Lean Value and Flow
Define customer value and improve the whole path from request to delivery.
Start with what the customer needs
Start with what the customer needs
Lean thinking improves how work creates value while reducing waste and respecting the people doing it. Value is judged from the customer's need: the right function and quality, in the needed quantity, at the needed time.
A busy machine is not proof of useful output. Making something early that nobody needs can increase storage and delay the work that is needed.
Separate value creation from necessary support and avoidable waste
Separate value creation from necessary support and avoidable waste
Value-added work changes the product or service toward the customer's requirement and is done correctly. Cutting a needed feature may add value; searching for a misplaced tool does not.
Some non-value-added work is currently necessary: required checks, safety measures and records protect customers and workers. Improve how that work is done; do not delete a safeguard because it does not physically change the product.
Process time is not automatically value-added time
Rework takes processing time but corrects a failure. Inspection does not itself create the desired feature. A necessary machine cycle can transform the product even while the operator waits. Name whose time and which activity you are classifying.
Follow the work across handoffs
Follow the work across handoffs
Improving one station can build a queue at the next. Look at the whole path with Value Stream Mapping. Use Eight Wastes: TIMWOODS to describe problems and Kaizen and Standard Work to test improvements with the people doing the work.
5S Workplace Organization supports visible, repeatable work. It is one supporting method, not the whole of lean.