Top 25 Lean Tools
Top 25 most important lean tools.
Lean has a very extensive collection of tools and concepts. Surveying the most important of these, understanding both what they are and how they can help, is an excellent way to get started.
The Essence of Lean
Eliminate Waste. Improve Productivity.
In order to improve efficiency, effectiveness, and profitability, focus relentlessly on eliminating all aspects of the manufacturing process that add no value from your customer’s perspective.
Improve Production Today
Three steps to improve productivity today.
Amazing improvements in productivity can be achieved through small daily increments. Each day, ask three simple questions (one each for Information, Decision, and Action) that lead to one specific action.
5S
A neat workspace means less wasted time.
5S is a five step methodology for creating a more organized and productive workspace: Sort, Straighten, Shine, Standardize, and Sustain. 5S serves as a foundation for deploying more advanced lean production tools and processes.
Agile Manufacturing
Reduce lead time. Be more competitive.
Manufacturers can achieve a significant structural advantage over offshore competitors by leveraging proximity to local markets to deliver new and highly personalized products with unprecedented speed.
Hoshin Kanri
Align strategy to manager and operator actions.
Align company goals (Strategy) with the plans of middle management (Tactics) and work performed by employees (Operations) to ensure that everyone is pulling in the same direction at the same time.
Kaizen
Deliver regular, incremental improvements.
Create a culture of continuous improvement where all employees are actively engaged in improving the company. Nurture this culture by organizing events focused on improving specific areas of the company.
OEE (Overall Equipment Effectiveness)
A yardstick for measuring manufacturing productivity.
OEE measures the percentage of planned production time that is truly productive. Many manufacturing lines are only 60% productive, meaning there are tremendous opportunities for improvement.
Short Interval Control (SIC)
Small actions add up to large improvements.
Quick and focused reviews of performance data during the shift enable mid-course corrections and immediate small-scale fixes that collectively result in significant improvements in performance.
SMED (Single-Minute Exchange of Die)
Reduce changeovers to under 10 minutes.
Changeover times can be dramatically reduced – in many cases to less than 10 minutes. Each element of the changeover is analyzed to see if it can be eliminated, moved, simplified, or streamlined.
Theory of Constraints
Focus on the bottleneck to improve throughput.
Every process has a constraint (bottleneck) and focusing improvement efforts on that constraint is the fastest and most effective path to improved profitability.
TPM (Total Productive Maintenance)
Engage operators to maximize equipment effectiveness.
Getting operators involved in maintaining their own equipment, and emphasizing proactive and preventive maintenance will lay a foundation for improved production (fewer breakdowns, stops, and defects).