Kanban project update

Ok, we now have the flow racks in place. We have our Kanbans calculated. We have mapped the flow of the cards through the process.

Next week will be scheduling production to build our inventory stores and get them in place.

The week after that we will begin our training of our team members on the floor. We will do small group training as we begin discussing demand-based scheduling of the Kanban system. We are putting together a series of FAQ questions so we can predict the types of questions that we will receive from our team members and be prepared with a consistent response. This will help provide a unified front and immediately inject some credibility into the system.

We will cover the rules of Kanban so that bad manufacturing practices do not kill our Kanban stores. By the end of the month we hopefully will be turning on the Kanban system.

Kanban Update, new calculator available…

I have to express my appreciation to Hank. Hank provided me a fundamental Kanban calculator which is simple and straightforward to use. More impressively, this Kanban calculator can be used as a foundation to drive greater tools. Again, Hank, thanks a lot. I am going to try and post a sample image of the calculator.



I had a meeting today to go over with my Kanban team regarding some of my findings from my change over study. What we have learned from my study is that we really need to Kaizen our changeover process in conjunction with implementing Kanban. We have automated insertion lines for PCBA assemblies. With our current process we have change over times in excess of 90 minutes.

I am scheduling a Kaizen blitz of our changeover process. We will need to put a cost justification together to allow for some capital purchases to reduce our changeover times to the 5 to 10 minute range. This will allow for use to get our store sizes down.

Today's final update... Kanban

I have ran accross this Kanban calculator. Its located at www.optimumperform.com. So far its pretty slick, but its 1200 dollars per seat, which I think is pretty salty. I'll see what other tools are available and will post them here.

Another Kanban Update

I am currently looking to establish my method of identifying PCB magazine racks with a Kanban type, color coded visual managment flag. This will allow for us in my organization to identify how much and what kind of WIP we have currently available. Also, I have begun working on a Plan For Every Part for my bottleneck process and I will branch out from there as I begin analyzing my Kanban requirements and DOH inventory targets.

Kanban Update

Today's update is that we are now calculating our Kanban sizes. I am getting quotes from Creform and American Pro-pipe for gravity feed racks.

This initiative is really picking up steam in our department. Tomorrow I have a review of our current calculations and i'll present the quotes to managment regarding what we are going to have to invest.

Org Change Update

Currently, our star point team members are intgrated into the work team that are producing parts on the lines or cells.

The issues this causes is when any administrative task or production escalation event occurs requires the star point team members to leave the production lines for extended periods of time. Then I have one or more cells or lines performing their work in a non-standard manner. Its our largest source of ineffeciencies in production and greates variation.

We currently have consensus amunst managment to change our approach while maintaining our current structure. We are reducing the amount of star point team members while pulling them to off-line roles. They will be able to perform their adminstrative tasks, and monitor production in order to escalate events with out disrupting production. I am looking forward to this. Also, typically star points are a rotated position. However, for this pilot opportunity we are looking for volunteers whom will have to interview for these positions.

Org Structure Questions for TPS

Is there any possible way of implementing TPS without Toyota's organizational structure? Am I in a position where I have to prove that Team Leaders are needed to be successful with this Star-point team structure?

TPS and structured organizations

There is some brewing debate within my organization regarding the implementation of TPS and how the leadership structure must be organized.

We are attempting to implement our tweaked version of the Toyota Production System while using the "star points" self-directed work team structure. i.e. we don't have supervisors or team leaders like Toyota.

Personally, I am not sold on this structure as of yet. I am interested in others' experience regarding org. structure and TPS implementation.

New Kanban Project

I am now a part of a team that will change my current inventory push system into a engineered pull system utilizing Kanban. This is my first project to implement Kanban. I am looking forward to the experience.

Obviously, actually implementing Kanban is light years more useful than just reading about it in books. I will follow up with this post as my project develops.

Opening thread

Hello everyone.

I am committing myself to the school of lean manufacturing and developing my acumen regarding the Toyota Production System.

Some of my threads in this blog will be focused on Value Stream Mapping, Kanban, Muda elimination and identification, Heijunka, and pokeyoke.

Everyone is welcome to join my blog, and join my journey in learning and developing the