When we finished, we had an old fashion process and material flow chart (today, more commonly called a value-stream map). Getting a baseline understanding of the process took us about 20 minutes. And we asked the workers about the problems they experienced when they needed to complete a sample order. We asked the workers how long the changeover from one product to another took. I timed and recorded the cycle time of each process step.
We walked each step and noted the work-in-process inventory (WIP). Go to the GembaĪs we walked the line, I had my notebook and pencil out. I suggested we all go to the line and try to understand what was happening when they added a sample order to the schedule. After some discussion, it was clear that there were many differences in opinion.įinally, I asked them why they were in a conference room arguing. Then, I asked what the production process’s steps were and where the sample order caused a problem in that process. I asked them why their production process could not accommodate the interruption of a sample order.
#Keep it simple examples how to#
I found the team in a conference room brainstorming ideas about how to schedule samples better.
So, for example, “the problem is that our current software doesn’t allow us to properly schedule small sample runs.” But, as a lean practitioner, you likely know that people often present their solution as the problem. As a result, the team had trouble meeting the sample required date and being on time in their regular production schedule, so they decided they needed to change their production scheduling software.īy now, you have probably already concluded that new software was not a problem but rather a solution. The problem was that they commonly had requests for product samples, which often caused problems when they added a sample order to the production process. One group was developing scheduling software to help them schedule the production of samples. I remember a project where I helped facilitate problem-solving teams at a small manufacturing company.
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