Hoshin Kanri is a Lean Organization’s method to set mid to long term management plans. We prioritize our resources and activities by involving members through a method called catchball. Though it seems an easy process to understand most organizations design their systems based on the structure of the organization. It is a reason that Six Read More …
A Lesson in Problem Solving: Go back to school for a second, maybe even as far back as grade school, and think about solving mathematical word problems. Remember with word problems, each problem described a situation that involved numerical relationships. However, the situation and those relationships first had to be interpreted and understood. Then it Read More …
Description of the Components of the A3 Countermeasures Identify countermeasure(s) to eliminate the root cause(s): we either get paralyzed by analysis or we jump to this point, offering solutions too quickly. If the problem is well-defined and the root cause is verified then the appropriate countermeasures are seldom difficult. This is where if you walk Read More …
We will spend this section on the left side of the A3 or the planning process. Description of the Components of the A3 Team: The team selection is very important in developing A3s. I cannot emphasize enough the importance of collaboration and building a team. You should go to great lengths to find people who Read More …
Value Stream Mapping is a process most consider an exercise for finding and removing waste. It is a foundational Lean Tool that typically gets introduced early in a Lean Transformation. A Systems2win Excel template is depicted below: Value Steam Mapping is a powerful tool in the Lean arsenal but is far from the only kind Read More …
Don’t start a Value Stream Mapping (VSM) process trying to solve a problem! Start the process trying to identify the process. You probably know there is a problem somewhere that is why you’re working on it. However, to many of us will not prepare properly for a VSM event. We will gather information to solve Read More …