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"Competent (individuals) in every position, from top management to the humblest worker, know all that there is to know about their work except how to improve it. Help toward improvement can only come from outside knowledge." - W. Edwards Deming
February, 2011
By Douglas C. Wood
It’s said that all work is a process. But does your work flow? Does the raw material flow from one step to another? It may be hard to see the flow due to clutter, but most organizations are built around a flow of work. How many minutes of the day is the work actually being carried out? You say ‘all the minutes,’ but look at it from the point of view of a piece of material: what fraction of the time is a single item being changed or assembled (compared to the time it is just sitting)? Chances are work is only being done a small fraction of the total time that you possess the raw material.
Workers pick material up and work it, then set it down. This approach is one of batches. Batches help only with set up time, but they hurt flexibility, cycle time, and rework. An individual piece may move back and forth as it is worked, inventoried, inspected, worked again, inventoried again, re-worked to repair it, etc. Often, problems are not found until the part has been part of the factory for some time, and the defect- creation step happened too long ago to trace the root cause.
Major expenses
Usually some 90% of your inventory is sitting, waiting for something to be done to it; If you have a work in process inventory worth $100,000, then the cost of holding that 90% as work in process costs you $11,000 per year. Add the cost of extra inspection and rework of delayed defects, you could triple that figure. A lack of smooth flow is costly.
Our goal should be to move work smoothly and evenly, keeping it moving all the time. The lean tool to accomplish this is Value Stream Mapping (VSM). VSM will help you gain smooth flow by making a practical map that avoids a lot of detail, but sets up a series of calculations of flow time.
Here are the main steps to Value Stream Mapping:
At a high level, putting VSM into practice looks like this:
- Define a product family
- Draw the current state
- Draw the future state
- Make a work plan and implement change
The future state map will guide change. As you increase your flow smoothness, there will be less frustration and lower cost. The extra work to repair will disappear as your processes self check against one another, and each step learns immediately the effect their work is having on the next stage. You need a map to make the journey from your current state to a smoother future state, a value stream map.
How to learn more
We offer a three hour webinar on Value Stream Mapping including an exercise and reporting template. You can find this instructor-led course here: DC Wood Course Registrations You may contact us for more information: mail: click here
Address: 13817 Bradshaw Suite B, Overland Park, KS 66221
Phone: (913) 669-4173
Fax: (913) 273-1611
http://www.dcwoodconsulting.com/