Page 325 - How To Implement Lean Manufacturing

CHAPTER 20

A House of Lean

igure 20-1 shows a “House of Lean,” which was developed for use with a specific
client based on their individual needs. This is a good tool that gives a graphic
Fdescription of your Lean initiative to all employees. It is a way to capture the
entire program in a pictorial format. I have found that it often makes the overall effort
more easily visualized and hence understood. Most of the techniques listed are com-
mon but some unique items are listed, too. For example, Process Simplification was a
key component for this company. They needed to make process changes to eliminate
unneeded steps and also to change some processes that had poor availability due to
using outdated technology. These items needed to be taken care of first, or they would
have created unnecessary future work. Your sensei should be able to identify these
issues and help you with the order of activities.
The House of Lean is a metaphor that is designed to show how the various topics
discussed in Lean manufacturing fit together and interact. As with all metaphors, they
have limits. Nevertheless, it is a good tool to use in teaching:

• Objectives
• Strategy, tactics, and skills
• Foundational elements

Which ones comprise your Lean manufacturing system?
When we discuss strategies, we speak at the conceptual level, tactics are normally
small group activities that are required to achieve the strategies, while skills are the
individual behaviors that must be executed to accomplish the tactics.
For example, it is clear from Ohno’s writings that the two key strategies of the
Toyota Production System are just in time (JIT) and jidoka. One of the tactics of JIT is
kanban. To execute kanban, we need a variety of skills, such as the skill of making the
kanban, sizing the kanban volumes, planning the circulation of the kanban, and so on.
My advice is to thoroughly evaluate your needs and create your own House of Lean
to explain them.

299