Lean Manufacturing: How To Put Its
7 Principles To Work (Part 5)
By Bob Williamson, CMRP
CPMM, MIAM, Editor
This is the ninth in my ongoing series of columns with the following theme: “If there were ever a time to get serious about lean manufacturing, it’s now. The vision of doing more with less of everything may very well be the new reality in
our upside-down, post-pandemic world.”
In my June 6, 2022, column, (see link below), I recommended a goal that RAM Pros can readily grasp: “Lean Equipment Management (LEM) for the most critical, most penalizing equipment-driven processes.” As I've stressed many times, that begins with a business focus.
(Click Here To Read Bob's June 6, 2022
Column.)
FOCUSED IMPROVEMENT
In this multi-part series on Lean Manufacturing and Lean Equipment Management, I’ve repeatedly emphasized that what we’re talking about is a “Focused
Improvement Strategy,” not a Lean program or lean toolbox to use in hopes of improving performance. This week, let’s focus on the work culture.
RULES FOR A PLANT-FLOOR CULTURE
Last week’s installment included examples of the Seven LEM principles. Principle #7, “Building a Lean Equipment Management culture” deserves more discussion. In the process, I’ll reflect on one of the most enduring
examples of a “Lean Manufacturing Culture” model: The Toyota Production System.
During the heyday of lean in America, Steven Spear and H. Kent Bowen authored a research report that received considerable attention: “Decoding the DNA of the Toyota Production System” (TPS) (Harvard Business Review,September – October 1999). I believe their
discoveries are as valid today as they were in the 1990s.
Bowen and Spears, having spent years delving into what makes the TPS work, came up with four specific plant-floor observations they referred to as “Rules in Use.” Briefly, these are:
Rule 1: How people work. All work shall be highly specified as to content, sequence, timing, and outcome.
Rule 2: How people connect. Every customer-supplier connection must be direct, and there must be an unambiguous yes-or-no way to send requests and receive responses.
Rule 3: How the production line is constructed. The pathway for every product and service must be simple and direct.
Rule 4: How to improve. Any improvement must be made in accordance with the scientific method, under the guidance of a teacher, at the lowest possible organizational level.
RULES FOR A PLANT-FLOOR LEM CULTURE
Here’s my interpretation of these four rules underpinning a Lean Equipment Management work culture.
Rule 1: Detailed work instructions guide every critical-to-reliability task: Preventive maintenance, lubrication, operator care, setup/changeover, spare marts management,
etc.
Rule 2: Use of a maintenance work request/work order system with plant-floor terminals for plant-floor employee work entry, scheduling, progress, and completion. Problems are physically identified (tagged)
ON the equipment.
Rule 3: Routine equipment care and maintenance parts, fluids, lubricants, special tools, documentation, etc. are inventoried, mission ready, and stored near each critical
machine.
Rule 4: Any equipment-related improvement is made using a document scientific process (see Rule 1) involving equipment operators, maintainers, and other stakeholders with knowledge and skills relating to
the improvement opportunity.
Years of experience in hundreds of plants and facilities has convinced me that these “Rules in Use” work for improving (and sustaining) equipment performance and reliability. The “7 Principles of LEM" and the four “Rules in Use” of the Toyota Production System make
for a powerful RAM methodology.
(Click Here To Read This And All Previous Columns In This Series
On The RAM Review Website.)
