Assembly Planbook - July 2008 - (Page 104)

Leading Lean Jamie Flinchbaugh Partner The Lean Learning Center Novi, MI Save the Heart of the Idea M any ideas get thrown away because they “won’t work here.” While the details might not apply, it’s a serious mistake to throw out the heart of the idea along with the details. This happens often in lean applications. The focus becomes “does this idea fit?” Instead, the focus should be “what can we learn from this that will help us solve a problem?” As an example, let’s walk through an idea that many discard out of hand—takt time. Takt time is derived from the German word taktzeit, which translates to clock cycle. In the context of lean—which focuses on the customer—it can be deﬁned as the time needed to produce a product to meet customer demand. Using takt time as a tool means you design your value stream and processes to produce at a rate that meets customer demand. This is great if you make something with steady demand, but not if demand varies as in, for example, a hospital emergency room. If you asked a hospital to design its emergency room to takt time, the administrator would throw you out. They don’t know whether they’ll get 50 people or 200, or whether they’ll get sprained ankles or heart attacks. Therefore, takt time doesn’t apply and—if they go one step too far—then lean doesn’t apply to them either. Let’s look at the heart of takt time and the questions it forces us to ask. Is our process capable of responding to customer demand and—if not—what is the impact? What is the impact if we overproduce or underproduce? How hard is it for us to make adjustments? What is the impact to the customer of not being ﬂexible? Addressing these questions makes you focus on understanding the current state of the process from the perspective of value to the customer. As always, answers lead to more questions. How can we align our process to our custom- Using takt time as a tool means you design your value stream and processes from the perspective of delivering value to the customer. ers’ demand rate? Where we can’t, what risks must we manage? How should we respond when the demand rate changes? Can we use market tools to shape customer demand for less waste? There are no unique answers, but addressing these questions sharpens your focus on managing to meet your customer demand rate. Take K-Mart as an example. Although there is much that should not be copied from this deeply troubled organization, one change it made in response to a speciﬁc customer demand rate—long lines at the registers—is worth looking at. Realistically, K-Mart has no idea how many customers will really show up on any given day, or when they’ll reach the registers. So K-Mart instituted a response mechanism: when the lines grew past 5 customers, someone was pulled from the ﬂoor to open another register. K-Mart couldn’t control the rate of customer demand but it could react when demand changed. That is the heart of takt time. Boeing had a similar experience the last time demand for airplanes spiked as airlines around the world scrambled to build their ﬂeets. Boeing added capacity, pushed its workforce and manufacturing systems to the limit, and created problems that persisted for years. At the next spike, Boeing decided that instead of doing whatever it took to keep up, it would manage customer demand within the limits of their system capability. This was a difﬁcult decision because it required difﬁcult discussions with customers. But it paid off as a sound decision for Boeing. Are you raising the questions that takt time forces an organization to address? Are you leading the discussions? Are you helping your colleagues understand takt time and focus on what it means to your organization? Whether you agree or disagree, Jamie will welcome your comments. Contact him at jamie@leanlearningcenter.com. 104 ASSEMBLY / July 2008 www.assemblymag.com http://www.assemblymag.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Assembly Planbook - July 2008

Assembly Planbook - July 2008 Contents Editorial Quality in Assembly Station to Station Assembly Lines Assembly in Action Surviving the Roller Coaster The Human Side of Manufacturing Do Your Fasteners Need a Preapplied Thread-Locker? Manufacturing Innovation A Century of Progress Trendsetting Plants Pulse Tools Get Smart Plastics: Design for X Product Reviews Products Advertisers Index Classified Leading Lean

Assembly Planbook - July 2008

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