Shenzhen Hua Zhiying lean production consultant often emphasizes on-site observation. According to our experience, what are the tips for on-site observation? In other words, how to evaluate the execution of a factory in lean production?
This is a very specific question. I have some ideas about what to look at and how to look at the scene:
First, ask the management before going to the site. What is their biggest challenge? Just like a doctor seeing a doctor, you have to ask the patient what's wrong before you can prescribe the right medicine.
Second, we should start from the terminal of the factory, that is, the packaging delivery area. This is the closest link to the customer, where you can know whether the delivery area is delivered on time according to the customer's needs. Does the material manager know what goods to deliver today? Are these goods arranged according to the time of shipment? Or do you have to wait for the truck to come before you start looking for goods? If so, it will delay a lot of time.
Third, walk back from the delivery area, and pay attention to whether the machines, materials, semi-finished products or finished products along the way are in the right position, and whether each station and its surrounding environment and walkways are clean and tidy. This is 5S. The key point is not only to keep the site clean and tidy, but also to give employees the responsibility to manage the surrounding environment, which is also a respect for operators. Of course, it is impossible for a factory to arrange processes according to each employee's own ideas, but on the premise of improving production efficiency, listening to their opinions and trying to solve their needs is a good strategy to establish team spirit.
Fourth, on the way of observation, stand in any place and close your eyes for half a minute, then open your eyes to see if the operators around you are waiting-whether they are waiting for machines, materials or semi-finished products of the previous process. If you see someone waiting, go over and ask him why he stopped. This is also the aforementioned "encouraging the discovery of problems". I hope that through such a series of questions and answers, we can find the root of the problem, so that the solution will be easy to come out.
Fifth, pay attention to whether there is an intuitive information board in the factory to let employees know what the production plan of the day is, how the progress of each hour is, and what causes the indicators not to be completed. These are all the information that the team leader should master and fill in. With this information board, each station can clearly understand the responsibilities of the day, and the management can easily see the problems encountered in the production line at a glance so as to solve them immediately.
Sixth, is the material transported once a day or once an hour? You can easily find the answer from the inventory accumulated in each station and aisle. If the goods are delivered once a day, you should ask the logistics manager why not increase the delivery frequency. What's the difficulty? At the same time, it is necessary to observe whether the materials are sent directly to the place where the operator can get them, or do you need to turn around and bend over to find the parts?
Seventh, do you know if there is a clear improvement goal for each station every month? This goal is embodied in improving quality, increasing per capita productivity or the frequency of replenishing materials. If there are no clear indicators, why ask?
Eighth, we should pay attention to the waste that can not add value to customers on the production line, including defective products, repair, waiting, unnecessary handling, unnecessary walking of operators, repeated inspection and so on. When you see these problems, you should ask the responsible employees and ask them to propose improvement plans within a certain period of time.
These are some experiences from my on-the-spot observation. Practice makes perfect. Often go to the factory to observe and you will understand some tricks. Once you learn to observe, the score of lean execution will naturally come.
Shenzhen Hua Zhiying Enterprise Management Lean Production Consultant Comments: For lean production, if a company has no execution, it is difficult to implement it. If you want to implement lean production in a company, you must first have the support of the company's top management and their understanding of lean production. It is very important to give promoters the right to punish, demote, terminate labor relations and so on all those who do not cooperate with the implementation of lean production. Only in this way can we carry out lean production.