The Lean Toolbox
Using the right tool is more important than how many you have.
The Lean Toolbox by Jamie Flinchbaugh 6 sigma training
Jidoka, kaizen, andon, kanban, SMED, visual management, 5S, 5 Whys. We could fill up this page and more with a list of lean tools, but is it the size of our lean toolbox that really counts? Hardly. It isnt even the quality of the tools that makes a real difference.
The difference between companies that succeed at sustained lean implementation and those that dont is the level of thinking driven by lean rules and principles. How we think determines our behaviors--and no tool can fix that.
For example, ask yourself whats the purpose of 5S? If you said, to keep things clean and neat, then you have a good example of how a tool can be misused without the right thought process. If 5S is implemented throughout a factory to clean it up without understanding that the principle behind it is to spot problems instantly, it becomes nothing more than a housekeeping exercise and will fail as a sustainable tool. To truly understand 5S, you must internalize the ability to immediately identify problems to enable quick responses.
To illustrate this point, consider kanban. It has been a major tool in many lean transformation efforts since the 1980s. The concept is pretty simple: A downstream process uses parts from an upstream process. As those parts are consumed, a piece of paper or kanban card is removed and sent back to the upstream process. When a predetermined number of cards is accumulated upstream, production may begin to replenish the stock used by the downstream process. Simple, right?
Now look at this tool through the lens of lean rules and principles. There are four lean rules adapted from Bowen and Spears Decoding the DNA of the Toyota Production System (Harvard Business Review, Nov. 1999), which guide improvement and implementation. Rule No. 2 states that you should clearly connect every customer and supplier, which begins by identifying the two. For example, the upstream process is the supplier, and the downstream process is the customer. Theyre clearly connected because the card means only one thing: They know whom its for and why it works.
The card is the only method by which parts are requested. And, it doesnt mean ship some parts. It means ship exactly the number of parts on the card. It also means ship them immediately.
One look at the kanban card in light of rule No. 2 helps those using it understand why and how it works because they understand it as a request, not just a card. It isnt a piece of paper; its a clear customer/supplier connection. More than half the companies I see implementing kanban systems are not successful at getting the users to understand how and why the tool works. And, whats the most common excuse? Our people are dumb. They wont say it quite like that, but thats often what they mean.
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