Lesson 5: Principles of Lean-Flow and PULL

Question 1

Single piece flow

Answer 1

is the movement of products and services through the process one unit at a time.
it ensures employees are focused on the value-adding elements of the process.

Question 2

Single piece flow advantages

Answer 2

reduced lead times
Eliminates over-prodcution
reduces inventory
identifies defects early in the process
provides agility to rapidly respond to changing customer requirements.

Question 3

parallel processing

Answer 3

also called concurrent engineering, the idea being that you can design the different parts of a product at the same time.

Question 4

2 elements required for parallel processing

Answer 4

• the customer/business would value the reduction in lead times.
• only process steps that are independent of each other can be done in parallel.

Question 5

multi-skilling

Answer 5

supports the flow because it ensures there are enough sufficiently skilled employees to carry out the process.

improves quality because all team members are aware of up & down-stream processes & can immediately identify defects.

is dependent on standard operations and training members to the standard process.

Question 6

2 types of layouts

Answer 6

• traditional layouts
• cell layouts

Question 7

Traditional layouts

Answer 7

• complex flows of material & information
• bottleneck steps
• reduced vision and ownership of the total value chain.
• operators concentrate on island of efficiency.
• reduces the value adding capability

Question 8

Cell layouts

Answer 8

• Typically u-shaped (no doubling back)
• operations combined & single piece flow adopted
• the flow of materials becomes smoother
• there is no queuing between processes
• throughput time is reduced
• operators are trained in more than one task
• value stream visibility is much higher.

Question 9

changeover time

Answer 9

the time between the last good item and the first good item after a product changeover

Question 10

quick changeover

Answer 10

the process used to reduce changeover times

Question 11

quick changeover process (8-steps)

Answer 11

1. observe & measure the current process
2. Separate internal & external activities
3. convert internal & external activities
4. create parallel activities
5. minimise internal & external activities
6. implement the new process & validate
7. document the new process
8. chart changeover time

Question 12

pull system

Answer 12

is when work is only conducted based on customer demand or following a signal for demand from the next process step.

Question 13

Pull system advantages

Answer 13

-only produce what the customer requires.
-improved communication between processes
-standard method for communicating between processes (kanban).
- system is agile to respond to changing customer demand
- decreases inventory levels.

Question 14

Kanban

Answer 14

is a communication system that uses visual triggers to control the flow of material within a process.

is linked from supplier to customer, ensuring that the customer pulls the item through the entire value chain.

Question 15

Kanban methods

Answer 15

Production Kanban

Withdrawal Kanban

Question 16

production kanban

Answer 16

identifies the quantity and product type that the process should produce

work cannot commence until the production kanban is received