Interesting Discussion Lean Manufacturing Concepts - Is 'Lean' hype?

[Old Quality Gal]

"It is a common sense approach to eliminate redundancies and waste".I can recall the 1980's at GAC when we had "tiger teams" and "quality circles". Were they not designed to do the same thing? The team would be formed with full management support and pursued the study of various problem areas (like MRB) with the intent of eliminating the problems and making the processes more efficient.
If that's the case, and IMO I think it is, then the principle has been around for a long, long time! Does that mean that Lean is hype? What's in a name or a word if not $$$!
It seems to me that we failed with tiger teams and quality circles but the concept of "common sense" has prevailed and in order to sell it we give it yet another new name! LEAN
My apologies for the RANT!

One of my favorite subjects! How much is really new or when we strip off the acronym and veneer is it really good old common sense quality 101?
One of my tried and true methods for getting a group or company off the dime is suggesting that they look at the lowest of low hanging fruit: "queue time".
Just look at all the places in all of your processes or just the troublesome ones where something ( either product or paper (including electronic data entries) just sits there for more than 10 minutes up to days.
In a company just approaching lean this is typically an eye opener that gives really fast returns. They can cut hours from a process and days from hand offs between departments or organization processes. The team feels good, management is pleased and then they can move to that higher branch for the next layer. Many companies get scared or nervous might be a more acceptable description when starting something new and they just need a push with a high promise of success.
Mary

 

[wmarhel]

Re: Doctors, Lawyers, Accoutants, and Engineers

When explaining ideas and philosophies, people tend to blur over with information. We approach these with the thought that a picture is worth a thousand words. Take a look at our product and you will see what I mean, we only highlight the necessary and thus only bring forth focus to the most important bits of information.

Gunther

Do you have anything else to add other than just posting the exact same text across different topics? Three different threads and the exact same post.

Wayne

 

[Bev D]

looks like an ad for your business to me, not a reply to any posting.

 

[Bev D]

LEAN[/b]
My apologies for the RANT!

One of my favorite subjects! How much is really new or when we strip off the acronym and veneer is it really good old common sense quality 101?
One of my tried and true methods for getting a group or company off the dime is suggesting that they look at the lowest of low hanging fruit: "queue time".
...
Mary

There is an actual difference between batch and queue manufacturing and Toyota Production System - or as Womack named it - Lean. and it's not "common sense". And lean is not "tiger teams" or "Quality circles"...LEan is a methodology to manufacturing not merely a goal.

 

[Steve Prevette]

I suppose that is really the rub here - what is the operational definition of "Lean":

1. Is it the Toyota Production System?

2. Is it inventory control (optimization of costs)/ supply chain management / JIT?

3. Is it a buzzword / excuse for cutting costs / cutting people / way for consultants to make money?

 

[Bev D]

1. Lean isn' tTPS: Lean was coined by James Womack et al in the book "The Machine That CHanged The World". Their definition of Lean was a subset of teh Toyota Production System. Most notably they left out the concept of standardized work and later placed a heavy emphasis on flow mappign which Toyota does little of. But both manufacturing approaches are more similar than different.

2. Lean is more than the inventory control/supply chain management/JIT. Certainly those are aspects of Lean but they are not the starting point - the starting point is internal to the factory not external. teh whole JIY movement came about becase teh US was trying to copy the success of the Japanese (SPC and Deming also resurfaced at this time). But those who tried to promote JIT then didnt' have the full story - only the stuff that could be seen easily from the 'outside'. Hence Womack's pilgrimage...

3. Of course any hack can claim to teach or use Lean and what they do bears little resemblance to Lean or TPS...and any greedy/lazy manager can claim lean as an excuse for random cost cutting and RIFs. But that stuff isn't Lean; it's a pig in a dress.

 

[Wes Bucey]

FWIW:
There is an interesting history of Lean here (http://www.strategosinc.com/just_in_time.htm)

Also, in the "Let's take two seconds to say, WHO CARES?" category, the Lean Forum of ASQ has been elevated to Division status.

Talk about "mission creep!" We started as the "Advanced Manufacturing Interest Group."

Now I'm going to have to pay another ten bucks (or more!) to remain a member.

My brethren are frantically working to create a Lean Body of Knowledge on the road to creating yet another certification category!

 

[Colleen]

Re: Lean Manufacturing Tools

Hi All!

Has anyone tried Change Management methods when 'going lean' ?? I believe this is a good method to achieve sustainablity in a company embarking on lean anything!
If you are doing it, share how it has helped you.

Regards,
Colleen

 

[wmarhel]

1. Lean isn' tTPS: Lean was coined by James Womack et al in the book "The Machine That CHanged The World". Their definition of Lean was a subset of teh Toyota Production System. Most notably they left out the concept of standardized work and later placed a heavy emphasis on flow mappign which Toyota does little of. But both manufacturing approaches are more similar than different.

I believe that what Toyota does is referred to as "Material & Information Flow Diagrams". I guess it doesn't sound as sexy as "Value Stream Mapping".

See attached Case Study. One of the members of the ATMI group, Olivier Larue, also happened to be employed by the Toyota Supplier Support Center (TSSC). This isn't an endorsement of them as I've never had any dealings with ATMI, but supplied for reference purposes.

 

[Helmut Jilling]

One of my favorite subjects! How much is really new or when we strip off the acronym and veneer is it really good old common sense quality 101?
One of my tried and true methods for getting a group or company off the dime is suggesting that they look at the lowest of low hanging fruit: "queue time".
Just look at all the places in all of your processes or just the troublesome ones where something ( either product or paper (including electronic data entries) just sits there for more than 10 minutes up to days.
In a company just approaching lean this is typically an eye opener that gives really fast returns. They can cut hours from a process and days from hand offs between departments or organization processes. The team feels good, management is pleased and then they can move to that higher branch for the next layer. Many companies get scared or nervous might be a more acceptable description when starting something new and they just need a push with a high promise of success.
Mary

Quick victories is always a great way to roll out a "scary new program." Everyone on this board should adopt the approach. It improves the buy in tremendously.