How to Improve Lean Production

Lean manufacturing is a Six Sigma process.

Creating standardized processes in production will lead to lean improvement. One lean method used to accomplish this is the DMAIC (Define, measure, analyze, improve and control) method. Your production team is the expert on their daily processes and will help in problem solving and identifying flaws in your system. Working together on continuous improvements, and concentrating on key metrics that are directly affecting your bottom line, will improve lean production overall.

Things You'll Need

• DMAIC chart
• Team leaders
• Key metrics

Instructions

1. 

   Write down a standardized process for each operation.

   Assign each person on your production team to detail the process they are running from the start of the process to the finish. List the time it takes to process one unit. The process should read in a way that someone unfamiliar with the job can walk up and complete the task the way the person assigned to the job completes it. This is a standardized process.

2. 

   Gather your team and define the problems in your process.

   Come together as a team and identify the problems that are affecting your key metrics. Safety, quality, delivery, cost and environment are basic metrics. Once you identify the problems, prioritize them. Choose a problem as a team and define it. Defining the problem will identify what kind of metric it is. You have just begun the DMAIC method.

3. 

   Measure your current performance.

   Measure the problem. Establish where you are in the process and get a baseline reading of what is going on in your current process. You know that something is broken in the process to cause the problem, you just don't know what. For example, some of your units in the middle of your process has a scratch that is affecting quality. You know that the scratch is occurring in the first three processes. Documenting current performance will give you data to drive improvements.

4. 

   Look at what might be causing the problem.

   Analyze the problem. Take a look at some of the things that may be causing the scratch and write them down. No idea is a bad idea. The person that does that operation daily is key in this process. The operator may give you some reasons you may not think of yourself. Lean manufacturing is a team effort working together for a common improvement.

5. 

   Test ideas for improvement one at a time and find a solution.

   Improve the problem. Take those ideas and start implementing them in your standardized process. Use them to measure improvement. Test the ideas presented one at a time to see over time if the scratch goes away. Measuring each process individually will help you to narrow down what is broken in your process and what is causing the scratch on your units.

6. 

   Make sure your improvement has solved the problem.

   Control the problem. Now that you narrowed down and identified where the scratch is coming from in your process, implement an improvement to your standardized process to prevent this scratch from occurring again. Monitor the scratch and document the improvements in your quality metric. Using the DMAIC method will help you improve lean production over time.

Tips & Warnings

• Measure improvements over time for an accurate reading. Meet with team members weekly to monitor progress.

References

• DMAIC Tools: Six Sigma Training Resources
• Six Sigma Material: Data Collection
• Discover 6 Sigma: The Science Behind Breakthrough Improvements

Resources

• We Six Sigma: The Online Learning Center