15 characteristics of lean

Question 1

Customer

Answer 1

External customer is start and end point.
Optimize around customer not internal operations.
Understand customers true demand, what they would really like not what can be supplied.

Question 2

Simplicity

Answer 2

Lean is not simple but simplicity pervades.
Simplicity in operation, in system, in technology and in control is the goal.
Select smallest simplest machine possible consistent with quality requirements.

Question 3

Visibility

Answer 3

Seek to make all operations as visible and transparent as possible.
Control by sight.
Adopt a visual factory.

Question 4

Regularity

Answer 4

Regularity makes for no surprises operations.
We run our lives on regularity, we should make our operations run this way too.
Seek repeater products and run in the same time slots- this cuts inventory, improves quality and allows simplicity of control.

Question 5

Sychronisation

Answer 5

Seek ‘keep it moving’ manufacture.
Seek flow, especially one-piece flow
Synchronize operations so that the streams meet just in time.

Question 6

Pull

Answer 6

Seek for operations to work at the customers rate of demand.
Avoid Overproduction.
Have pull- based demand chains, not push-based supply chains.

Question 7

Waste

Answer 7

Waste is endemic.
Learn to recognise it and seek to reduce it always.
Everyone should wear ‘muda spectacles’ at all times.

Question 8

Process

Answer 8

Organise and think by the process view, the supply chain perspective.
Think horizontal not vertical.
Map to understand the process.

Question 9

Prevention

Answer 9

Seek to prevent problems, rather than to inspect and fix.
Shift the emphasis from failure and appraisal to prevention.
Inspecting the process, not the product, is prevention.

Question 10

Time

Answer 10

Seek to reduce the overall time to make, to deliver and to introduce new products.
Seek to never delay a value-adding step by a non-value adding step.
Time is the best single overall measure.

Question 11

Improvement

Answer 11

Improvement, and continuous improvement in particular, is everyone’s concern.
Make improvements both enforced and passive, both incremental and breakthrough.
Improvement goes beyond waste reduction to include innovation.

Question 12

Partnership

Answer 12

Seek to co-operative working both internally between functions, and externally with suppliers.
Supply chains compete not companies.
Employees are partners too.
Seek to build trust

Question 13

Gemba

Answer 13

Go to the workplace and seek the facts.
Manage by walking around
Implementation takes place on the floor, not the office.
Encourage the spirit of Gemba throughout.

Question 14

Variation

Answer 14

Variation is found in every process.
Seek to reduce it.
Measure it, know the limits, and learn to distinguish between natural variation and special events.
Manage it.
Build in appropriate flexibility.
Shockproof the system.

Question 15

Participation

Answer 15

Give operators the first opportunity to solve problems.
All employees should share responsibility for success and failure.
True participation implies full information sharing.