April, 16, 2007  

Hi [[firstname]],  

If your company is calculating gross to net material requirements via an MRP system, using algorithms to determine optimal lot sizing, launching and then rescheduling released shop and purchase orders, your perpetuating an "order launch and expedite system."   

If you're staging shop orders to determine shortages, you'll never optimize material availability. If you have to inventory your work-in-process you have too much and you'll never get control of your inventories.  

If you're frustrated by an end-of-the-month crunch, you're really not lean. For help check out my Lean Manufacturing Training Package:  

                      http://bbasicsllc.com/kblm.htm

If you're coping with an shop floor quality finger pointing,  be sure to read this weeks bulletin, "JIT: Go With the Flow."  

Have a nice day, and stay connected.  

Bill Gaw
bg@bbasicsllc.com
760-945-5596  

Manufacturing Basics and Best Practices Bulletin
Now serving 12,000 plus subscribers  

GO WITH THE FLOW OF JIT  

Everyone wants high quality services and goods at low costs. But quality is often elusive. One important factor in achieving quality is how we arrange equipment and people to accomplish a task. In fact, experts suggest that 85 percent of poor quality comes from the way in which we organize the steps in our jobs and 15 percent -- or less -- from the people doing the work.  

One solution? Just-In-Time (or JIT) production methods give us practical tools that can be applied to service, production and administrative tasks to increase quality and cut costs and time.  

One JIT strategy is to rearrange our workstations to make work-in-progress "flow" more smoothly. Charlene Adair-Heeley describes workflows and other JIT strategies in her book, The Human Side of Just-In-Time. She identifies four easy JIT steps we can take right away to improve quality and make our work more fulfilling.  

Step 1: Watch how the work "flows"  

Adair-Heeley encourages everyone to watch how work moves through the entire work process rather than concentration only on the work at their individual stations. All team members then try to determine where bottlenecks and other inefficiencies occur.

Step 2: Use a plan to smooth workflow  

The team can improve the flow of work by brainstorming and evaluating ideas and by calling on design engineers or supervisors when they have questions.  

Adair-Heeley gets good results by teaching Quality Teams how to use a paper cutout of the workspace and equipment. Place the template where all team members can work on it, but where it won't be accidentally disturbed. The team can arrange the paper pieces in the template to experiment with more efficient workflow arrangements.  

Step 3: Implement the layout  

Even as the team is deciding on a design, you want to get buy-in from everyone who will be affected by the change. Resistance, a normal human reaction to change, is eased if people know what to expect and can play a part in decisions and implementations. This tactic may take longer, but it will provide better results  

Step 4: Continue to evaluate the workflow for even more improvement  

Continuous improvement applies to products, people, services and material flow. Quality problems not readily apparent in the old work layout will now be clearer. The team identifies and solves them, using Steps One through Three.

To help MBBP subscribers and their companies reach their full growth and earning potentials, I have produced seven training modules. Most modules have over 50 PowerPoint slides with commentary and "lessons learned" by yours truly. They are delivered same day via Internet download.  

If your company is into educating their people, they can purchase a complete set of my training modules at a MBBP subscriber’s discount of 34%. I call it the World Class Manufacturing Library and guarantee it to be the best training option on the Internet. Take five minutes and check it out... click on the below link:  

                      http://bbasicsllc.com/WCM.Library.htm

Print and Share

You are welcomed to print and share this bulletin with your peers, business team members, and upper management... better yet, have them signup for their own copy at:  

                                     http://bbasicsllc.com