The Tale of the Speckled Pony Slaughter
November 11, 2009 at 3:50 pm | Posted in Business Improvement Fairy Tale Series | Leave a commentTags: A-Takt It!, Lean Thinking
Once upon a time there was a king who had a factory that made horse saddles. For every different kind of horse, they made a different size saddle. One day a landowner who owned all Speckled Ponies ordered 50 new Speckled Pony saddles. The king was happy and began to make the saddles.
First, his leather cutter cut the leather. Then the leather was piled up high and waited for the seamstress to stitch the leather. But the seamstress was still sewing shoes for another landowner. The cut leather sat for days and days.
Meanwhile, the enemy came into the land and slaughtered all of the Speckled Ponies. The landowner no longer wanted saddles for ponies, now he wanted saddles for his new Morgan horses. Now, the king looked at the leather that had been cut and piled for the speckled pony saddles. It was too small to make Morgan saddles. The king realized that all of that leather and work had been wasted. If it hadn’t taken so long to make the saddles the landowner would have already received and paid for the saddles.
The angry king declared, “We need to reduce throughput time in our factory!”.
MCN’s A-TAKT IT! is a systems approach to reducing manufacturing throughput time. This allows for greater build flexibility, lower material costs, and less waste due to order changes and cancellation.
The king changed the factory so that each piece of leather was cut only when the seamstress was ready to stitch the leather. The saddles were completed and delivered within days of being ordered and there was no more waste.
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