Design simple visual system at the workplace where the work is done, to support flow and pull.Avoid using a computer screen when it moves the worker’s focus away from the workplace.Use simple visual indicators to help people determine immediately whether they are in standard condition or deviating from it.Principle 7: Use Visual Control so no problems are hidden. Allow creative and individual expression to improve upon the standard then incorporate it into the new standard so that when a person moves on you can hand off the learning to the next person. Capture the accumulated learning about a process up to a point in time by standardizing today’s best practices.It is the foundation for the flow and pull. Use stable, repeatable methods everywhere to maintain the predictability, regular timing and regular output of your processes.Principle 6: Standardized tasks are the foundation for continuous improvements and employee empowerment. Build into your culture the philosophy of stopping or slowing down to get quality right the first time to enhance productivity in the long run.Build into your organization support systems to quickly solve the problems and put in place countermeasures.Jidoka (machines with human intelligence) is the foundation for “building in” quality. Develop a visual system to alert team or project leaders that a machine or process needs assistance. Build into your equipment the capability of detecting problems and stopping itself.
Use all the modern quality assurance methods available.Quality of the customer drives your value proposition.Principle 5: Build a culture of stopping to fix problems, to get quality right at the first time. Work to level out the workload of all manufacturing and service processes as an alternative to the start/stop approach of working on projects in batches that is typical at most companies.Eliminating overburden to people, equipment and eliminating unevenness in the production schedule is just as important – yet generally not understood at companies attempting to implement lean principles. Eliminating waste is just one-third of the equation for making lean successful.Principle 4: Level out the workload (heijunka). Principle 3: Use “Pull” system to avoid overproduction. Be responsive to the day-by-day shifts in customer demand rather than relying on computer schedules and systems to track wasteful inventory.Minimize your work in process and warehousing of inventory by stocking small amounts of each product and frequently restocking based on what the customer actually takes away.Material replenishment initiated by consumption in the basic principle of just-in-time. Provide your downline customers in production process with what they want, when they want it and in the amount they want it.It is the key to a true continuous improvement process and to developing people. Make flow evident throughout your organizational culture.Create flow to move material and information fast as well as to link processes and people together so that problems surface right way.Strive to cut back to zero the amount of the time that any work project is sitting idle or waiting for someone to work on it. Redesign work process to achieve high value-added, continuous flow.Principle 2: Create continuous process flow to bring problems to the surface. Accept responsibility for your own conduct and maintain improve the skills that enable you to produce added value. Act with self-reliance and trust in your own abilities. Evaluate every function in the company in terms of ability to achieve this. Generate value of the customer, society and the economy – it is your starting point.Your philosophical mission is the foundation for the other principles. Understand your place in the history of the company and work to bring the company to next level. Work, grow and align the whole organization toward a common purpose that is bigger than making money. Have a philosophical sense of purpose that supersedes any short-term decision making.* * * * Principle 1: Base your management decisions on a long term philosophy, even at the expense of short-term financial goals. He has made available a number of reports and tools related to these areas on Flevy, which can be viewed here. Editor’s Note: Charles Intrieri is a consultant with over 25 years of experience in Operational Excellence, Supply Chain & Logistics, and Metrics-driven Management.