Enter the 4th dimension – pull world
Lean manufacturing is great! It’s all about ping-pong, football tables, EBay and elephants. But God help you if you haven’t already implemented it, flateto analysis would show, especially if you live in Canada where the dollar is strong, that if you didn’t put it in place by 1995, don’t even bother , no matter what Nick Dieltsien says.
Of course, all of this is complete tosh (noun: Chiefly British Informal – nonsense; bosh). In fact, we are apparently:
… are moving from a world where demand can be forecast and resources “pushed” to the right place at the right time to a world where we need to flexibly “pull” resources wherever they reside when they are needed.
Read more about this here (From Push to Pull)
So in “pull world”, where more automation is sure to help, even maintenance activities will be lean and not include the following wastes
- Unproductive work – Efficiently doing work that doesn’t need to be done!
- Delays in motion – Waiting times, delays waiting for parts, machinery, people, etc.
- Unnecessary motion – Unneeded travel, trips to tool stores or workshops, looking for items, moving mobile work stations around without good reason.
- Poor management of inventory – Not able to have the right parts at the right time. A complex area that can cause many of the other areas of waste on this list.
- Rework – Having to repeat tasks, or do additional tasks, as a result of poor workmanship.
- Underutilization of people – Using people to the limits of their qualifications, not to the limits of their abilities!
- Ineffective data management – Collecting data that is of no use, or failure to collect data which is vital.
- Misapplication of machinery – Incorrect operation or deliberate operational strategies leading to maintenance work being done when it needn’t be.
Hmm, will we end-up in pull world? A kind of fourth dimension? I doubt it; but what do you think?
Technorati Tags: six sigma, lean manufacturing
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This blog is about quality assurance, six sigma and the Toyota Production System. Hopefully you’ll gain a deeper understanding of this subject by reading the articles, conversations, images, links, thoughts and video clips I post regularly?
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I’m an engineer and manager by education; quality, safety and environmental professional by experience and statistical enthusiast out of necessity. I believe that although it is easy to lie with statistics it is hard to tell the truth without them. I hold a Bachelor of Engineering (Hons) degree from the University of Northumbria, a Master of Science degree in Total Quality Safety & Environmental Management from the Open University & a Master of Business Administration degree from the University of Durham along with several other qualifications.
After completing a mechanical and production engineering apprenticeship with a turbine-generator manufacturer, I moved into planning for the offshore industry, followed by a move into quality for a consulting firm which specialised in the turnkey construction of combined cycle gas turbine power stations across Europe. Next I helped to establish a high-volume electronics company as a manager responsible for all aspects of quality, safety and environmental issues and then finally to a filter manufacturing company in NE England.
I am a European Foundation For Quality Management Business Excellence Assessor, Six Sigma Black Belt, Member of the Chartered Institute of Quality Assurance, Institute of Occupational Safety and Health, Senior Member of the American Society for Quality, Lead Environmental and Quality Systems Assessor and also a Member of the Chartered Institute of Management.
My favourite work related quote comes from Sir Henry Royce (1863-1933) :
“Strive for perfection in everything you do. Take the best that exists & make it better. If it doesn’t exist create it. Accept nothing as nearly right or good enough”.
Disclaimer
Come on guys …. please take everything I say in the spirit it’s intended. I’m not offering professional advice just my personal opinions – you can take them or leave them! The quality profession is a journey and as such my thoughts and opinions change from time to time as I come to learn more and develop my understanding about the things and issues that I am blogging about. This blog just provides a snapshot of the knowledge, views, and opinions that I hold at a particular point of time and these might most probably change over a period of time.
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