Production System

Having no standardization work process means no quality. Everyone will do this task differently. Tracking the source of errors is difficult without the work standard. When a leader perform gemba walk on shop floor to observe the situation, there is no benefit from the walk when there is no standard. In the classic old way of management, companies were and (many are still) following the Taylor’s principle, Taylor said that industrial engineers should be the only ones who initiate, create, modify, adapt and improve the process. And workers should follow what the industrial engineers are ...

Yet many companies focus on the mechanisms of implementation--one-piece flow, pull production, takt time, standard work, kanban--without linking those mechanisms back to the pillars that hold up the entire system. JIT is fairly well understood, but jidoka is key to making the entire system stick. A lot of failed implementations can be traced back to not building this second pillar. Jidoka is one of the main pillars of the TPS. The TPS is presented as a house with two pillars. One pillar represents just-in-time (JIT), and the other pillar the concept of Jidoka. Take away any of the pillars ...

Heijunka (Japanese for "production smoothing or leveling"): It is a technique used to smooth out production in all departments as well as that of the supplier over time in order to facilitate Just-In-Time (JIT) production. It means production leveling (finding and maintaining average production volumes). The fundamental goal of using the Heijunka technique is to supply goods at a steady rate so that upstream and downstream operations can likewise run at a steady and predictable rate, hence lowering the inventory. The heijunka technique works by leveling both the production volume and the ...

How to avoid feedback and other surprises when setting up PA systems. This easy to read guide is aimed at small groups using PA systems for podium and stage microphone, like churches and self-help groups, and makes concepts clear. Topics include how to avoid feedback by understanding what it is, with details covering speaker placement, microphones, mixing boards, and active and passive speakers.