MRK Performance Solutions

BENEFITS OF STANDARDIZED WORK IN A MANUFACTURING ENVIRONMENT INTRODUCTION Standardized work is one of several practices utilized at Toyota manufacturing facilities and many forward moving companies to integrate employees in the continuous improvement process. Employees need to gain an understanding of the continuous improvement process, and the importance of waste elimination in the long-term growth of their business. It is important that they develop an understanding of why ...Continue reading

The Role of the Front Line Manager and Standard Tasks Supervisors in today’s manufacturing environment can get involved in too many firefighting tasks which prevents them from having enough focus on the strategic initiatives that they need to be paying attention to. In the past, many organizations did not involve their hourly personnel in the operation of the business as they do now, and this caused supervisor’s effectiveness to suffer because they had to deal with issues t...hat staff on the floor could resolve on their own, given the necessary responsibility. The future state of a good and lean organization needs to clearly define the roles and responsibilities of everyone. Each person needs to clearly understand what their position is and avoid overlapping into other people’s roles. This overlapping of roles leads to a lot of waste in an organization. The first line supervisor needs to focus on making the week for their area a success by: 1. Teaching, mentoring and coaching people in their area. 2. Developing strategic plans and the necessary timing to execute those plans. 3. Support the team members and support personnel that the supervisor is responsible for. 4. Lead continuous improvement by ensuring the team is involved in Problem Solving to eliminate waste. To accomplish these items from the supervisor’s areas of focus, it is necessary to have a Daily Routine that needs to be followed. It is also necessary for not only the supervisor but all others who have a leadership roll up and down the organization to have a daily routine. Having a Daily Routine is important because: 1. Provides structure 2. Builds good habits 3. Increases efficiency 4. Negates the need for willpower and motivation 5. Builds momentum 6. It helps you become good at things 7. Saves work on the back end Do Not Be A Time Waster Use Your Standard Daily Routine

GET THINGS DONE An important element of the CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT PROCESS is to ensure that the team has agreement on WHO is going to do WHAT and WHEN and ensure that they meet those targets and deliverables. There are too many times that people do not have a sense of urgency in taking the appropriate actions. That is why it is necessary, when holding your continuous improvement meetings that you end up reviewing the deliverables that are expected of people and ensure that t...hey are clear on the timing and the task that they are responsible for. Do not get caught up in the typical bureaucracy of an organization that does not get tasks done on a prompt basis. What some people think will take a couple days to get approval or get done, can be usually be done quickly. Sometimes in a matter of minutes. Using just email is never a good method to use to get things done promptly. In today's email crazy world people just assume that email will get the task done on the dates but they ended up picking. Emails can be very impersonal and the person on the receiving end may not know what your sense of urgency is getting the task completed. Take the time to make that one on one personal contact with the person, whenever possible and they will get a better understanding of why it is important for them to meet the deliverables that you have outlined. It is important to set deadlines and stick with them. Michael R. Königshaus [email protected]

Problem Solving Within Teams Many people think that lean manufacturing is only comprised of strategies such as Value Stream Mapping, Workplace Organization (5S), one piece flow and Kanban. But a key component of lean manufacturing that must not be overlooked is the use of problem solving by the teams. This is a major factor in the successful implementation of lean principles in an organization. The use of team leader led problem solving in the manufacturing environment enable...s all those involved to become more empowered to make significant change within their areas and organizations. Many teams are used to just putting Band-Aids on their problems and never investigate them with the correct people, to identify the root cause of the problem. The identification of the real root cause is vital to solving the problems forever. It is imperative that you find the root cause; but it is how you do it and approach the problem that is utmost importance. The first thing to do is spend the necessary time and effort to identify what the problem actually is. You need to clearly understand what the standard is supposed to be before you can recognize the possible cause(s) for it being that way. Once the problem is clearly described you can then use various problem solving tools that are available. Some of the tools that MRK Performance Solutions uses and that you can use are: 1. Plan, Do, Check, Act (PDCA) 2. Ishakawa Diagram (Fishbone) 3. 5-Why Analysis 4. Failure Modes and Effects Analysis (FMEA) Michael Konigshaus MRK Performance Solutions