Standardized Work and Source Quality
Standardized work is a central tool employed in the lean workplace. It enables repeatability and control of the process; insures that everyone is using best known practice to insure safety, quality, and efficiency of the process; establishes immediate visibility of problems; and provides a platform for work team participation in continuous improvement. This class explains the rationale behind lean standardized work and goes into detail on how to design, document, and improve standardized work. It also addresses the integration of source quality methods, including mistake-proofing approaches, into the process and standardized work methods. Hands-on activities such as our Pipe Works exercise give the students in-depth experience in all of these matters. Normally, this class is delivered over 2 days, but can be shortened if necessary. It is an excellent idea to incorporate a workplace project in the class where the students apply what they have learned on their jobs. The course would be adjusted to focus on development and documentation appropriate for your operation, be it, for example, a low volume aerospace facility or inpatient care at a hospital.
This course is strongly recommended for front line personnel, first line supervisors, and production support personnel Students who take this class will learn…
- Rationale for lean standardized work and the differences between lean and conventional approaches
- Design of effective standardized work using the tools of motion economy, motion pattern analysis, and human factors engineering
- Design of effective self and successor inspection strategies and integration within the standardized work process.
- Source quality methods and their integration into standardized work systems in order to reduce the probability of human error and safety/quality problems that might result from human error.
- Strategies for process simplification such as kitting and minomi.
- Establishment and documentation of knack points that are central to insuring effectiveness of the process and rapid learning by new team members.
- Use of work elements training as a foundation for effective standardized work
- Conduct of time studies and systems for documenting standardized work procedures
- Development of an appropriate documentation system and practice for your organization
- Involving employees in initial development of standardized work systems
- Linking standardized work with employee involvement systems such as suggestion systems
- Practical line balance procedures, including mixed model systems
- Classification of processes based on cycle time variability and the use of this concept in line design
- Flexible work strategies that can be used to improve work balance and to absorb job-to-job work content variation with maximum efficiency
