Casey BrallaJ. R. Casey Bralla

Bralla.com
41 Mystery Rose Lane

West Grove, PA 19390-8806

(610) 345-1355

"Lean Manufacturing"

Exquisitely simple.

Maddeningly complex.

Essential for survival!


 

Lean Manufacturing

 

 

Lean Vocabulary

 

Misc Links:

 

Lean Assessment

 

One of the principle tenets of Lean Manufacturing is that measuring things (metrics) by itself can lead to improvements.  This applies to those specific goals of the organization such as productivity, but also applies to the goal of implementing Lean.  We therefore also measure how well the organization has adopted a lean methodology.

 

A comprehensive Lean Assessment will measure many lean factors in as objective a fashion as possible.  The results of this assessment then need to be publicly presented, along with specific goals for improvement and realistic plans to achieve them. 

Some typical factors to measure are:

  • 5S conditions
  • Pull Systems, Kan Ban, & Supermarket usage
  • Appropriate levels of automation ("Autonomation") & Poke Yoke implementation
  • Standard work in place in Work Cells
  • TPM implementation
  • Visual Controls which allow anyone to understand how well the process is working
  • Continuous Flow instead of Batches
  • Setup Time tracking systems in use, with quantifiable reductions in Setup time
  • Waste Elimination as a constant goal, with quantifiable reductions in waste documented
  • Formal Training programs in use, with comprehensive Skill Matrices on display
  • Load Leveling via Heijunka box or other visual scheduling system

 

A fairly complex Lean Assessment system is available on our Download page for your use.  In consists of a Word document with a series of scorecards, and an Excel spreadsheet which lists the scores over time, as well as documents improvement plans.

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