Training, a 5S campaign, a few new boards along the lines, and a year later, the production hall looks almost the same as before. Lean transformation assumes a different path: it starts with the problem that most hinders the company, changes management methods, and continues for years. Together with Leantrix, we explain what this path involves and how to ensure that the changes stick on the production hall.
After a good Lean training session, people return to work with their heads full of ideas. A week later, the daily grind returns: a plan to execute, a breakdown on the line, vacations on the schedule. Ideas go into a notebook and stay there.
Together with Leantrix, we advise you on how to choose training so that it applies to your facility from the very beginning, and what to do in the first two weeks to make the change really happen.
Production reports show the numbers. The Gemba Walk reveals reality. This is one of the fundamental lean management practices, which involves managers going down to the shop floor and observing the process where it actually happens, instead of analyzing data from the office. It's a simple idea, but in practice, it requires discipline and skills that aren't acquired overnight.
No manager can see everything. An operator who spends eight hours a day on the same machine sees things that aren't visible from the office: minor hiccups, recurring problems, areas where something could work better. A plant that can gather and utilize this knowledge improves faster than one that relies solely on management's ideas.
5S is one of the most popular methods of workplace organization. Most companies that implement it stop at the fourth S. The fifth, self-discipline, is the most difficult and the only one that cannot be implemented in a single action.
Lean implementation typically begins with training. The team learns the methodology, understands waste, and sees where flow can be improved. Then they return to the shop floor and encounter the same space as before the training. Tools are lying around, zones are unmarked, and information about process status resides in the shift manager's head.
The knowledge is there, but the conditions for its application are not.
Creating a good job manual is a serious undertaking. Someone has to go through the process step by step, capturing all the important details, and writing them down in a way that's understandable to someone doing it for the first time. This takes time, knowledge, and commitment.
We sometimes hear people say that signage in the warehouse is a nice theory. That pallets don't end up in designated areas anyway, that a cleaning corner looks good in photos, but doesn't make much difference in practice. There's a grain of truth to this, but it applies only when signage or training is used separately, without a second element.
The production process can be conducted in many ways. Work can be divided among multiple operators, each responsible for a specific step. A linear flow can be established. Alternatively, solutions derived from the Toyota production system, such as chaku-chaku, can be employed. This time, we take a closer look at this method, specifically in terms of its demands on space and workstation organization.
When a new person comes onto the floor, every shift manager has to keep track of what they can and can't do. Usually, that place is their own head. This works until the manager changes positions, gets sick, or simply forgets.
