This overview delivers a firm understanding of what Lean is really all about. All the tools of Lean will be explained individually and then brought together to show the interrelationship of each. Delegates will be able to understand the benefits of a Lean, flexible organisation through the application of the Lean Tools.
The tools and techniques that will be described and explained through the overview are as follows:
This overview delivers a firm understanding of what Lean is really all about. All the tools of Lean will be explained individually and then brought together to show the interrelationship of each. Delegates will be able to understand the benefits of a Lean, flexible organisation through the application of the Lean Tools.
Training will be delivered in
5S (Sort, Set, Shine, Standardise and Sustain)
to allow the attendees to understand tools that enable operational improvements to be made quickly through effective workplace organisation.
This focuses on many aspects of Visual Control that assist in the rapid management of the work area. The 5S game will emphasise the productivity improvements that can be achieved through successful application of 5S and reinforce the presentation.
Background
Total Productive Maintenance is about the keeping operating processes running at their optimum performance. All operations from drawing office to despatch yard are within the remit of TPM yet all too often only the ‘machines’ are subject to scrutiny. TPM underpins any High Performance operating system since, without reliable equipment (or processes for that matter), no system of work will ever be efficient. The TPM program introduces the 5 Pillars of TPM; autonomous maintenance, equipment improvement (inc. OEE), planned maintenance, maintenance prevention and training..
Training
Training is rolled out to the TPM team who must not only understand the concepts of TPM but also the tools that support it such as 5S, 7 Wastes, Lean Manufacturing and Metrics. As the project move forwards then the team needs to understand other concepts and tools such as Quick Changeover,Work Standards, QC Tools and Practical Problem Solving. These tools need to be delivered at the appropriate time so as not to cloud the issues in hand and be pertinent to the current phase in the pilot program.
Preventative Maintenance
Preventative Maintenance seeks to cover both Planned and Predictive Maintenance. Confirmation of the machine OEM required servicing schedule that includes lubrication schedules and spare parts is the start point since and early role to bring the machine back to it’s basic condition and sustain this condition.
Equipment Improvement
Firstly the baseline needs to be established to understand the starting point of the TPM project. This is important as we must understand how much our effort has been worth and if the rollout is to be cost effective. Once tagged the area of the Six Big Losses can be addressed under the banner of OEE where the focus is on Availability, Productivity and Quality which encompass the six losses of breakdowns, changeovers, minor losses, speed losses, yield and start-up losses and defects.
Autonomous Maintenance
Operator ownership of equipment is a key part of TPM and it is from the Preventative Maintenance(PM) work that the schedule of autonomous maintenance tasks will be built up. Aspects of 5S, Work Standards and visual control are an important part of the operators actions too and here they are combined with some of the PM tasks that were detailed to give a cycle of events geared to maintaining the condition of the machine. The hand-over of tasks to the autonomous maintenance schedule from the PM task list must be done with a clear risk assessment and proper documented training.
Maintenance Prevention
The transfer of tasks from the maintenance department will free up time in the long term. This time needs to be allocated to necessary skill up, new process introduction and enhancement of the current processes to increase the reliability of those processes. The mean time between failure of the process needs to be extended to the point where zero breakdowns are the norm.
The six steps of quick changeover are explained on a step by step basis. Clear improvement ideas are given throughout the presentation that can be used directly in the production environment. It is not uncommon to realise major practical benefits when these six steps are applied to any changeover. If changeovers are quick then the batch sizes are smaller, less stock is held, less storage is required and productivity increases because less down time is experienced. Changeover times can be reduced by as much as 70% through the systematic application of this technique.
The application of Standard Work in any environment is essential if a state of continuous improvement and low cost operating is to be sustained.
Standard Work is a tool which allows all the identification of all the small elements of work that make up a process. The documented elements are shown in terms of time, technique, value add and non value add that can be brought together to give a balanced operation utilising the minimum number of resources.
The differences between a moving line operation and a static operation are clearly explained which allows you to bring out the best in your processes.
A balanced operation can be achieved through the introduction of Work Balance Boards and Job Combination Tables.
Without an understanding of how to identify the location of problems that are occurring in our processes it would be difficult to know what effective our efforts are at reducing them. Identification of the problems is of utmost importance if we are to eliminate them for good. To that end we need to know how to use and apply the 7 QC Tools:
Once each of the 7 QC Tools has been explained in detail and an example practised then the Practical Problem Solving begins. This takes the form of a Storyboard layout that is easily replicated at the worksite to give a structured approach to problem solving. It is geared to ensuring that problems that are discovered are solved (and remain so).
Kanban operations can seem daunting if there is no understanding of basic inventory control and the required discipline involved. Kanban can be used to trigger the manufacture of components or withdraw stock from stores. In either case the discipline in operating the process is a key feature. The main elements of this module include:
A vital tool to align the core team of people to the objectives of the whole project. The policy deployment training gives a clear framework from which the project is able to grow and become part of the culture of the operation on site. All trained personnel will be able to make, publish, monitor and communicate project progress in a clear and informative manner that will prevent project timescales being missed. A strong focus is placed on the process of project management that can be rolled out to other aspects of business operations.
The training is aimed to deliver the key principles of external logistics to the attendees. This ensures all have a clear understanding of the role that they need to play and the considerations necessary to support the client.
The training will cover the main topics of the following (only outlined here):
Route Planning - Route Sketching and Minimum Cost Logistic Targeting
Route Operations - Loading Sketches and Shunting
Route Control - Dock Boards Escalation Procedures
Parts Ordering - Special Actions
Supplier Interactions - Window Times and Pull Out actions, Now and Next Loading
Risk Assessment and Recovery
The training is aimed to deliver the key principles of internal logistics to the attendees. The marriage of Internal to External logistics operations in a plant that has many external deliveries is a key step in bringing costs down and performance up.
The Internal Logistics module is suitable for delivery on it's own. It covers all handling aspects from offloading at the dock to the point of use.
The training will cover the main topics of the following (only outlined here):
Material Flow - Detail explanation of delivery methods
Route Design - How to plan routings of deliveries
Capacity - Calculating space requirements at all stages
Manpower - Correct manning levels for operation
Controlling - How to keep the system healthy
The objectives of the Current/Future State Mapping are to clarify the current operation of all the processes to allow all parties to clearly understand the flow of material, times taken for tasks, frequency of tasks and flow of information.
The resulting transparent operation can easily be examined and improvements readily identified during this mapping phase.
Current State Mapping gives the baseline that we can work from, and refer back to, to give a clear understanding of quantifiable process improvements. Future State gives the target for a future worksite improved process that becomes the goal.
Kaizen is, by definition, the process of continuous improvement through small sustainable steps. A kaizen approach in isolation will not bring the benefits of Lean to the organisation.
Kaizen compliments the other tools of Lean and it is part of a whole rather than a stand-alone process. It allows further flexibility and productivity improvements with cost reductions by building on the Standard Work that has been implemented.
The steps of kaizen will be clearly explained to allow a systematic approach to be taken by the core team, and their people, to develop and implement a continuous improvement environment that goes on generating savings.
Metrics are collections and displays of operating performance.
Just as an athlete records time or distance, we need to do the same in our businesses. Sometimes we need to record time and distance also.
There are many different measures that we can use but remember, we humans will usually work to whatever we are being measured upon so it is important that we set the correct metrics.
Although the measures we use are related to a particular point in time it is important that we set a relationship with previous points in time in order that we might be able to see ‘trends’ in the data.
Some measures require that the trend is increasing whilst others require that it decreases for there to be a relative improvement in performance.
'Productivity' requires that the trend increases but ‘Defects’ requires that the trend decreases.
