Introduction to Point-of-Use Providers (or Mizusumashi)

Make to Order OktoberfestThe point-of-use provider, also known as Mizusumashi, water strider, or water spider, is a worker that supplies material to the point of use. Similar to a waiter bringing food and drinks (and beer 🙂 ) to the customer, the point-of-use provider brings material to the workers. The latter, however, merely refills materials rather than custom orders. This point-of-use provider fulfills an important role between the inventory and the final point of use. Let me give you the details:

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A Good Standard Needs No Explanation

Standard IllustrationStandards are one of the backbones of lean manufacturing. For a standard to be good and used consistently, it should be self-explanatory. Additionally, you should understand it well enough to easily recognize deviations from the standard. I would like to give you an example of how my thought process works when exploring a standard.

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Introduction to Milk Runs

Milk SplashMilk runs are a popular concept for material delivery within a plant and even across multiple plants. It is very much based on the philosophy of pull, keeping inventories down, and making material supply easier.

However, it is only suitable for mass-produced goods, or more precisely for identical components and identical parts, even if they go into different product variants. Additionally it can also be used with kitting. This post starts a series on the topic of milk run with an introduction to the topic.

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