Summary of the six-sigma DEFINE stage

May 17th, 2008

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DMAIC

The purpose of the Define phase is to clearly identify the problem, the requirements of the project and the objectives of the project. The objectives of the project should focus on critical issues which are aligned with the company’s business strategy and the customer’s requirements. The Define phase includes:

  • define customer requirements as they relate to this project. Explicit customer requirements are called Critical-to-Quality (CTQ) characteristics;
  • develop defect definitions as precisely as possible;
  • perform a baseline study (a general measure of the level of performance before the improvement project commences);
  • create a team charter and Champion;
  • estimate the financial impact of the problem; and
  • obtain senior management approval of the project

Key questions:

  • What matters to the customers?
  • What Defect are we trying to reduce?
  • By how much?
  • By when?
  • What is the current cost of defects?
  • Who will be in the project team?
  • Who will support us to implement this project?

The most applicable tools at this phase are the following:

  • Project Charter - this document is intended to clearly describe problems, defect definitions, team information and deliverables for a proposed project and to obtain agreement from key stakeholders.
  • Trend Chart - to see (visually) the trend of defect occurrence over a period of time.
  • Pareto Chart - to see (visually) how critical each input is in contributing negatively or positively to total output or defects.
  • Process Flow Chart - to understand how the current process functions and the flow of steps in current process.
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Popularity: 9% [?]

The Toyota Way - Part 1

May 16th, 2008

The Toyota Way
The Toyota Way: 14 Management Principles from the World’s Greatest Manufacturer

Over the course of the next few posts I plan to summarise the main points contained in The Toyota Way: 14 Management Principles from the World’s Greatest Manufacturer by Dr Jeff K. Liker.

World Class Power of the Toyota Way
Toyota first caught the worlds attention in the 1980s when consumers started noticing that Toyota cars lasted longer and required fewer repairs than American cars. Today, not only is Asia leading the way in car production (see graphic below) but the company has the biggest market value (see graphic below), consistently producing high-quality cars using fewer man hours and less on-hand inventories.

To this day, Toyota continues to raise the bar for manufacturing, production development and process excellence.

The Toyota Way explains the management principle and business philosophy behind Toyotas success. It narrates Toyotas approach to Lean Production (known as the Toyota Production System) and the 14 principles that drive Toyota towards quality and excellence. The book also explains how you can adopt the same principles to improve your business processes, while cutting down on operations and production costs (this BBC News article contains a great overview of these principles in action as does this YouTube video). For an understanding of how the TPS is being applied outside of manufacturing, you may also want to listen to this which answers this question:

Japanese management techniques have revolutionised the car industry, but what do waste-averse production lines have to do with the delicate business of health care?

Using Operational Excellence as a Strategic Weapon

The TPS and Lean Production
Toyota developed Lean Production methods in the 1940s and 50s. The company focused on eliminating wasted time and material from every step of the production process (from raw materials to finished goods).

The result was a fast and flexible process that gives the customers what they want,
when they want it, at the highest quality and most affordable cost. Toyota improved
production by:

  • Eliminating wasted time and resources.
  • Building quality into workplace systems.
  • Finding low-cost and yet reliable alternatives to expensive new technology.
  • Perfecting business processes.
  • Building a learning culture for continuous improvement.

The “4P” model of The Toyota Way

Next post … how Toyota became the World’s Best Manufacturer

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Popularity: 20% [?]

China - a repressive polluted regime

May 14th, 2008

The Sky Just A Moment Ago
Creative Commons License photo credit: Zebra Pares

How the world’s priorities have changed over China: not so long ago the US Congress was earnestly debating China’s human-rights record. Today all anyone cares about is that China’s economic wheels keep turning, so it goes on filling its shelves with our goods. Far from worrying about China’s repressive regime, foreign politicians are mainly concerned that it keep a lid on the discontent caused by widespread official corruption. That’s why the outside world got a graphic glimpse of the rioting in Hunan. The crackdown on the 20,000 or so demonstrators was incredibly vicious, yet remarkably, a BBC TV reporter was allowed to film it. You can be sure that was no accident. Hu Jintao’s regime is the most media savvy in China’s history: it wanted to show the world that, fine words about justice aside, it has the situation well under control, even if it means sending in a couple of thousand baton-wielding troops and declaring martial law.

It’s a pity China wasn’t as tough on curbing the terrible price exacted by the steep economic growth. Once sleepy rural towns are now boxed in by factories and power plants belch acrid smoke. Even with a face mask it’s hard to breathe when you go outside. The sky is black - cars always drive with their headlights on; the soil is chemically contaminated (vegetables that grow there are covered with ugly black patches); and people are getting sick from skin infections, breathing disorders and cancers. Drinking water is the biggest worry: 90% of China’s water is now seriously polluted.

Europeans also make things worse by sending China all their supermarket packaging and plastic bags. Britain alone dumps around two million tonnes of waste in China every year. What can’t be recycled is melted down in acid baths, or burned, creating noxious fumes and appalling health problems for the locals.

However, China’s main problem is that most of its growth is fuelled by coal. Within a few months, its emission of greenhouse gases will exceed that of America: in 25 years, if left unchecked, it will be twice that of all developed nations put together. Yet China’s leaders remain reluctant to take any steps to stem it, fearing that to curb growth would be to invite social unrest which is crazy since pollution itself is now a prime cause of public anger. Two years ago, there was rioting when four million people had their water cut off following a chemical spill in the Songhua River. Other such accidents, albeit on a lesser scale, occur every other day, and it’s local politicians and businessmen, putting careers and profits before environmental safety, who are blamed for them.

Sunny Suzhou
Creative Commons License photo credit: Orange And Milk

Chinas leaders used to blame the West for global warming, pointing out China has contributed less than 8% of CO2 emissions since 1850. But now they’ve signalled that they’re ready to engage in international negotiations on global warming. Beijing might well commit itself to binding caps on emissions (thereby robbing the US of its key excuse for not doing likewise). Better still, it aims to raise energy efficiency by 20% in four years - mainly by greater reliance on renewable sources and cut-backs in iron and steel production. This is ambitious as these targets far exceed those set by Western countries. Still, there’s an encouraging precedent. In the Sixties, Tokyo and Osaka were as polluted as China’s cities are now, but thanks to tough policies, Japan is now more energy-efficient than any other country. Let’s hope, for the world’s sake, that its neighbour can pull off the same trick.

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“Approximately 80 % of our air pollution stems from hydrocarbons released by vegetation, so let’s not go overboard in setting and enforcing tough emission standards from man-made sources.”

Reagan, Ronald
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Popularity: 22% [?]

How six-sigma changes corporate culture

May 12th, 2008

corporate culture

Six Sigma is as much about people excellence as it is about technical excellence. Employees often wonder how they are going to solve a difficult problem, but when they are given the tools to ask the right questions, measure the right things, correlate a problem with a solution and plan a course of action, they can find solutions to the problem more easily.

Therefore, with Six Sigma, the company’s corporate culture shifts to one that includes a systematic approach to problem solving and a pro-active attitude among employees. Successful Six Sigma programs also contribute to the overall sense of pride of the company’s employees. Six Sigma transforms the way a company thinks and works on major business issues:

  • Process design: Designing production processes to have the best and most consistent outcomes from the beginning.
  • Variable investigation: conducting studies to identify what the variables cause variation and how they interact with each other.
  • Analysis and reasoning: using facts and data to find the root causes of variations, instead of educated guesses or intuition.
  • Focus on process improvement: focusing on process improvement as key to excellence in quality.
  • Pro-activeness: Encouraging people to be pro-active about preventing potential problems instead of waiting for problems to occur.
  • Broad participation in problem solving: getting more people involved in finding causes and solutions for problems.
  • Knowledge sharing: learning and sharing new knowledge in terms of best practices to speed up overall improvement.
  • Goal setting: aiming at stretch goals, instead of “good enough” targets, so that the company is constantly striving for improvement.
  • Suppliers: cost is not the only criteria for vendor evaluation, but relative capability to consistently provide quality materials with the shortest lead time.
  • Data-based decision making: Decisions are made based on critical analysis of facts and data. However, this does NOT mean it will negatively impact to a company’s ability to make quick decisions. In contrast, by smoothly applying the DMAIC principles, the decision makers are more likely to have the data they need in order to make well informed decisions.
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Popularity: 11% [?]

The 25 threats facing Britain

May 11th, 2008

brio06
Creative Commons License photo credit: yak23flora

The world is changing fast - and we need to be prepared for the risks that may go hand in hand with technological advances. A team led by Professor Bill Sutherland of Cambridge University has drawn up a list of 25 potential threats to Britain, which includes the release of man-made viruses, the building of microscopic robots through nanotechnology, the use of biofuels, and experiments in “climate engineering”, for example the deployment of solar shields and the “fertilising” of oceans.

All of these developments could bring great benefits to humanity, said Sutherland - but before rushing into them, we should be examining the potential consequences. He was inspired, by the debate over GM crops.

“I was struck by the fact that we were doing a lot of research into the environmental effects of GM crops after policy makers had made their decisions - it was the wrong way around.”

The same thing seems to be happening with biofuels and offshore power plants, which are being talked of as environmental solutions before their impact has been properly assessed.

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Popularity: 3% [?]

Food miles are a form of protectionism

May 10th, 2008

Waffles from a can!
Creative Commons License photo credit: zarzoso

The Soil Association’s decision to discriminate against “organic” food which is air-freighted into the country is just a form of old-style agricultural protectionism. As the Kenyan High Commissioner points out, carbon emissions from his country’s food producers are much less per vegetable than those of British organic farmers - even if you factor in the COi generated by flying - because Kenyan farmers use manual labour, not tractors, and compost rather than organic fertilisers.

Yet the Soil Association persists with the idea that there is no case for a global trade in food for things that we can produce ourselves. This is the classic argument put by British landowners for the extortion of a monopoly rent from captive local consumers - the sort of thinking that led to the creation of the Icelandic banana industry, which saw local landowners produce fabulously expensive bananas in gigantic hothouses.

The middle-class neurosis about food miles is being exploited to protect an archaic form of agriculture which penalises consumers and harms Third World producers.

It’s time we recognised it.

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Popularity: 3% [?]

Why can’t the USA put their faith in an atheist?

May 10th, 2008

spreading the (lack of) faith
Creative Commons License photo credit: rweir

Pete Stark has broken the ultimate political taboo, as he came out of the closet, the veteran San Francisco Democrat recently became the first member of Congress to openly declare himself to be… an atheist!!

By admitting he is not religious, Stark has, if nothing else, proven he has no ambitions for the presidency. In a recent poll asking whether Americans are “ready for” a black, woman, Jew, or some other alarming minority to be president, atheists came in dead last.Athiests are last Only 14% thought Americans would vote for a person who doesn’t believe in God. How did they get there?

Until the Eighties, there was no religious test for the presidency in the USA.That changed with the rise of the religious Right, which insisted that traditional Christianity was the only way to frame the moral dimensions of a public issue. Today, it has become mandatory for Democrats and Republicans alike to disclose and discuss their personal faith, as if it’s a basic qualification for serving.

But the USA is a nation of laws and principles and individual liberty, not a nation of mullahs, priests, or ministers. In America, morals are not the exclusive property of any one religion, nor even of religion itself.

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A man’s ethical behavior should be based effectually on sympathy, education, and social ties; no religious basis is necessary. Man would indeed be in a poor way if he had to be restrained by fear of punishment and hope of reward after death. ~ Albert Einstein

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Popularity: 5% [?]

Can Lean and ISO 9001 be integrated?

May 8th, 2008

Valentine Venn Diagram
Creative Commons License photo credit: ClockworkGrue

In a word: yes. However, you must take care; from Wikipedia:

  • “ISO 9000 guidelines provide a comprehensive model for quality management systems that can make any company competitive.”
  • “A survey by Lloyd’s Register Quality Assurance indicated ISO 9000 increased net profit… Another Deloitte-Touche survey reported that the costs of registration were recovered in three years.”
  • “Good business judgment is needed to determine its proper role for a company.”
  • “The ISO registration process has become a mountain of paperwork. Opponents claim that it is only for documentation. Proponents believe that if a company has documented its quality systems, then most of the paperwork has already been completed.”
  • “Registration… unfortunately has become a vehicle to increase consulting services… Studies show that the majority of certifications derive from customer demands, such as a vendor qualification checklist, instead of internal needs to improve quality.”
  • “Is certification itself important to the marketing plans of the company? If not, do not rush to certification.”
  • “Even without certification, companies should utilize the ISO 9000 model as a benchmark to assess the adequacy of its quality programs.”

Properly implemented ISO9001 provides for the success of Lean programs with provisions for:

  • Management vision, direction, authorization and involvement
  • Resource evaluation and application, inclusive of personnel qualification and training, processes, etc.
  • Planning functions
  • Qualification and control of designs, technologies, processes, materials, products and services
  • Review and analysis of results, application of decision-making processes and initiation of needed changes.

The intent of ISO 9001 is to improve business processes. Lean tools are process-focused and provide the means to remove non-value activities from both the manufacturing and transactional processes. It helps improve the efficiency of the organization, its operations and its economic performance as well as the quality of its products and services. ISO 9001:2000 item 8.5.1, continual improvement, states that; “organizations shall continually improve the effectiveness of the quality management system.” A key requirement to comply with this clause, the organization must develop a process to measure, monitor and continually reduce process and product variation (evaluated by process sigma levels). Kaizen” translates into “Continual Improvement” and by reduces waste and non-value added activities. Infact, Pheng argues that the integration of ISO 9001:2000 requirements with 5-S would lead towards TQM (PHENG, L.S. (2001) Towards TQM: integrating Japanese 5-S principles with ISO 9001:2000 requirements. TQM Magazine. Vol 13, No 5. pp.334-340.).

Has your implementation of ISO9001 helped your Lean efforts?

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Popularity: 10% [?]

The food crisis: should we stop eating meat?

May 8th, 2008

Piotrowski's Hill
Creative Commons License photo credit: Jesse Gardner

They’ve been noting in Egypt. And Mexico. And Indonesia. In Bangladesh 20,000 workers took to the streets of the capital, Dhaka, last week. In Haiti, where famine has reduced many to eating biscuits made from mud, a UN peacekeeper carrying food to his colleagues was dragged from his car and shot dead. No less than 37 countries are now in the grip of a major food crisis. Food prices have increased 83% in three years (wheat soaring by 120% in the past year; rice by an astonishing 75% since February). The head of the IMF now warns that if nothing is done, “hundreds of thousands of people will starve”. Robert Zoellick, the president of the World Bank, has called on its members to provide £250m to deal with the immediate problem.

Yet look closely at the figures and you’ll find that last year’s global grain harvest was the biggest on record. So why is there a problem? Because fully one-third of that record harvest went into the bellies not of humans but of their livestock, to accommodate the luxury of meat-eating. It takes 8kg of grain to produce 1kg of beef; if you really want to help those at risk of starvation, the remedy is simple - eat less meat.

Try telling that to the emerging middle classes of China and India though. For the first time ever, they find they can afford meat, and they’re not going to give up this new delight because rich people in the West tell them to. No, the only way to handle the huge rise in demand is to meet it. And that means giving up our sentimental attachment to small-scale farms , sustained by vast public subsidies - and allowing full rein to the “irredeemably unromantic” forces of agribusiness. It also means ditching our newfound attachment to biofuels: on dubious “green” grounds, they have been encouraged to use up vast swathes of prime crop-growing land In the US, around a third of gram production has now been diverted to this grotesquely inefficient form of energy production.

But we all know the biggest single step the West could take to alleviate the food crisis. It’s what the World Trade Organisation in its Doha round of talks has been striving to achieve since 2001: liberalisation of global agricultural markets. The protectionist tariffs designed to shield farmers in Europe and the US have deprived the developing world of markets and incomes for decades. Gordon Brown rightly urged world leaders this week to redouble our efforts for a WTO trade deal. For until Western politicians are prepared to confront their farm lobbies, the food crisis will just keep getting worse.

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Popularity: 4% [?]

A lesson in loss for suppliers

May 6th, 2008

Tesco Metro
Creative Commons License photo credit: pixelhut

Channel Five has been running an entertaining series called Breaking Into Tesco, in which entrepreneurial cooks, mentored by Royal Mail chairman Allan Leighton (a former Asda boss), are coached on how to pitch their ideas to the supermarket’s hard nosed buyers. What connects the contestants - including a man who has devised a hollow bread roll capable of holding soup - is the belief that winning a supply deal with Tesco is a recipe for riches.

But they need to get real.

Umq, formerly Unigate, does not have any problem devising, manufacturing and selling winning products to the likes of Tesco and Marks & Spencer. Its problem is making any profit whatsoever from the process. The company issued a profits warning and axed its dividend.

Why doesn’t Umq stand up for itself?

Because resistance in negotiations can be fatal, as became apparent when the company lost the Sainsbury’s desserts account last year. The negotiating muscle of supermarkets is a boon to shoppers, but many suppliers are squealing. With a high-street downturn looming, it is unlikely the pressure will ease up.

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Popularity: 4% [?]

Lean six sigma under attack

May 6th, 2008

Ouch! I’ve written about lean six sigma before and suggested that these two methods can be merged. However, over on the gembapantarei blog others disagree quite strongly:

So Lean Six Sigma is technically not Lean at all, but a form of Six Sigma that has less fat in it than regular Six Sigma.Just like “diet soda” is not a form of diet but a form of soda.

Don’t even get me started with Lean Sigma

Hmm … I think Poppendieck sums it up nicely:

“When I first heard the term Lean Six Sigma, I wondered what Lean added to Six Sigma. I found that the answer is speed. The first principle of Lean Six Sigma is: Delight your customers with speed and quality. The second principle says: Improve process flow and speed. Lean Six Sigma emphasizes that speed is directly tied to excellence.”

Personally, I believe that Lean and Six Sigma are complementary in nature and, if performed properly, represent a long-term business initiative that can produce unprecedented results. While Lean focuses on eliminating non-value added steps and activities in a process, Six Sigma focuses on reducing variation from the remaining value-added steps. Lean makes sure we are working on the right activities, and Six Sigma makes sure we are doing the right things right the very first time we do them. Lean defines and establishes the value flow as pulled by the customer, and Six Sigma makes the value flow smoothly without interruption.

However, you need to look behind the slick marketing of the term, the life of which went something like this:

  • A concept is born. It’s then quickly labelled.
  • Inevitably it’s misinterpreted and and misrepresented. The label is used for other purposes - it’s changed and the concept blurs.
  • So it has been with Lean Six Sigma. Call it anything you like.

The fundamental issue remains; a lack of understanding.

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Popularity: 18% [?]

Correlation does not equal causation!

May 5th, 2008

correlation

Liberal economics is making us depressed claims clinical psychologist Oliver James in his book Affluenza. James’s main thesis is that it is the system’s inequalities that drive us mad. For evidence, he compares the US - where 26.4% of the population has suffered mental illness over the past year -with countries like Nigeria and China, where the prevalence is six times lower.

It seems not to matter that China spends 5.5% of its GDP on healthcare, compared with 16% in the US; or that in Nigeria the life expectancy of 47 years, so there’s not a lot of people around to get depressed in the first place. Economists measure inequality using the “Gini coefficient“: 0 corresponds to perfect income equality (i.e. everyone has the same income) and 1 corresponds to perfect income inequality (i.e. one person has all the income, while everyone else has zero income).

While most developed European nations tend to have Gini coefficients between 0.24 and 0.36, the United States Gini coefficient is above 0.4, indicating that the United States has greater inequality. However, the Gini coefficient in China hit 0.45 and has been held up as a “yellow alert” and Nigeria reached 0.50, according to the World Bank. So it appears that the more unequal a country is, according to his theory, the greater its chance of happiness. This is clearly a case of correlation being used to imply causation: a basic logical fallacy.

Per Capita GDP (ppp US$) by Country

But, none of this should make us too depressed. Prof Martin Seligman argues that the gloomy are simply “unduly passive” about their future. However, as even Seligman concedes, it might not be wise to staff a business with chirpy optimists in every senior post. You might want them in sales and marketing, but personnel in finance should be sober realists, and quite possibly pessimists.

A good six sigma practitioner will combine both traits, in an echo of Antonio Gramsci’s “Pessimism of the Intellect, Optimism of the Will“: one to spur to action, the other the resilience to believe that such action will result in meaningful change even in the face of adversity.

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Popularity: 13% [?]

Kano model

May 4th, 2008

Kano model

The Kano model is a theory of product development developed in the 80’s by Professor Noriaki Kano which classifies customer preferences into five categories:

  1. Attractive quality: Attractive quality attributes can be described as surprise and delight attributes; they provide satisfaction when achieved fully, but do not cause dissatisfaction when not fulfilled. These are attributes that are not normally expected, for example, a thermometer on a package of milk showing the temperature of the milk. Since these types of quality attributes often unexpectedly delight customers, they are often unspoken. An example of this is W. Edwards Deming’s statement: “The customer never asked Mr. Edison for a light bulb”. As a six sigma practitioner do you emphasise the importance of attractive quality creation since? Often this dimension is neglected as there is a tendency to focus on how to eliminate things gone wrong.
  2. One-dimensional quality: One-dimensional quality attributes result in satisfaction when fulfilled and dissatisfaction when not fulfilled. These attributes are spoken and are those with which companies compete. For example, a new milk package that is said to contain 10 percent more milk for the same price is likely to result in customer satisfaction, but if it actually only contains 6 percent more milk, it is likely that the customer will feel misled, which results in dissatisfaction.
  3. Must-be quality: Must-be quality attributes are taken for granted when fulfilled but result in dissatisfaction when not fulfilled. In the milk example, these attributes can be represented by leakage. Customers are dissatisfied when the package leaks, but when it does not leak the result is not increased customer satisfaction. Since customers expect these attributes and views them as basic, it is unlikely that they are going to tell the company about them when asked about quality attributes.
  4. Indifferent quality: Indifferent quality refers to aspects that are neither good nor bad, and, consequently, they do not result in either customer satisfaction or customer dissatisfaction.
  5. Reverse quality: Reverse quality refers to a high degree of achievement resulting in dissatisfaction (and vice versa, a low degree of achievement resulting in satisfaction) and to the fact that not all customers are alike. For example, some customers prefer high-tech products, while others prefer the basic model of a product and will be dissatisfied if a product has too many extra features.

Application of the Kano Model Analysis
A simple approach to applying the Kano Model Analysis is to ask customers two simple questions for each attribute:

1. Rate your satisfaction if the product has this attribute?; and
2. Rate your satisfaction if the product did not have this attribute?

Customers should be asked to answer with one of the following responses:
A) Satisfied;
B) Neutral (Its normally that way);
C) Dissatisfied;
D) Don’t care.

Basic attributes generally receive the “Neutral” response to Question 1 and the “Dissatisfied” response to Question 2. Exclusion of these attributes in the product has the potential to severely impact the success of the product in the marketplace.

Eliminate or include performance or excitement attributes that their presence or absence respectively lead to customer dissatisfaction. This often requires a trade-off analysis against cost. As Customers frequently rate most attributes or functionality as important, asking the question “How much extra would you be willing to pay for this attribute or more of this attribute?” will aid in trade-off decisions, especially for performance attributes. Prioritisation matrices can be useful in determining which excitement attributes would provide the greatest returns on Customer satisfaction.

Consideration should be given to attributes receiving a “Don’t care” response as they will not increase customer satisfaction nor motivate the customer to pay an increased price for the product. However, do not immediately dismiss these attributes if they play a critical role to the product functionality or are necessary for other reasons than to satisfy the customer.

The information obtained from the Kano Model Analysis, specifically regarding performance and excitement attributes, provides valuable input for the Quality Function Deployment process.

Popularity: 19% [?]

The no-nonsense guide to standardized work

May 2nd, 2008

standard work

Standardized Work is an agreed upon set of work procedures that establish the best method and sequences for each process. It defines the interaction of people using processes to produce a product. It is centered around human movements, it outlines efficient, safe work methods and helps eliminate muda/waste.

Standardized Work in processing and assembly, maintains quality and provides safer and faster
operations while ensuring proper use of equipment and machinery. It is also the foundation for kaizen in production. It organizes and defines worker movements.

Traditionally, work standards were imposed on a workforce. Industrial engineers studied the work and then told workers what needed to be done and how much time each task should require. While this information could be valuable, it ignored the all-important employee ownership element that can drive genuine and ongoing change. Standardized work, on the other hand, centers on the fact that workers themselves understand the best ways to perform their jobs. Employees, not “outsiders,” study the jobs they know intimately in order to uncover best practices and create methodologies for continuous process improvement. Thus they become responsible for solving problems and own the standards that result.

Humans are great at adaptability but lousy at consistency. While adapting operators develop ‘best practices’ that are used to make production more efficient and hopefully easier. Many companies hold kaizen Events to promote and build new and better ways of thinking and operating. Like with any other improvement effort, if not constantly maintained it will erode over time.

Standardized Work ensures that these ‘best practices’ are not lost over time and are available to set the standard for all employees (new and old) to live by.

Prerequisites of Standardized Work

  • Takt Time
  • Working Sequence
  • Standard Work in Process

Takt Time: It is important not to confuse takt time with cycle time. Cycle time is the minimum time it takes the operator to perform one cycle of work. Takt time is the time in which one part is to be made.

TT = total operating time available / customer requirement

Working Sequence: the order in which work is done in a given process.

Standard Work in Process: the minimum number of workpieces/units necessary to proceed with a given process.

This is a nice presentation on standardized work. Detailed downloads on standardized work are available here.

Is this standardized work?

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Popularity: 20% [?]

Oil is just a blip in time

April 30th, 2008

You don’t have to be a peak oil doom-monger to find the latest report from the International Energy Agency scary reading. It’s fair to say that current Western civilisation would not be possible without oil; this report predicts a supply crunch within five years, forcing prices up with predictably dire consequences. Dearer oil is obviously great for the oil majors, but for everyone else it’s even more disruptive than rising interest rates. At least the latter benefit savers; rising energy prices hit everyone. If oil prices stay high, it will be a shot in the arm for alternative energy. But what of the longer term?

Looking a generation and more ahead, the unspoken truth about the looming oil crisis is that the so-far inexorable march of globalisation should not be taken for granted. In the great: sweep of history, the 200-year-old oil age may be seen as a blip before a return to a more sustainable, more local economic system. That said, I won’t be betting my pension on it.

What you can do

Explore the Sustainable Livelihoods Framework, a holistic way of understanding livelihoods, which reduces oil dependency: livelihoods.org

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Popularity: 8% [?]