The bowler chart, or bowling chart, is a table that is used to track the progress of an improvement project, deliverable, or task. Its name comes from the high similarity to the bowling score sheets that are used to track the progress during a bowling game. In my last post I also explained possible pitfalls with the owner, the projects, and the numeric target. This post continues with more caveats on target progression and the use of color, before suggesting a possible improvement to make the progress even more visual. (Spoiler: Use a diagram!). But, read on…
Christoph Roser
The Bowler Chart—Tracking Your Projects
Hoshin Kanri (or “policy management” in English) is a way to manage the objectives of both you and your people and also align these objectives with the overall goals and directions of the company. One possible and useful companion document to track the progress of these objectives throughout the year is the bowler chart, or bowling chart. In general, this chart can be used to track the progress of an improvement project. Let me give you an introduction to bowler charts.
On Leveling and Fluctuations—How Does Toyota Do Leveling?
My last two posts in this three-post series on leveling talked about fluctuations and leveling in general, and the challenges and costs associated with leveling. In this last post I will go into greater detail on how Toyota does its leveling. Because Toyota does this actually quite well.
On Leveling and Fluctuations—The Downsides of Leveling
In my last post I gave you a brief introduction to fluctuations and leveling. And, I already hinted that there are two downsides to leveling: properly set up it handles only fluctuations coming from upstream, and—what is rarely talked about—there is an increase in inventory and/or waiting time to decouple the fluctuations in leveling. The second one especially is widely ignored or even vehemently denied in industry, but it is definitely there. Let me show you!
On Leveling and Fluctuations—Introduction
Leveling (or Japanese heijunka) is a common topic in lean manufacturing. Leveling combats one of the three evils in manufacturing: unevenness or fluctuations (in Japanese mura). While reducing fluctuations is an excellent goal, it is unfortunately not free, and there is significant effort not only for implementing and maintaining the leveling system, but also on the way the fluctuations are reduced. While everybody talks a lot about the benefits of leveling, very few talk about the cost. This may be one reason why so many leveling systems fail. Let me show you the hidden not-so-nice side of leveling.
Why Operators Need to Measure Their Own Data!
The goal is to have everything relevant easily visible on the shop floor. Ideally, this is through the design of the shop floor as part of visual management. But a lot of other information is hard to see directly and can be shown best through data. Every well-managed shop floor has their different dashboards and other data sheets with information. This blog post focuses on why you should have your operators write down this data by hand. Lets have a look…
Why We Need Visual Management…
Visual management is a hot topic in lean manufacturing. It is not a do-or-do-not method like kanban or SMED, but it is an underlying soft approach that just makes manufacturing easier. It won’t fundamentally change your operations, but it will smoothen a lot of problems. In this post I will go through the reasons WHY a shop floor needs visual management.
Kaizen Through Growing Your People
As mentioned in my last post, continuous improvement (kaizen) is done through people, ideally close to the shop floor. You should always look for people to develop and grow, as they in turn nurture your continuous improvement. While it is really hard to give specific recommendations that apply to everybody, let me muse a bit on the topic.