It is obvious that there may be some mistakes that can happen during implementation of lean on the production floor. The article tries to cover these kinds of mistakes that often occur during the implementation phase of lean manufacturing.
To date, there are few manufacturing companies that do not know and do not use Lean techniques. The reason is obvious – lean manufacturing helps us to do exactly what the client wants in the most profitable way, while constantly improving results. Lean is attracting more and more attention, turning from a fashionable Japanese technique into a modern management classic.
Each company has its own experience of acquaintance with lean manufacturing, as well as its own development experience. Many of them went through a lot of problems, but most also received positive results that motivate them to continue what they started. Based on world practices and our own experience, we can identify the 5 most common mistakes that accompany almost all Lean projects.
Teach everyone and involve everyone! You can’t teach by force.
Everyone implements or builds Lean in their own way. Someone launches a pilot project at a single site and plans a phased development, others see the benefits of involving staff simultaneously and everywhere. In some cases, they begin training with management, in others they initially focus on production workers.
Somewhere Lin is the basis of the management system, and somewhere some of its tools are used purely in industrial areas. In many enterprises, Lean and Kaizen training events are held on a voluntary basis, in others it is done on a compulsory basis. As usual, there is no ideal implementation recipe, although there are some tricks to help you spend fewer resources on the project.
From the course of psychology, it is known that 3% of all people in any organization are active supporters of innovations. In contrast, 3% are active opponents of any changes. The next group of 17% are passive supporters of the new.
On the other hand, there is the same group of 17% who, deep down, do not want to change anything. And the last, largest group of people out of 60% who do not have a pronounced position and try to go with the flow without bothering with what is happening around.
What can be solution for that !
Based on this data, it is worth following the path of least resistance, starting with the 3% of people who will become the generator of change and lead the masses. They will create the first role models and help the next 17% get into Lean ideas. That is, Lean on a voluntary basis will attract the right people. The right 20% of employees will create 80% of the Lean result. This will be a strong base for the involvement of the next 60% of the staff.
The most thankless and resource-intensive thing is to engage in re-education, trying to make Lean activists out of ordinary people.
Note that the above percentages apply to any organization, regardless of their composition, and the desire to get rid of the “bad %” will not bring the expected effect. It is much more effective to build your system with those who themselves want to develop and perceive the ideas of lean manufacturing as their own, gradually attracting more and more supporters.
And so everything is clear! Where are they lean indicators?
Very often, enterprises do not pay enough attention to the definition of lean manufacturing metrics. It’s hard to set goals without being able to measure them. Lean indicators are the basis for understanding what is happening. Some companies use production metrics to measure Lean. This is not entirely correct, although this information is primary. Direct indicators of lean manufacturing are data on audits, rationalization proposals and their implementations, the efficiency of using machines, the time of various operations, etc. That is, all the data that helps us show constant development should be recorded and, if possible, demonstrated.
It is on the basis of correctly selected and accurate Lean data that we will be able to draw the right conclusions for new solutions. Visualizing continuous improvements helps to engage more employees and strengthens Lean’s position. Discipline and regularity in this area encourage employees to improve the measurable indicators. No one person or group wants to be worse than others. Therefore, the ideal influence of Lean KPI is a competitive effect.
Examples of Lean indicators:
- monthly scores from 5C audits by precinct.
- the number of new and implemented rationalization proposals per employee or site per month/year.
- average changeover speed by machine/section.
- useful operating time of the equipment in % (OEE – the overall efficiency of the equipment).
- average value-added work time by product/site.
- and so on.
To obtain all this data, it is necessary to work with them, which requires specific tools for their registration, monitoring and analysis. This is the next point.
Audit will not run away! Forms and discipline of data collection
The trivial audit event within the 5S often stalls. The reason for this may be the “heavy workload” of employees, the desire to engage in Lean only at a specially allotted time, a lack of understanding of the importance of this event, or the lack of specific forms and procedures for registration.
I often see production managers neglect data collection in the lean field, citing employment and evidence of results. It is clear that each manager and employee sees the state of his and his colleague’s workplace. But such an attitude returns the company to a position where no one has time, everyone is busy and doing “important” things, and they will work wisely, competently make adjustments and add value before any official visit. If necessary, checklist forms are filled out, sometimes even for a year in advance!
Often, over the years of development of lean manufacturing, companies do not have time to create their own 5S checklist (related to a specific place and specifics of work). Instead, they use the standard one that got into the company through consultants. This, in turn, carries over to people’s attitudes towards the results and conclusions of these measurements. That is, when everyone knows that 5S audits are carried out without leaving the office, and the evaluated items are not applicable to their workplace, then the attitude of employees to this data will be frivolous.
You know less, sleep better! Transparency and feedback
In many companies, there is a box for rational proposals. The presence of this drive does not guarantee the receipt of ideas for the development of the company or increasing staff engagement. Often, large companies accumulate offers and review them once a quarter, or even less often.
The results of the decisions can reach the masses, for example, six months after the submission of the proposal. You don’t even have to talk about monitoring the implementation of selected ideas. I do not observe any system in this area. As a rule, the procedure for consideration and evaluation is very vague and not understandable to many.This situation discourages the already weak desire to offer something.
For the effective operation of this tool, it is necessary to define clear rules for submitting, evaluating, implementing and encouraging proposals. The absence or poor availability of information such as the deadline for consideration of proposals, the criteria for their evaluation, the names of employees included in the evaluation commission, implementation plans and conditions of encouragement negatively affect the quality and quantity of rationalization proposals.
Let’s push it all together! Indivisible goals and long cycles of their implementation
Everyone knows that the Lean philosophy is based on consistent and constant development. That is, small steps are regularly taken, which are demonstrated to all employees of the enterprise. The concept of development and improvement in a Asian person is often associated with a one-time and powerful effect, like let’s push everything together or start everything from scratch. Therefore, activities related to lean production are often separated from the work process and are revolutionary in nature. Over time, everyone gets tired of oppressive ideologies that slowly fade into the background.
Lean can be turned into something special, peculiar only to the best employees.
What you will need to prepare for:
Clean the workplace, put tools in their places, turn off the autopilot and think. In this case, lean manufacturing is intensively engaged in 1-2 weeks after training, and then once a month before audits. More often it doesn’t work out – there is a lot of work.
An ideal Lean is when the applied techniques become part of the daily work and benefit both the employee and the entire enterprise as a whole. That is, mutually beneficial partnerships are achieved, where the goals of employees and the company are compatible. One way to connect work and Lean is to divide lean activities and goals into small, easily achievable areas. Thus, the timing of their implementation turns from months into weeks, and then into days.
Despite the obviousness of the above mistakes, companies still go through all the stages and make their mistakes. This is happening in all countries. Toyota began building its production system more than half a century ago, adapting different ideas and philosophies in the context of its culture and the characteristics of its business. Today’s challenge to modern management systems is the use of their accumulated experience and continuous improvement within the framework of their conditions and advantages.
Mistakes at initiation stage of implementation of lean Manufacturing
Owners and directors of enterprises show interest in this system in the hope of reducing their costs. And increasing the profit of the enterprise.
Sometimes it even turns into a mania to get savings of up to 10% of annual income from the implementation of the Lean Manufacturing System. Increase profits by 2-3 times or reduce the lead time by 4 times without much investment. But this is a little different. All projects for the implementation of lean manufacturing systems and the creation of “production systems” require a lot of time and money. But if you approach the matter wisely, then you can achieve the desired result faster and without unnecessary financial costs.
Here are the typical mistakes that must be taken into account when implementing lean manufacturing systems:
1. Lean manufacturing can be implemented without the participation of management.
The main thing is to choose a good initiative group.
Most often, when you are interested in the experience of implementing lean manufacturing.
The same picture emerges: the implementation process has begun, but it proceeds somehow sluggishly fluid. If you dig deeper. It turns out that some kind of initiative group is engage in implementation. To which the management has set such a task. Everyone is doing something, and no one knows what. As a result, all efforts to implement lean manufacturing tools are not only ineffective, but they are also useless.
Therefore, managers should be the first to understand the goals and essence of the implementation of the new system. Get acquainting with the stages of implementation and provide continuous support to those who implement at lower levels, constantly participate in process improvements.
2. Copying advanced manufacturing systems.
But you need to understand that we do not live and work in Japan and Europe and certainly not in America, and here it is necessary to take into account local characteristics, people …
Regardless of the type of production, it is necessary to create “your own unique production system” that can be modify from the first foundations of implementation and constantly improving.
3. We try on “pilot projects.
Many people think that you can try to implement lean manufacturing and practice in some small area, and then, if you succeed, you can move on to other divisions. IT WON’T WORK. The implementation of the lean manufacturing system should take place absolutely in all departments, where it is planned and by a continuous “method”.
4. The more indicators are monitored in the process of change, the better and better the result.
Sometimes, in order to evaluate the improvements from the introduction of “lean manufacturing” in enterprises, they come up with as many evaluation indicators as possible. This is certainly good. But, if you ask yourself the question: are they all needed or are they needed now? Maybe some of them have not yet come their time and should not cling to them?
Of course, it is important to track the parameters of changes, but it is even more important to understand and use the information received for further actions. Therefore, you need to select key indicators that describe the main causes of problems and work with them.
In fact, there are many more errors and they much more serious.