Lean is all about culture. It’s an important part and in sometimes the backbone of Lean management. A culture which believes in constant enhancement practices what they speak day in and day out, is the answer to keeping and sustaining lean. However, what is less discussed is what goes into a philosophy which allows it to get the strength required to keep a management lean process, introducing Hansei.
What Exactly Hansei is?
The Japanese word Hansei means reflection, however in lean community and most significantly Toyota has much wider and bigger meaning. Hansei is not only about reflection. It’s really being true to yourself regarding your weaknesses. When you’re talking about just your strengths, you’re bragging. When you’re recognizing your faintness with sincerity, it a good amount of strength.
The art of Hansei is considered one of the main keys to the success of the Toyota Company all through the years and what a lot of people are still attempting to wrap their heads around. Most of the time, people overlook their weaknesses and try to cover up with their assets, as if they will conquer their flaws in due course. However, in reality, this is all about as counterintuitive as you can be if marketing a constant enhancement viewpoint.
You must accept the reality that you have weakness and flaws. Or else your capability to constantly enhance and have a useful effect on the philosophy which surrounds you, is at a considerable advantage.
Key Factors to Hansei
• Aid people know a problem
• Allows you to accept accountability of an issue with an utmost stage of emotion
• Pushes you in a plan of action to enhance
What are the Benefits of Hansei ?
• Aids you know trends well
• It could help people take in a task or provide credit to somebody else on addressing any issues
• Group of people could come as one and could reflect as one as a group. This is advantageous after an occasion or team activity to have what went good as well as what can change to make it well.
• There is a big advantage on sharing an idea of self-reflection to team, peers as well as leadership.
• Hansei could be one of the most valuable and powerful concepts in an organization, when it is accepted. Vital self-analysis is a hard pill to take in the American philosophy. Toyota Technical Center President, Mike Masaki discovered this out first hand.
• Upon an appointment to American facility, he pointed out a number of bad parts to American designers. This censure was met with a painful reaction by most that was not usual to Masaki, who is spent lots of times critiquing diverse factors of Toyota company at the time.
Without this, it is very impossible for you to have kaizen; Hansei is if you do wrong or bad, at first you should feel sad. Then, you should make a future project or plan to address that issue and you should openly believe you’ll never make this kind of error again.

— Slimane Zouggari

Genchi-Genbutsu or go, see and confirm is one of the main principles of the Toyota Production System as well as Lean Manufacturing. It suggests that in order to understand clearly and plainly a case or state of affairs you have to go to genba or what you call “the real place”, wherein work or job is done. Therefore, Genchi Genbutsu is an important approach in solving any problem. When the problem happens on the shop floor then it requires be understood and addressing at the shop floor. Go, see and confirm is also known as Genba attitude. It is the Japanese word for “the place” in this event the place where it really occurs. Since true value is made at the store floor in industrial, this is where supervisors have to spend their time.
How does Genchi Genbutsu use to presentations?
• Significant, it means you must know your subject matter from the audience outlook or point of view. How do these audiences view it? What do they have to know about it?
• When you do not know, try to speak to an illustrative sample of the audience and know the issue as they view it. Prior to changing their mind concerning a topic or enhance their comprehending of it, it aids to understand where they are starting from.
• When you are talking to a new audience, maybe a diverse division or department of your business or a new customer, it could aid to physically go to their place before you talk or at least arrive there early, therefore you could walk around, see the culture as well as listen to the jargon.
• Also get comfortable with physical setting. Sit in the audience seat, and know what the front of the space, your slides or the stage seems like.
• When you are a paid expert speaker, genchi genbutsu means that you do not only show up, talk and then leave, you really spend time at the forum or company meeting people and knowing their needs and demands. And you do more to modify your speech to your listener or audience than only occasionally putting in the name of the customer.
• Genba attitude mirrors the idea that no matter what reports, ideas and measures are conveyed to management are just a concept of what is really happening in the genba to make value. Reports and metrics will mirror the outlooks of the organization questioner as well as the office responder and how the responder sees the questioner. Aside from that, it also improves the odd that actual problems and unintended occasions will be perceived first had and could be handled right away; this takes account of problems which are not evident to the workforce of genba.
Using Genchi Genbutsu to the presentation will ultimately lead to a presentation which is more customized according to the needs of your audiences as well as resonated with them. And you’ll encounter a sincere as well as well-informed professional instead of a self-important and arrogant talking head.

— Slimane Zouggari

Hoshin Kanri is also known as Policy Deployment wherein it is a method for ensuring that the strategic goals of a company drive action and progress at every level within that company. Converting plans into actual actions is actually a very common problem across many industries in countries all over the world. Many companies put in a lot of effort to come up with strategic plans but are unable to implement them. As a matter of fact, these companies find it almost impossible to work on strategic objectives because the employees are so busy with the routine aspects of their work. The other problem is that many employees simply do not have sufficient information about strategic plans. The only way that you can help your organization achieve its important goals is by using Hoshin Kanri.
What is Hoshin Kanri?
Hoshin Kanri is a Japanese concept that has been adopted by large organizations and small companies all over the world. The term Hoshin indicates a compass to provide direction whereas Kanri refers to management or control. In other words, this concept is immensely useful to help point organizations in the right direction to move. Adopting this concept is therefore the best way to help your company achieve its goals. It has been derived from the American concept of Management by Objectives and is actually an improvement on it. If you start implementing Hoshin Kanri in your organization, you will need to have a proper system of rules and forms in place so that everything goes according to plan. Not only will action be formally charted out but there will also be regular performance checks conducted.
What makes Hoshin Kanri so powerful?
It encourages all employees to study various work situations and create appropriate plans for improvement. People from different levels of the company are encouraged to work together to bring out positive change. Your organization will benefit greatly from adopting the principles of Hoshin Kanri. All the effort that you and your employees have out into coming up with strategic plans will finally benefit your company since there will be companywide communication about what the plans exactly are. Once people know what is expected of them, they will then be able to work towards it.
In addition to this, the system of regular checks that you put into place will ensure that the plans are implemented correctly. In case you are having difficulty implementing this highly useful management concept in your company then you should get expert help. Your company’s productivity will then increase considerably since it will be able to achieve its many goals.
Hoshin Kanri is absolutely essential to ensure that strategic plans do not go to waste. Ensure that all employees know about the plans and also undergo the necessary checks so that they stick to the plans. Hoshin Kanri is considered as one of the many immensely useful management techniques that Japanese manufacturers have given to the corporate world. Use Hoshin Kanri method and rest assured that you will see a dramatic improvement in business within the first year itself.

— Slimane Zouggari

Kamishibai Board
Kamishibai is a type of storytelling utilizing visual cards or boards. This come from Japanese Buddhist temples in the twelfth century wherein monks utilized picture scrolls to convey stories with moral lesson to a largely illiterate audience.
At this point in time, it is being utilized as a management technique for doing audits in a manufacturing process. As part of the TPS or Toyota Production System, Kamishibai boards are utilized as visual control for doing audient in a manufacturing process. A sequence of cards are put on a board and chosen at random or in accordance to schedule by managers and supervisors of the area. This make sure cleanliness and safety of the workstation is maintained and which quality checks are being done.
Why Use Kamishibai Board?
Some important reasons to use these cards are to start standardize work, to put in accountability into the system as well as to establish needed positive discussion between members of the management as well as the operators that really do the job. All this largely aids to keep lean application.
Self-discipline by the organization to utilize it accordingly could make it happen. Part of the routine of the organization in a lean management is to audit current standards in order that any deviation could be solved and lean action is taken. Kamishibai is an approach to make devotion to this procedure visual on the Gemba.
Benefits of Kamishibai Board
• Kamishibai could facilitate Gemba walks. Rather than needing general small discussion between a supervisor and a worker, the card could facilitate a particular procedures oriented discussion regarding improvement.
• This can aid keeping a clean, well-organized as well as safe workplace. Through asking queries such as do all things have an ordinary place on this office and is the office cleaned conformed average. This turns out to be not only a one-time cleaning meeting, but a constant process.
• This system could also check the performance of the behavior, whether or not workers work according to the clear Average Work in the manner that it shows how to do a specific task. If an individual doesn’t work according to the standard work there are 2 chances either isn’t informed regarding the manner of working and so requires training , or the standard defines is not clear or wrong and requires modification.
• Last but not the least, this system can check the side of the average or standard work. Even if a development is recognized into average work, it’s not uncommon for workers to slip ban unconsciously into their old method of working. Therefore, Kamishibai board not just aids keeping 6S, on the other hand it also aids in keeping improvements.
Kamishibai board is easy to use. Aside from that, it also delivers lots of remarkable and amazing results. It could be utilized to great effect in order to make create habit as well as drive behavior. What makes this technique apart from the rest is the fact that it is low cost and so fast to apply and implement.

— Slimane Zouggari

Takt time is an essential indicator that is used in lean manufacturing and can be defined as the amount of time that is allowed to develop one product to be able to meet the demand of customers. This is also known as beat of production that is used by a number of organizations as a reference point on which they target the processing times against. Taktzeit upon calculation is stated in seconds.
How to Calculate Takt Time?
In order to calculate Takt time, one will have to determine certain factors and variables which include the following:
• The daily demand value or the daily order
• The number of time units in minutes or seconds in a working day
To be able to calculate Takt time from the above mentioned variables, you will have to take the total production time per day and divide this by the daily customer demand. For example, taking eight hours of processing time per day gives 480 minutes and which further gives 28800 seconds. Now, if the demand per day is 350 widgets, then Takt time can be found by dividing the total seconds with the demand value. In this case, you will divide 28800 by 350 and will be getting 82 seconds. Since most businesses do not have a 100% running efficiency, an efficiency percentage will be applied to the working time. This will give a shorter time which means that the running pace of the production line has to be slightly faster. Beat of production is essential when it comes to making process improvements and calculating total time required for process steps.
Understanding Takt time is to understand that on any given day, the volume at which your units are produced must match that as closely as possible to the daily demand for those units by your customers. In organizations that build large products like modular building or electrical power equipment, the demand for finished products might take place over the course of weeks or months. In high-speed manufacturing environments, like bottling plants or paper mills, there can be thousands or millions of units produced per day. To meet Takt time correctly, vendors located all over the world must be able to supply components and parts at the same rate they are consumed by the primary manufacturer’s customers. The closer the vendor’s are physically located to the primary manufacturer, the easier it generally is to control this rate, however, in today’s global environment, many companies have to import components from all over the world.
Not only is it required to meet customer demand at the right time, but the suppliers and the sub suppliers must meet that same demand as well. For instance, in a production line of small modular steel boxes, the customer demand is 15 units per day. Two shifts of production total 14 hours per day. When calculating total production time, remember to subtract for breaks, lunch, meeting, 5S cleaning and many more. In order for the manufacturer to meet customer demand, each of its suppliers and sub suppliers must also meet that same demands by producing a unit at least every 56 minutes. This is how Takt time is calculated.

— Slimane Zouggari

Do you ever wonder if there was a great way of producing more whilst using reduced man power? Of course, you have minimizing inputs whilst maximizing output is the business 101 concept you carry from day one and strive to completely tackle during your entire careers. It is all about shojinka.
What is Shojinka?
Shojinka is likewise known a flexible manufacturing or flexible staffing. This is the Japanese word that originated from the lean manufacturing principles of Toyota. Since the time it became widely publicized in 1980s, lean manufacturing was integrated in countless companies, with an aim to minimize wasted input in the production. The concept of flexible staffing has become the leading performer in lean philosophy.
This Japanese word is also defined as the flexible manpower line and it is the ability to modify the line in order to meet the production requirements with a number of demand changes and workers. There are times that it is known as the labor linearity when translated in English, pertaining to the ability of the assembly line to be balanced even if the production capacity fluctuates down or up.
Furthermore, Shojinka is the type of flexible manufacturing wherein the number of workers differs to match the demand requisites. It is obviously superior to the static system which staff working regions with no consideration to the fluctuations in the production requisites. Being capable of reassigning people to precisely where they are required would help in keeping the production regions of falling behind. This type of flexible staffing is also release people to work on the improvement projects if demand is low through the board. The primary reason why it was not done frequently is that it is taking a marvellous quantity of work in management and preparation.
The Requisites of Shojinka
In Shojinka, the following should be considered:
• The workers should be extremely cross-trained to be able to move while the demand is fluctuating.
• The managers should have a clear understanding and realization of demand.
• The team should have playbooks in order to know where they go at different production levels.
• The system should be designed in order to operate in different worker configurations.
• Processes should be extremely standardized so the output will be the same no matter who does the work.
It is very important to take note that the use of the Japanese terms like shojinka could be offputting to some workers and staffs. Alternative terms do include lithe playbooks and manufacturing as well as flexible staffing. There’s also an aspect of shojinka in everyday management.
The major benefit of flexible staffing is that the employees become flexible. What it really means is that the workers are trained in all or most aspects of production. It lets them to be moved around while the demand is changing. A flexible workforce allows your efficiency to stay high underneath any production demands, rather than just a pre-determined set. It will also make it possible for the employees to work on different sides or enhancement products if the demand is low athwart the board.

— Slimane Zouggari

Shitsuke is the final stage in the 5S method, which means to sustain, thus ensuring that the company or the workplace mainly contributes to continually enhance using the previous stages embedded in 5S, maintaining the housekeeping as well as conducting an audit and so forth. Moreover, this also makes the 5S as the way of life.
This is a Japanese word, which in the first place carries wealth of cultural meaning:
• Discipline as well as training imposed upon an individual. For instance, children are taught by their own parents to brush their teeth right after every meal.
• Self-discipline. For instance, children grow into adults who brush their teeth right every after meal.
• Shared cultural self-discipline. For instance, every individual is expected to brush their teeth right every after meal.
• Personal discipline to a continually practice and improve. For instance, golfers practice putts and then drives- they do not usually play around on weekend without having practice in between.
The main responsibility for the Shitsuke is primarily shared between the workforce and the management. The manager’s duty is to remind the employees of the principles of 5S and at the same time reinforce them by means of consistent messages as well as bahaviors. For example:
• Introduce and at the same time support the certification programs and audit in order to formally ensure that new standards are supported and most of all are all implemented.
• Develop the Shitsuke procedures and then review the standards once in a while.
• Conduct inspections in order to ensure that the standards are successfully met
• Provide the needed training, storage space, replacement parts, cleaning supplies, and any other resources as needed to enable the standards to be successfully met
How to Sustain the Discipline
Since the main responsibility for Shitsuke is shared between the workforce and the management, it is imperative on the part of the management to take full responsibility for continuing to communicate the real message of 5S and for the regular inspections in order to enforce all the standards. Employees on the other hand should be accountable for doing the work and for creating the results.
For the Management:
• In Shitsuke, there is a need to set the standards as well as processes
• Introduce the audit process
• Introduce a certain certification program
• Inspect and at the same time enforce while the workforce is slowly becoming accustomed to new procedures
• Train new employees
• Provide the needed resources
The Employees:
• The process must be a boost for moral as well as mutual respect
• Make suggestion in order to enhance the process
• Help each one another by means of inspecting visually the work of each and every area
If you want to become even more responsible and productive, it is now the best time to try Lean 5S and be amazed what the result will be. With this, you will definitely have an assurance that you will become the person you really wanted to be. This will surely give you more reasons to become more motivated in everything you do, which in turn will satisfy you the most.

— Slimane Zouggari

Seiketsu is the lean manufacturing tool fourth step of the 5S, which is proven to be a powerful method in organizing your house and working area safely and efficiently. The 5S including the Seiketsu can reduce or eliminate the seven wastes and other types of wastes such as Mura and Muri. When you apply the methodology, you will be given the opportunity to experience its various benefits. Even though the step is simple, this belongs to one of the most known lean tools out there.
Purpose
This is specifically created in order to standardize all things or actions you have made in the first three steps of 5S. Nevertheless, it has other purposes or functions that you have to be familiar with. The step is not only for housekeeping but also in attaining standardized work that can ensure you of the most efficient ways of doing which is being performed repeatedly. Generally, the tool is made in order to make working ways standardized with respect to the three stages, and your operations. When you do not have this kind of working processes, you will not have the capacity to improve your work and you will not know the root causes of your errors.
Implementation
The first thing that you need to do is that, you have to standardize the first stages of 5S and that is Seiri, Seiton, and Seiso. In this action, you are assured enough that the cleaning process will be a part of everyday routine by providing equipment, documented instructions, and time. Bear in mind that you should employ red tags in all your working areas for your comfort and convenience. Aside from that, you can use one color for every cell and different colors for the finished product. So, color codes the various working areas that have different functions in order to make all things as clear as possible.
Origin
The 5S as a method comes from the Toyota Production System and Total Productive Maintenance. But, it can be indebted to Taylor for Scientific Management and Frank Gilbreth for Time and Motion Studies. In addition to that, the tool was being developed in Japan by Hiroyuki Hirano. These are responsible for housekeeping and working area with the best practice and optimized manufacturing performance.
Examples
In Seiketsu, you will be familiar with the tasks you need to do all throughout the cleaning process. You will also know all tools required, the sequence, and the time needed for all tasks. Since cleanliness has been one of your top priorities, you can maintain it when you know the sources of dirt that you can possibly eliminate, the type of cleaning that needs to be performed at all times, the kind of cleaning that has to be carried out weekly, and more.
Summing it up, Seiketsu can help you when you want to make your working place and house organized and clean as possible as this will help you make an amazing and appealing environment in both places. Having this kind of milieu, the productivity will be improved as well. Moreover, there is a need to apply the 5S for overall quality.

— Slimane Zouggari

Seiso is the third step of 5S method, which simply means to make everything shiny and clean. The best thing about this is that this is only a one-time step right in the process. The two main goals of this step are the following:
• To learn the process of maintaining the level of cleanliness
• To set new standards for cleanliness
In simpler words, this is the thorough cleaning of a certain area, machine, tool, and any other equipment in order to ensure that everything is returned to nearly new status. In addition to that, Seiso will also ensure that the non-conformity stands out such as the oil leak coming from the machine into a bright and newly painted clean floor.
The Process
Even though this will explain the process in its greater detail, here are the basics:
• Assign small groups to work on various sections of a certain company or factory
• Clean and at the same time inspect everything including the work stations, machinery, open floor spaces, storage cabinets, and more
• Take note of what to be cleaned or be tidied and determine how frequently it might be needed. Know what the needed resources are.
• The final step in Seiso is to finish documenting the results by means of taking photographs of the final results. This will then become the new standard.
The Benefits of Seiso
• Higher performance
• Cleanliness
• Higher employee morale. In Seiso, the employees mainly work in teams with the management participating fully and actively.
• Learning how to successfully do the cleaning. When you do cleaning yourself, expect that you will surely get fresh and new ideas on how to make this kind of work easier and faster when you do it the next time.
• Setting the new standard for the future cleanliness. If there are no standards, no one could possibly live up to them. The worst part is people will always do as little as needed to satisfy themselves. On the other hand, the effort will be wasted mainly because the next person will surely undermine all those efforts.
For you to know how to use Seiso here is an example you can use as a guide.
• The first thing that you should do is divide the workplace or a factory into numbers of different areas. You can include here the work stations, machinery, open floor spaces, and storage areas such as tool racks, cabinets or rooms.
• You can now assign the team to each area. Normally, there is a two-person team that works well to share all the cleaning, thinking as well as recording tasks.
• Train the teams in order to know what they must do and what they must need to report. Each of the team should clean their own area and should also report on their own findings.
If you are looking for the best provider of 5S visual management, Lean is the best option you can consider. You will surely be provided with the best tool that can help you in number of ways, thus makes you even more productive more than what you expect.

— Slimane Zouggari