observation and data in understanding the current condition. The third module focuses on describing and diagramming the current condition.  The importance of observation, going to the Gemba, is discussed along with fundamental measurement tools and techniques.  The people who do the work have the best information about what is currently […]

Once the current state VSM is complete with metrics we will begin to note defects, waste and inefficiency. This waste is usually buried in a non-value add process. Based on identification of defects, we note the opportunities in the form of a kaizen burst. A kaizen burst is a yellow jagged icon depicting opportunities for

Once we complete the list and add the boxes, we now categorize and populate the steps.  We will list the length of each step, add the number of workers for each step, the cycle time, lead time of the entire process and the percent of the time the process is effective. At this point we

Standard Work is one of the fundamental concepts in Lean—without standard work, any gains will be short-lived.  Taiichi Ohno said that, “Where there is no standard, there can be no Kaizen.”  Standard work and Kaizen work hand-in-hand to continuously and iteratively drive improvement, but more about that in a minute. First, we need to define Standard work.  There are a number of

Short-and long-term effectiveness checks are presented along with methods for communicating and standardizing success. The most important aspect of the A3 method is determining the short-term and long-term effectiveness of the actions taken.  For the short term assessment (approx 6 months) the team uses the same measures they used to describe the current state and

The final unit on the left side of the A3 form provides instructions for ranking the causes the team has identified and crafting a statement about the target condition. This module covers the final element on the left side, the current state side, of the A3 form–Ranking Causes.  Often, after analyzing a complex process, the