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.
Are you a Learner or a Knower?
November 3, 2009 at 7:03 pm | Posted in Of Interest | Leave a commentTags: Lean Thinking
“In times of change the learners will inherit the earth, while the knowers will find themselves beautifully equipped to deal with a world that no longer exists.”
Eric Hoffer
Eric Hoffer was an author and philosopher. He died more than 25 years ago, but this quote is timely in this year that seems to have brought so much change to southeast Michigan.
I found this quote while trying to learn more about Real Lean Thinking on Mark Graban’s blog. I am particularly interested in learning more about applying lean thinking to the service industry.
What did you learn today?
The Tale of the Red Swords
October 29, 2009 at 10:31 pm | Posted in Business Improvement Fairy Tale Series | Leave a commentTags: flow systems, Lean Thinking, process improvement
Once upon a time there was a company that made swords in Michigan. They made very good swords and people from all over wanted their swords. But the company had one problem: they had one very large customer that ordered many, many red swords at one time. When this happened all the company could do was make those red swords, they couldn’t make any more blue or black swords. So, the company made blue and black swords and stored them so they would have them to sell while they made the red swords.
This created the waste of Overproduction. The company had to buy and store extra material and finished swords, and then they had to find them when they were needed.
When the king came to the factory and saw all of the blue and black swords stacked up around the factory he declared “There shall be no more overproduction in my factory!” .
By applying the Lean Manufacturing concepts for a Flow System and exploring the root cause it was determined that the customer didn’t need their red swords all at one time, but just placed their order like that for ease. The company’s problem with overproduction was solved without any additional investment, just a change in processes.
After that, the red swords were scheduled along with the current orders for blue and black swords and throughput at the sword factory went from 30 days to 5 days. And they all lived happily ever after.
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