Page 352 - The Handbook for Quality Management a Complete Guide to Operational Excellence

338 C o n t i n u o u s I m p r o v e m e n t I m p r o v e / D e s i g n S t a g e 339

location, or adjustment (as discussed in the Analyze stage, Chap. 15) will
provide valuable input to the Improve stage activities. Prerequisites for
level loading to be completely successful include:

• Standardization of work instructions, and cross­training, so employees
can be shifted to meet increased demand or address process
problems. A key strategy for eliminating barriers and creating
continuous flow is through redesign of process flow into product
work cells. In product work cells, all functions work together in a
single close­knit cell, rather than in different departments. These
cells may be defined by product or by families of like products.
Product cells decrease the physical movement of the goods
(whether a physical product, paperwork, or even ideas). This not
only reduces the waste of waiting, it also allows the people
performing each of the tasks to have visibility of the tasks, and of
slowdowns, barriers, or inefficiencies that occur in the preceding or
following steps. Standardized work instructions, with process costs
and measurement indicators, are prominently posted. Status
indicators are used so all workers can readily see if slowdowns
occur. Work instructions are standardized so that fellow workers
can fill in for a worker who is absent on a given day. Poka yoke
(mistake proofing) is used to minimize errors.
• Transparency. Workers need to know about shifts in demand or
process problems as soon as possible. Create visibility of the work
in progress (WIP). When we see where it predominantly occurs,
we have identified bottlenecks in the process. By forcing the
elimination of this inventory, we can determine and resolve the
root causes of the inventory build­up.
Finally, WIP is reduced when we can convert from batch processes to
continuous flow of individual product or service units. “Start an item, fin­
ish an item” is the mantra. We will now look at some of the problems
associated with batches, and the reasons we process in batches, so we can
understand how to move away from this practice.
A four­step approach is recommended to reduce setup times
(George, 2002):
1. Classify each setup step as either internal or external. Internal steps are
those done while the process is inactive. External steps are done
while the process is operating.
2. Convert internal steps to external steps. We want to reduce the time
the process is non­operational, so we need to reduce the time
associated with the internal steps. The quickest way to do this is to
do as many of these steps as we can while the process is operational.

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