Category Archives: lean

Jidoka

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Jidoka is considered as the forgotten foundation of the Toyota Production system and the lean manufacturing yet is the principle to be the most important on lean that can able to help achieve the real excellence. Jidoka is all about the source quality, or a quality, which is built in; there are no business company can be able to survive without the product and services excellence and jidoka is a route through on which this excellence is achieved.
Where Jidoka Come From?
Jidoka started its life through Sakichi Toyoda’s invention in the year 1986 is a simple device able to stop the shuttle in the automatic loom is thread is broken. It simply means that it can stop the machine from not only the defects creation but it also make the operator alert to the problem. Well, that meant one operator can operate many looms rather than to stand and watch a single loom to see is something will go wrong to it. This kind of principle is known as autonomation or sometimes automation with the human touch.
The Jidoka Principles
Its principle can be may be broken down in the following simple steps:
1. Discovering the abnormality
2. STOP
3. Fixing the immediate issues
4. Investigating and correcting the root cause of the problem
These principles are not only coffins to be used in the machines in the autonomation; jidoka is also visible in most aspects of the lean manufacturing when examination to it takes place.
Examples of Jidoka
Here are the few examples of device used for autonomation that can be seen in manufacturing and in daily situation:
 Tension detector
 Sensor
 Proximity switch
 Sheet detector
 Presence sensing device
 Surge protector

Jidoka Problem Solving
There are various machineries being produced nowadays that have incorporated the autonomation ideals in the designs. In addition, with the technology today, it is very expensive while the incorporation of autonomation for the machines’ designs is very simple. We tend to fail not of recognizing the highlighted problems but in making an effort to take action to make the problems corrected and solve its root cause. It is necessary perhaps that we are not only giving our supervisory staff and operators a responsibility and authority to stop the production if they see a problem but we also need to train them in the most accurate problem solving tools that enable them to remove the problem root cause.
We also need to ensure action that documentation process is updated in order to incorporate the changes and we are able to communicate those existing changes across the similar processes and similar products to impart the earning to all. In the process of Jidoka, the primary action is it detects the abnormality, for autonomation, the machine is using a simple sensor to trace the problem and stop and highlight it to the operator or to the supervisory staff. For the line stops the operator to detect the abnormality and stop the line and to highlight the problem for everyone to see in the andon boar.

— Slimane Zouggari

Gemba

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Where Did Gemba Come From?
It is a Japanese term which means “the real place”. The Japanese detectives are calling the crime scene as gemba and the Japanese television reporters will refer themselves reporting from the gemba. In the world of business, it refers to a place where the value’s created; in the manufacturing, it is the floor of the factory. In addition, it may refer to any site like construction site, floor of the sales or from where the provider of the service directly interacts with the consumers.
Gemba and its Examples
 In the lean manufacturing, gemba’s idea is that problems are visible and the best ideas will come from going to it gemba. Gemba walk, is like MWBA or Management By Waking Around, is an activity that able to take the management to the front line to seek for opportunities and waste to practice the gemba keizen, or practical improvement of shop floor.

 While in the quality management, it means the manufacturing floor and its idea is when the problem occurs, the engineers are required to go there and comprehend the problems full impact and get information from the sources available. Different from surveys and focused groups, gemba visit is not bound or scripted by what one would want to ask.
Glenn Mazur had introduced this term QFD or Quality Function Deployment (the quality system for the new products where the manufacturing never start yet) to mean the business or lifestyle place of the customers. The idea is to be customer driven, a person must got to customer’s gemba to help understand the opportunities and problems with the use of own senses to collect and process the data.
Gemba walk implies the action of walking to see the process in actual mode, ask questions, understand the works, and able to learn from it. It is also one of the fundamentals of the philosophy of lean management. Taiichi Ohno, the Toyota executive, lead the concept development of gemba walk. It is an opportunity for the staff to make a stand back on their day-to-day works to walk in the floor of their working place to see some wasteful activities happen around.
The term used “going to the gemba” is more to be like a Japanese terminology “genchi gembutsu” perceived to compare to the term “management by walking around”. The method is manifesting a more resemblance to the motions and time studies of Frederick Winslow Taylor, even more recent on contextual design and contextual inquiry methods, which based in the context-specific learning of the work practices, enables to produce a design-relevant product insights and process.

— Slimane Zouggari

Andon

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What is Andon?
In English terminologies, andon means “signal” or “sign” and it is a visual aid alerting and highlighting the required action. Just for example, a signal light is lighting in the manufacturing plant, implying that the line had been stopped by the operator or supervising staff due to some malfunctions and problems. It is also a principle and a typical tool to apply in the jidoka principle in the lean manufacturing- Jidoka also referred as autonomation that mean highlighting the problem that occurs and introduce an immediate countermeasure to top the problem occurrence.
At the Toyota, the andon principle is differently applied than how a person might see it in the manufacturing.
Where Andon Come From?
Andons’ word origin come from the word for paper lantern- a common Japanese ornament. At the bottom, it is the terminology used to refer an illuminated signal that notifies other problem within the production stream or quality-control. It is usually activated by a button or pull-chord, which able to automatically halt the production so that team can gather and apply the PDCS and the root cause analysis, then effectively and quickly apply a corresponding solution.
The warning light is incorporated to an easily visible and overhead signboard that can also identify the specific workstation or area where the problem had occurred. The nature and frequency if the occasional problems are being analyzed being a part of the Toyota program for the continual improvement and development. The andon principles need to be applied for any specific situation. The concept of the andon principle will look differently if you are not in the manufacturing industry. For example, the amazon applies andon in their customer service in such a way it makes sense.
Remember: It’s a method used to stop the process and allow the team to apply a root cause analysis and implement as countermeasure to the issue arise. Doing it is to prevent the process to continue produce damage to the defective parts.
Examples of Andon
The following are the examples of andon:
 Signal lights
 Production board
 Flags and audio
Andon Signals and Board Components
The andon signals and board components may vary from the process to another process and applications for the andon system seems to be countless, generally be used to communicate the information to production plant just like the following:
 Product line status: produced, stooped, idled or overload
 Product settings like temperatures, weights, pressures, electricity, speeds, gas consumption, etc.
 Workstation status
 Different production goals or KPI’s such as planned production
 Production volume, product produced and WPI
 Call signs for the managers and supervisors to the certain area
 Different times: downtime, current time, running period time
The Japanese manufacturers of auto and other organization that implemented ancon system in their process of production have seen it to be very useful because if the factors it contributed to the company cultures and also because of its efficiency and initiatives in lean manufacturing.

— Slimane Zouggari

Eight Waste Elements of Lean IT

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Lean IT is an addition of lean production and lean facilities philosophies to the expansion and information technology management of products. Its main concern, functional in IT concept, is the eradication of waste which improves no charge to products and services.
While lean ideologies are largely recognized and have wide-ranging applicability, expansion of manufacturing to IT had just emerged. It positions important tasks for experts while upholding the assurance of no fewer significant paybacks. And whereas its advantages can be narrow in range and provide results fast, implementing this is an ongoing development that could possibly yield years ahead of lean principles to develop intrinsically to an establishment’s tradition.
It intends to detect and remove waste that causes customer service to be poor, business loss, business costs raise, and reduced productivity among employees. In this line, it aims eight components inside IT processes that produce no charge to finished products, services or the core institute.
The eight waste elements of lean IT includes the following:
• Defects
• Overproduction (Overprovisioning)
• Waiting
• Non-Value Added Processing
• Transportation
• Inventory (Excess)
• Motion (Excess)
• Employee Knowledge (Unused)
Defects are illegal system, application modifications and insufficient project implementation which results to insufficient customer service and increased expenses.
Excessive transport of low-cost applications falls under overproduction which causes IT misalignment, higher costs on data space, maintenance and energy.
Waiting is slow application responses and manual service acceleration measures resulting to less productivity.
Giving information on technology metrics to corporate executives that may sometimes lead to miscommunication non-value added processing.
Transportation on the other hand are on-site appointments to solve matters on software, issues on hardware, checking of physical software, compliance and security and this quite affects operational costs.
Inventory (Excess) causes raise in data center and energy expenses plus there is a loss in productivity because of multiple sources to handle threats and control.
Motion (Excess) is about resolving repetitive problems inside the IT structure and applications. Less productivity may occur.
Last would be the Employee Knowledge wherein some employees fail to grasp ideas and advances. They encounter retention issues and time spent on dreary or ordinary tasks.
Each element can cause waste; connections amongst elements sometimes generate a queue of waste like a domino effect.
Services like Value streams are delivered by IT function towards the organization for customer use, suppliers, personnel, stockholders, managers, media and other investors. These services are classified into:
 Business services
Example: point-of-sale transaction processing
 IT services
Example: data backup
The division between business and IT value streams is significant. Agreed Lean IT’s aim of decreasing waste, IT services are second to business services. By this, IT services became branches that feed the primary business service. Once an IT service does not pay worth to a business service, it is a spring of waste. Wastes are shown by mapping of value-streams.
Lean IT involves a scheme of value-stream mapping which is the diagramming and examining services into their element process stages and entirely excluding any stage that does not deliver value since they will surely become excess waste.

— Slimane Zouggari

How Lean IT Works?

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Lean IT is the extension of lean services and manufacturing principle applied to manage, create and develop IT services and products. It emphasizes the activity of eliminating the unnecessary things that are not needed in the production. Those unnecessary things have no value at all. The core goal is to maximize the value of the customers and consumers while the waste is minimized. In a very simple way, lean creates big value to the customers and consumers with a few resource used in the production. So, in order to accomplish this, lean IT thinking will change the emphasis of the management though optimization of separate assets, technologies and vertical departments to maximize the flow of services and products through the entire value flowing horizontally across the assets, technologies and departments to the consumers.
Lean IT for the Production and Services
There is a prominent misconception that Lean IT is only suited for manufacturing. Well then, it is not true. Lean can be applied in every agile business and in every business process. It is not either a cost reduction program or a tactic but it is a way of acting and thinking for the entire organization.
The business in all sectors like government and healthcare are primarily using Lean IT principles in whatever they do and think. Many of the organizations are hesitant to use the term lean but they are labeling it based on their own system like Toyota Production System or Danaher Business System. Want to know why? It is because lean is not an obvious program or a term used for cost reduction but it is the way the company operates. This is often used to characterize the company to switch from the old way of thinking to the lean way of thinking. It requires a complete transformation on the way the company conducts the business. This will take a long term perseverance and perspective.
Purpose, Process and People
These are the three fundamental issues on business that will serve as a guide to the transformation of the organization. The managers, together with the executives must embark on the lean transformations.
 Purpose
What are the customer’s problem that can be solved by the enterprise to achieve its purpose of prospering?
 Process
How will organization assess the major value stream in order to make sure that each step is valuable, available, capable, flexible, adequate and all steps are linked by pull, flow and leveling?
 People
How will the organization ensure that in every important procedures made, there is someone responsible for the continually evaluation of the value stream in the lean process and business purpose? How can everyone touch the value stream actively in the correct operation and improvement of it?
Lean fully understands the value of the customers, so it focuses on increasing the continued process on the thing that is most importantly needed. The ultimate action is to give a perfect and sustainable value to customers through perfect creation processing of value that is zero waste.

— Slimane Zouggari

Lean IT Fundamentals

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Information technology (IT) plays a vital role in the society. Almost everybody is now engaged in technology. The one that engages in direction and growth of I.T. is the so called Lean IT.
In the information technology, Lean IT has an important part where it extends the manufacturing and services that helps it to be managed well and for its development. It can be the means to make the work agile. With the help of this platform, the work becomes easier and faster to finish. The quick and fast delivery of result that is needed by the user makes this service more useful.
This manufacturing are widely exercised and used for more production in business. This has been great help for the businesses today. Being in the high tech world, all should be updated. There are similarities on manufacturing and IT services. One of this is that manufacturing, provides goods to its client and costumer as IT manufactures by means of its value to the businesses not only to the business itself but also to the costumers they are serving. Also the development of the services are from the different department of the company namely the production department, the resource department, the peace and order department and many more.
With the great use of technology today, business also uses the technology to reach out for their costumer. They use the internet and technology to be in line in the current world. They shift and advance their way of service to the people. And because of this service become more convenient and agile in the part of the customer as well as the business owner. The advance and easier way to transact gives the advantage of Lean IT. The reason of this are:
• Convenient to customer and business and develops the easier and faster way in transaction
This particular service can lessen the burden of both, customer and the business. With the help of this transaction become easier. The time that is allotted in transacting are being lessened.
• Decreases the wasting of work production
It became more productive. There have growth and development of the business.
• Decreases the defects or problem like unnecessary changes in the system and unproductive and improper way of executing the business project. This will affect the quality of service for the customer. And can lead to more problems of the company. It can also increase the business load for the maintenance and other services.
• Helps save time
The way the business response to the need of the customer is important. Business should have the effective time management in responding customer’s concern. Fast and proper response should be remembered. And because of wasting time the productivity of the business is affected.
• Avoid miscommunication
It is important to have a good communication between the customer and the business. Good communication will be the means to be more productive and the trust of the client should be developed.
• Be knowledgeable
Businesses should be knowledgeable enough to have the right ideas for the growth and development.

— Slimane Zouggari

What is Lean IT?

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Lean IT is considered as the extension of the lean services and manufacturing principles to manage and develop information technology services and products. Its main focus is to eliminate the waste that gives no value to the services or product applied in the context of information technology.
Even though the lean principles are well established having a broad applicability, its extension from the manufacturing to information technology is not only emerging. In fact, lean IT has important challenges for the practitioners while raising the assurance of no less benefits. Lean IT’s initiatives can possibly be limited in terms of scope and can deliver results quickly. The implementation of lean IT is a long term and continuing process that can possibly take years before the lean principles become instinct to the organization’s culture.
The Extensions of the Lean IT
As the lean is implemented, the lean principles extensions starts to spread to information technology and in other service industries. The industry analysts have seen that there are many analogues and other things that information technology and manufacturing have in common. The same with the manufacture process, the development of the business services entails a demand management, resource management, security issues, quality control and many more. The information technology also provides an enhancement to the productivity and efficiency of the employee with the use of communication technologies and software. It also permits the suppliers to deliver, collaborate and receive the payments.
Principles of Lean IT
Like others, Lean IT also has a principle that becomes its rule or law that is desirably followed and serves as a guideline on the way the system or nature of a certain thing is constructed. The system principles are those understood by the agile users being the most essential character of the system.
 Value Streams
This is the service that is provided by information technology function to parent organization to be used by the suppliers, customers, investors, employees, other stakeholders, and by the media. The services are differentiated into:
 Business service: this is the primary value stream. The examples are processing of point of sale, supply chain optimization and ecommerce.
 IT service: this is the secondary value stream. The examples are application performance management, service catalog and data backup.
 Value Stream Mapping
This is the counterpart of the lean manufacture that involves the methods of value stream mapping – analyzing and diagramming services into the component process and eliminates any steps that never deliver a value.
 Flow
This is related to the fundamental concepts of the lean formulated in the Toyota Production System or Mura. Mura is a Japanese term means “unevenness” that must be eliminated in the system that is tightly integrated.
 Pull or Demand System
Pull or demand is closely related to the mentioned flow concept. It is in contrast with the supply or push system. In the pull system, a pull is the service request. The primary request comes from the consumers or customers of service or product.
Minimizing the waste while maximizing the value of the consumers and customers can be achieved with lean, where the value intended for the customers and consumers are created, having a few resources at hand.

— Slimane Zouggari

Benefits of Lean Manufacturing

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Lean manufacturing is a methodical process on the removal of waste in an industrial system. Lean also considers waste formed through overload and through disproportion in workloads. Operating from the viewpoint of the customer who uses a product or service, “value” is something that he would be ready to compensate.
Basically, lean is focused on making what puts worth by decreasing everything else. Lean production is a controlling idea derived from Toyota Production System and recognized to be “lean” in the 1990s. TPS is well-known for its concentration on the decrease of original Toyota wastes to expand total customer importance, however there are changing perceptions on how it is attained. Toyota started as a small company and grew into the world’s largest auto company.
There are a number of lean manufacturing principles to be understood in order to apply lean. Without understanding and applying these principles, it will most likely result in disappointment or a lack of commitment from everyone in the organization. The process becomes unsuccessful without commitment.
The following are guiding principles of lean manufacturing:
Continuous Improvement
Continuous improvement is the most critical among lean manufacturing principles. It forms the foundation of lean implementation. Absence of continuous improvement ceases progress. As it implies, there must be constancy as it is necessary in achieving a desirable outcome. Innovations can be big or small as long as it is towards improvement.
This should be a philosophy that is true throughout the organization. Though the focus is on a large scale of enhancement, it should not only center on big ideas but also on the minimal concepts because they can sometimes minor details can also lead to major improvements.
Leveled Production
Lean manufacturing is leveled production. The level of every day workload is the basis of this principle. Manufacturing companies wait for what their customers order before manufacturing products. This result to increased distribution time and sometimes dissatisfy customers’ needs.
Some companies produce products based strictly on forecast. There might be excess products not needed by customers. Leveled production lays account on both forecast and history. Pull system utilization is one key factor because it shows the demand.
Respect for Humanity
This lean manufacturing principle is all about human resource—manpower. Companies need people to work for them and so they are also obliged to give fair and good treatment to workers. Respect must always be present. Problems in lean implementation may arise if there is no coherent relationship and communication among personnel. They must feel worthy of the job and be contributors on the achievement of company goals as well.
Time-Efficient Production
Produce what is necessary, when it is needed and the quantity needed. Working with leveled production, this works well a pull system. It permits movement and production of parts only when needed.
Built-in Quality
Quality is built during the manufacturing process—from the design up to the packaging of the product. Making sure that every part is best in quality and free from defects.

— Slimane Zouggari

Lean IT: What You Wish You Know about It

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More and more businesses are now engage in advance technology. The development in information technology is one aspect when it comes to bringing advancement to services of the businesses.
The Lean IT seeks for the growth and manages its services that extend in the aspect of IT. It has a great help to the development of IT (information Technology). Lean is an important aspect in organizing the Lean IT. It is an aspect that should be regarded in order to have a successful business as well as to satisfy the needs of the clients. It should be lean or inclined to the business for it to function orderly.
Because of this service, manufacturing of the businesses become more convenient. The quality of service that the customer wanted is now being emphasized. Manufacturing that is beneficial for both. Today more businesses are implementing this kind of manufacturing through the use of this service. They are now engage with this kind of manufacturing. It is an effective means to the businesses to use this kind of service especially in today’s modern world. In today’s way of living that almost everybody is engage in technology, people wanted their work to be easier and faster. And by means of this service they are being updated.
The development of this service can be explained by the following concepts:
1. Remove unnecessary waste or scrap
The elimination of the scrap or waste can be the means for the success of the business. To eliminate waste or the scraps one should recognize to be an organized in the process. It should start in organizing the process for you to come up with a good and right outcome. It should have a proper implementation and business should have the recognition that is needed for the business to work. Be well managed and have a careful way of implementing the process. There should have the careful analysis in the process. Customers want an easy and fast process. Business should deal with it. The quality of service and immediate action to the problem should be remembered.
2. Unfinished work
It is not proper to have unfinished business or work. When it happened there are times that you will commit mistakes. Work should be one at a time. You cannot focus if you shift to another process even you are not finished the first.
3. Time consuming
Costumers want an easy and faster transaction. Avoid a process that is time consuming as it will cause costumers irritation that can affect the performance of the business.
4. Disfigurement
Costumers wanted a good quality service. There should have the proper way to avoid the defects or disfigurement of the service.
With this advance technology the process become more agile. In a way that businesses are able to process the orders or even the payment of the customers in easy and faster way. Businesses are now agile in responding to the customers’ needs. The lean IT has an important part in today’s transaction. It became more convenient for parties, businesses and customers.

— Slimane Zouggari

Eliminating Mura Waste from Business Processes

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The word mura stands for “lack of uniformity” and “unevenness”. This Japanese expression is one of the three terms collectively describing different forms of waste that occur in production: muda, mura, and muri.
Mura type of wastefulness can be seen in many business sectors. Being able to identify it and using certain methods to correct it can lead to saving a lot of revenue and company’s effort.

How Mura is Leads To Waste

Mura is not as widely cited as muda type of waste, but it is just as important to address within your business operations. However, it is quite different, and it is important to understand how the two relate.

Most people recognize muda easily and fast, but mura, or unevenness actually often gets overlooked. An expression of this type of waste is companies trying to sell out on their stock and therefore offering promotions that lead to a large amount of sales coming in during a short period of time, leaving the company extremely low in inventory. This technique is a part of muda practice, which suggests that excess inventory is wasteful.

As a consequence, the factories are prompted to manufacture massive amounts of new stock, which often leads to over-production. This results in clear unevenness of sales numbers, as well as too much fluctuation in inventory. Lack of stability is also wasteful as the decisions are being made from the reactive point of view and lack careful planning. Furthermore, this facilitates worsened work conditions, over-time, and that can be a patch to more waste: defects, over-processing, waiting.

Such lack of stability is deemed wasteful as it isn’t based on clients needs. Therefore, according to these waste principles of it isn’t adding value, and it corrupts the processes.

Lean Technique to Avoid Waste

These days agile and lean methodologies are the most popular practices to eliminate waste. These techniques are actually based on the same principles defined by muda,mura, and muri system. Lean manufacturing takes into account all three forms of waste and provides a model of the three method united into a system. Its key idea is focusing on that which adds value, and then reducing all other practices.

Agile Methodology

Agile traditionally refers to software development. It is based on a group of key principles which promote planning, active involvement of users, early delivery of products, testing, and frequent reviewing of achievements and methods. A lot of agile development strategies can help eliminate waste and focus on product quality and evenness of the system. Adapting the main agile principles in different business sectors can be a useful tool to reduce a number of wasteful operations.

There are many variables that determine how successful your business becomes. Mura and other types of waste can harm the workflow and negatively affect productiveness. Being aware of these harmful components gives the better understanding of how to structure the operations side of your business. Becoming a lean practitioner and working on reducing mura is a sure way to minimize unnecessary expenditures and promote a healthy business growth.

–Slimane Zouggari