Roser, Christoph, 2016. “Faster, Better, Cheaper” in the History of Manufacturing: From the Stone Age to Lean Manufacturing and Beyond, 439 pages, 1st ed. Productivity Press. ISBN 978-1498756303 The industrial revolution, mechanization, water and steam power, computers, and automation have given an enormous boost to manufacturing productivity. “Faster, Better, Cheaper” in the History of … Read more
In my previous posts I explained what “Just in Time” is, and started with different actions on how to make “Just in Time” work. As it turns out, there are a lot of things you can do, and one blog post was not enough. So here’s part two on how to make “Just in Time” … Read more
Just in Time (or JIT) is a powerful method to reduce costs and increase efficiency. However, it is also very difficult to achieve. Most times when a Western company tells me it does JIT, it turns out that this is merely wishful thinking. Let me tell you what JIT really is. I will also talk … Read more
Employment is an exchange of work for money. As with most negotiations, both sides would like to keep their cards hidden, so employers and employees use different tricks in an attempt to hide the true facts from the other. This post looks at the tricks of employees, whereas the next post will look at those … Read more
In my previous post I explained how the PDCA (Plan, Do, Check, Act) should work. However, while most people know the PDCA in theory, I find that the practical implementation is often lacking. And, quite frankly, I am also sometimes sloppy with the PDCA way more often than I would like to admit. Time for … Read more
Plan-Do-Check-Act (or PDCA) is one of the key elements in lean manufacturing, or for that matter in any kind of improvement process. In my view, it is the most basic framework for any kind of change. All other lean tools are only on top of the PDCA. In my experience, most lean projects in the … Read more
To create pull production between two processes, you can add either a FiFo lane or a supermarket. In one case you will have the FiFo as part of a bigger kanban or CONWIP loop, and in the other case you split the value stream into two different kanban or CONWIP loops. Some questions that I … Read more
In the last post I described how to balance a line using pen and paper. This description was a basic, straightforward approach. In this post, I will enhance it with a few tips and tricks for balancing a line. Also, I will briefly describe how to balance a line using computers and then tell you … Read more