WHAT’S YOUR LEAN ASSESSMENT?

What do you really know about lean principles? Take this assessment to check your knowledge base. The following statements either represent a lean manufacturing environment or they do not. You determine which it is. The statement is either True or False.

1. When a problem arises in the production process, the problem is investigated within 10 minutes of the first occurrence.  
2. Production engineers and supporting staff are usually found gathering where a problem was cited in production and addressing the situation with the production employees.
3. The maintenance staff and janitorial are tasked to clean up the work production areas so the employees can focus on achieving the daily scheduled output.
4. “A place for everything and everything in its place” is a 5S motto.
5. Tracking the top defects and posting them each hour at the workstation is a common practice in a lean culture.
6. Every work process has a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) that can clearly be found/located within the workstation and visible to the operators.
7. Every operator is trained by the SOP for each production process.
8. All processes, production and administrative, have a developed and documented SOP.
9. Product or Work-in-Process travel in the production process is minimized by locating process workstations close together.
10. Defects from the operations are commonly found in Final Inspection preventing shipment of inferior products to the customer.
11. Employees are knowledgeable of the seven wastes.
12. Employees are encouraged and engaged in making improvements to their work and work processes.
13. Error-proofing is a means to prevent a defect from being made within the process.
14. Error-proofing is a design of a device to trump human error commonly utilized in manually loading a component into a machine.
15. Quick changeover is a technique used by the production team to rapidly change to another product line up with little downtime loss in starting the next job.
16. A pit crew on a NASCAR racetrack is an example of a quick changeover team.
17. In order for quick changeovers to be effective, the team must be comprised of 10 or more employees.
18. “If it’s not broke, don’t fix it” is a common lean motto in line with not wasting time fixing something that does require repair.
19. Preventive Maintenance (PM) is the best safeguard to maintain smooth, flowing operations with minimal shutdowns.
20. Production operators are trained in PM.
21. Material flow in the plant can easily be followed.
22. Kanban replaces production schedules.
23. Kanbans are sized for at least 2 hours of overtime.
24. Takt time determines the pace of production in the operations.
25. Production process times are rebalanced to accommodate increases or decreases in customer demand by a new takt time.

Now that you confidently answered the 25 statements, you must feel good about your lean knowledge base as well as your operations. But before I share the answers with you, I know you also struggled with your answer, knowing that only some of the operations meet the criteria of lean while the majority of processes and procedures do not. You could say, everything is not just black or white, especially within your organization. Ask the winning coach of any Super Bowl team if execution at every level and every play is important. I’m sure you know the answer. 

It’s better to think positive, so it shows you have a grasp of lean thinking and of lean principles and are just consumed by the overwhelming burden of leaning out everything. Relax. Small steps, not giant leaps, will get you there. It’s determination and a solid team of supporting characters that will help you overcome your daily, weekly, monthly, and reoccurring problems. The lean assessment helps you see where you are today. Your Vision for your organization will be clearer; your Mission defined; and Lean will become the mindset of your team.

Now for the answers. Statements 3, 10, 17, and 18 are False. All others are true. I know you want to debate the “True” answers and I certainly am willing and able to do that. Isn’t there some room for gray in the response? Shades of gray are found in businesses and football teams that fail to execute in everything and everywhere within the organization. Bottomline is that everyone in the organization should be trained in lean thinking and be a lean asset to your company. Everyone is responsible for achieving a quality product and preventing defects. Everyone is responsible for doing their work according to the SOP and ensuring corrective action is taken immediately when error is found, in equipment, in design of process, in work-in-process, and in human work. Everyone is accountable to the customer first and next to the process. Wherever a crack is found in the system, a lean system is meant to investigate the crack, provide an immediate remedy, and then establish a long-term permanent solution with the help of everyone from the CEO to the line worker. Each and every person in a lean organization is a valuable asset to the team. 

Now just to elaborate as why the four statements received a False response. 

Statement 3: An operator is responsible to achieve their work tasks in the allotted time frame as well as maintain order within the workstation. All debris associated with incoming stock or just production waste must be attended to by the operator. There are no special cleanup personnel assigned to these duties other than the operator. The work time is to include time to manage these non-production tasks.

Statement 10: A defect should never make it to the Final Inspection line. That means, every operation past the point of where the defect was made, is adding value to something that is valueless to the customer. A defect needs to be identified within the workstation and not proceed downstream. If able to be corrected at the workstation, this is the best scenario, otherwise it must be pulled off the line. Never add value to something that is defective.

Statement 17: There is no magic number in determining how many people need to be on a changeover team. Your changeover process may be very simple and only require one person to perform the changeover within seconds. This is entirely possible. The key to establishing the correct number of people is ensuring each team member has something to do and they do it in accordance with the sequence of work of all the other team members and especially perform the work safely, just like a well-orchestrated NASCAR pit team.

Statement 18: PM is the bloodline of the operations. No plant manager wants to be surprised by a major breakdown in the equipment therefore it is essential that your operations have checklists that outline the PM on each and every piece of equipment within the facility. The better practice is to design PM dates, in which, a team of personnel shutdown the operation for a few hours to conduct PM tasks on the equipment. Like a well-oiled machine, your facility can maintain a high record of productivity when PM becomes part of your system’s blood. When you personally perform PM on your car or truck, you are doing it to ensure it lasts longer. It endures the mechanical wear you place upon it and as you properly attend to its needs. Your vehicle will continue to get you from one place to another for as many years as you own it, safely and without surprise shutdown. The longevity of equipment in your facility demands the same tender loving care as your vehicle.

If you enjoyed reading this article or have questions about implementing lean within your facility or organization, please contact me. Complete the Contact Form, located in the Homepage of the website or email me directly at pverschaeve@surefoundationsllc.com with your questions, comments, or any feedback.