Page 61 - Lean six sigma demystified

40 Lean Six Sigma DemystifieD

Economies of Speed

There is always a best way of doing anything.
—Emerson

One of the best ways to improve your process is to find and eliminate as much
of the delay as possible. Although the people are busy, the customer’s order is
idle up to 95% of the time—sitting in queue waiting for the next worker. Delays
occur in three main ways.
1. Delays between steps in a process
2. Delays caused by waste and rework
3. Delays caused by large batch sizes (The last item in the batch has to fin-
ish before the first item can go on to the next step.)

So the obvious answer is to eliminate delays by

• Eliminating delays between steps
• Working steps in parallel instead of sequentially
• Using Six Sigma to reduce or eliminate the defects and variation that
cause waste and rework
• Reducing batch size (to one if possible) Toyota, for example, can produce
up to nine different models of car on the same production line simultane-
ously and customize each one produced.

Toyota Production System

Toyota invented Lean production according to Jeffrey Liker, author of The Toy-
ota Way. It’s also known as the Toyota Production System or TPS for short. And
it seems to work well.
Toyota’s annual profit in 2003 was larger than the earnings of GM, Chrysler,
and Ford combined. Toyota has a 2006 market capitalization of $181.3 billion
versus GM’s $15.7 billion and Ford’s $12.2 Billion. Toyota’s new cars take
12 months or less to design versus 2 to 3 years elsewhere. Toyota and Lexus lead
in defects per vehicle (25 per 100 cars versus 50+ per 100 in other companies)
(The Toyota Way, Jeffrey Liker).
In 2010, Toyota suffered from safety recalls. The chairperson even apolo-
gized in public. I didn’t hear AIG or any of the big banks apologize for creating