JIT Today 

Hi, welcome back.  

September 13, 2000  

If your manufacturing team is still calculating gross to net requirements via an MRP system, using algorithms to determine optimal lot sizing, and then releasing shop orders for stockroom picking, your perpetuating an “Order launch and expedite” system.  If your staging the shop orders to determine shortages, your really in a lot of trouble.  

If you’re struggling with an “OSWO” (Oh Shit We’re Out) system, be sure to read this weeks BMP Bulletin, “Go With the Flow of JIT.”  

If you’ve ever said, “There must be a better way.” Good news ... there is! Check it out at:

     http://bbasicsllc.com/kblm.htm

Have a nice day, keep the faith, and stay connected.

 Bill Gaw

bg@bbasicsllc.com

760-945-5596  

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 JIT Today

 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.

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