11/05/2024
We're betting you've heard of Lean Manufacturing, but did you know that it's a really broad topic?
It covers things like Kaizen events, 5S, poka yoke and other familiar favorites, but it can also include some very foundational - but incredibly useful - tools like a Gemba walk.
A Gemba walk is just a fancy term for going where the work is. Not putting post-it notes on a whiteboard in a conference room and making assumptions in a Lean event. Actually getting out there, shadowing operators across every shift for that particular process, looking upstream and downstream, and tracking data on what IS.
One of the other great tools that can get overlooked is SMED - single minute exchange of dies - because it sounds like it would only work for, you know... tool & die shops. WRONG!
It's a thought process and perspective that can be applied in all types of manufacturing, even high mix, low volume environments. The main steps are:
- Look at all the steps that have to happen from initializing a changeover, to finishing a complete run of a particular product, through the changeover to a different product
- Identify steps that can be done in PARALLEL with a production run - thus reducing the time that valuable manufacturing capacity is off-line
- Identify ways to streamline steps that still need to done while the machine is off-line
Sometimes you may need to develop additional tooling or fixturing, storage solutions, or other components - and it's perfectly OK to pilot your changes with 3D-printed, cardboard, wood or other prototypes. It's all about making rapid, iterative improvement!
Check out the article for more great examples of how to leverage SMED methodologies in unconventional ways!
We would love to hear your own stories about how you've applied Lean!
https://loom.ly/Xo4VkCw
