The High-Velocity Edge: How Market Leaders Leverage Operational Excellence to Beat the Competition by Steven Spear

Author:Steven Spear [Spear, Steven]
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Tags: Business & Economics, Training, Management
ISBN: 9780071741408
Google: UwunoP9tKyQC
Publisher: McGraw Hill Professional
Published: 2010-05-06T23:00:00+00:00

level of customer

design

before

design

after

demand

vs.

improvement

improvement

productive

capacity

2. Objectives of

improvement

activities:

productivity/total

cycle

time

3. Design guideline:

7. Comparison of expected 8. Newly secured

increase flexibility of

and actual results

technology and other

line to fluctuations in

major

changes

volume

9. Plans for the future +

4. Summary of

proposed

schedule

results:

capacity/

utilization

System promotion expert who, in his role as coach, was there to ensure that this system-level problem solving also developed leaderships capabilities) identified three symptoms that diminished performance: inability to respond to fluctuations in volume, volatility in cycle times, and inability to keep the production pace tuned to the rate of demand.

• Each symptom corresponds to some aspect of the ideal discussed in the start of this chapter. Inability to respond to fluctuations corresponds to inability to respond on demand and immediately. The lack of a pacing mechanism also compromised the system’s ability to produce on demand. Volatility caused workers and machines to block and starve each other, a source of waste.

A

210

C a p a b i l i t y 2 : P r o b l e m S o l v i n g a n d I m p r o v e m e n t

• For each symptom, the process redesigners identified at least one process feature as the root cause. For example, the diagram attributes the system’s inflexibility to each line’s size and specialization (a rise in the demand for small mattresses could not be absorbed by one of the other two lines).

This diagram states the group’s sense of cause and effect.

• Figure 7-3 shows where on the shop floor the root-cause feature is observable.

Figure 7-3 Section 5 of Aisin document (before-condition diagram) 1 Setting the line according to size

Cannot respond to

2 Spring maker and quilting are bottlenecks

changes in volume

3 Cannot assign more than 8 people to a line

Work process becomes uneven

4 Difficult to bring large pieces to line

Cannot determine pace

5 No pace maker

of work process

Quilting

Production

2

4

sequence

Springs

2

3

1

mediate

5

Large

processes

Inter

Packing Stitching

Back

office

Springs

Small

Stitching

Packing Stitching

Completed products

Springs

Medium

Packing Stitching

A

211

T h e H i g h - v e l o c i t y E d g e Figure 7-4 focuses on section 6 of Aisin’s problem-solving summary. Again, several points are worth noting:

• For each root cause in the before-condition diagram, there is a particular change (countermeasure) in the design and operation of an activity (items 2, 3, and 4), connection (items 4 and 5), or pathway (items 1 and 2).

• Each of the countermeasures is credited with relieving a specific symptom that was identified in the before-condition diagram.

• The way each countermeasure was enacted is explained.

Flexibility was achieved by altering the spring-forming process and separating spring-forming from assembly with a buffer, which prevented volatility in one activity from blocking or starving the other. Further flexibility was achieved by dividing work processes so that people could be added and subtracted easily.

In effect, this figure can be thought of in the following fashion:

We redesigned the production system by conduct-

ing the following experiment. When we studied the

system, we found three reasons to be disappointed

with its performance. We traced these three disap-

pointments to five root causes. Therefore, to

improve the system’s performance, we addressed

each of these five root causes:

• The countermeasure for cause 1 is redesign-

ing spring-forming.

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