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By Ben Roush and Sean Bates Introduction:  When was the last time you trained your operations group on Lean basics - not just HR onboarding, but ongoing coaching?  Ask yourself:  Has your operations group been fully trained on Lean Standard Work , covering the entire process? Do your modified Operator Work Instructions include all necessary requirements, including cycle times? Do your Standard Work layouts show how the material flows into and out of the production cell?   

In our first four TOC blogs we: • We provided a summary of TOC, Theory of Constraints • Dove into Step #1: Identify the Constraints – Bottleneck analysis • Continued into Step #2: Exploit the Constraint – Creativity over Capital • Focused in Step #3: Subordinate – Prioritize and maximize opportunity • Analyzed investment after all other avenues to elevate the constraint As we finish this series for TOC, we will briefly discuss step 5, repeating the process, but focus more on

In our first three TOC blogs: • We provided a summary of TOC, Theory of Constraints • Dove into Step #1: Identify the Constraints –...

In our first two blogs: • We provided a summary of TOC, Theory of Constraints • Dove into Step #1: Identify the Constraints – Bottleneck...

Unfortunately, a good fork truck driver does not make a very good scheduler. It requires a completely different set of skills, not just...

Step #2: Exploit the Constraint In our first blog, we provided a summary of TOC, Theory of Constraints and dove into Step #1: Identify...

The Theory of Constraints became an operations standard over 40 years ago with the publishing of “the Goal” in 1984, and it has never...

In most manufacturing projects, Capital Funding (Corporate funding, usually independent of a plant’s budget) can be critical to its...

Ever heard the phrase “ What gets measured gets done ?” Or as my grandmother (English Teacher) would have said “completed”. This phrase...

Attention: Mr. Operations Manager. Call it support. Call it love and attention. Managing Standards  on the shop floor continues to be a...

Down and dirty vs. Slow and elegant… Aim, Aim, Aim, Fire! You have been shot 3 times and you don’t even know it.  Just ask your kids...

There is no one book, mentor, or methodology that is the secret “magic dust” we need to successfully run our manufacturing facility....

In today’s world, and with this employment market – you cannot even catch your breath. After the marketplace corrects itself with jobs...

Let’s revisit the chicken or the egg. Should we focus our lean efforts on our existing value streams or on the new model coming in? ...

The dreaded layered process audit. If not completely understood and supported, it could be the highest level of pencil whipping hypocrisy...

Do not do this to yourself. The dreaded changeover. Can’t I just let my team stretch their legs and let them run? It seems like all...

How is your company planning logistics? Do you know if the forecasts you are sending to your supply base are fully utilizing the...

A lean manufacturing flow must have an effective part presentation to the operator.

Takt time-based line design to specifically match up to the customer demand rate is the most important concept to remember in designing a...

By Ben Roush Effective training is often overlooked in moving forward with our lean journey. The truth is, that our training budgets are...