F... Final Touch
Credit to Pixabay

F... Final Touch

Very recently, as part of a training course, I had the pleasure of leading a one-day simulation game designed to raise awareness of the key principles of Lean and the underlying intentions of pull-flow working.

I'm always fascinated by the realism of the participants' reactions, even in a game situation. Even during a very simplified simulation, the good old reflexes quickly return. (even though everyone knows it's a game!).

The idea was to make paper foldings and observe the effect of certain changes, introduced one by one into the team.

I'm not going to spoil what we learnt from this game, especially as the whole day is not too much time to confront our preconceived ideas... but let's stick to one of the first important messages: quality must be considered first (before speeding up the flow), otherwise you speed up the production of defects, which is never a good idea. A trite idea, but one that not everyone who continues to measure productivity in terms of the number of parts produced per person (and not the number of GOOD parts) has fully grasped.

The reaction of the participants was unanimous: add quality controls at every stage. When the game leaders winced, some of them suggested setting up a self-control system.

But what is a self-control system?

This reminds me of the gesture I've seen on every one of my trips to the Toyota world (and which, it must be said, I've rarely seen elsewhere). The Final Touch.

It's a quick, precise gesture that operators often make before releasing a part. Sometimes the gesture is so fast that you really have to observe them carefully to detect it. The eye and hand of the operator are completely synchronised. A certain number of control points are defined, and the eye checks each of them at the same time as the part is turned over in all directions, before being deposited in the OK parts area. It's a gesture that looks very simple, but its fluidity is based on a very precise analysis of the points to be checked and on very clear learning of the check to be made. And the results are often impressive. Where we sometimes struggle to move from measuring in percentages to measuring in ppm, the companies concerned count their defects... by the year. The teams are very proud of this... and rightly so!

Cécile Roche

Bob Barker

Researcher - Author - Consultant

1 年

You might want to consider using Time Based Analysis to transform any organisations value adding capability. Analysis of the end-to-end processes prior to action is considered paramount to remove non value adding areas in the organisation.? 1. Looking through the lens of time identifies a lot of waste and untapped potential that cannot be seen by financial performance measurement. Attach yourself to a product or service and the average value adding touch time in manufacturing has been found to be less than 15%, even in so-called Lean organisations. In UK local government can be as low as 4%. 2. To transform organisations, combine employees and their process knowledge with my time-based framework to guide development, remove non value adding time and improve supply chain synchronisation. 3. Supply chain synchronisation has also been found to be poor. When replacing ERP/MRP supply chain triggers with pull type control, a 60% reduction in inventory levels is possible. See?www.drbobbarker.co.uk??and??https://www.drbobbarker.co.uk/forum/forum/time-based-analysis-animation Your employees are your best consultants, time based analysis is the framework.

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