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How To Improve Productivity At The Office

8/20/2019

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improve productivity
No matter how well you organize your business, sometimes you just aren't productive. It seems that the day doesn't have enough hours to complete everything you need to do and you end up frustrated. Ultimately, this will start a decline spiral where you'll start to get anxious and nervous. So, instead of doing what you have to do you just keep thinking about what it is still missing.

So, how can you improve productivity at the office?
​

#1: Evaluate Your Office Chair:

evaluate your office chair
One of the reasons why so many people just can't be productive in the office is because they are not comfortable. As a desk worker, you want to ensure that you have all the comfort and support your body needs to work well. So, you should consider a new office chair or even a gaming chair. While you may find this second option a bit odd, the reality is that there are gaming chairs that are great in terms of support and comfort. So, you should definitely consider them.

#2: Take A Break:

Even when you are using a great gaming chair, this doesn't mean that you can keep working hour after hour without a break. Just think about when you were a kid and you had a recess. This was meant to help you learn better. So, by taking frequent breaks, when you come up you'll be more productive. Notice that you should make your breaks short.

Discover the best gaming chairs you can use at the office.

#3: Plan In Advance:

plan in advance
Before you actually get to work as soon as you arrive the office in the morning, you should dedicate about 15 minutes of your time to plan your day. Just make a list of the tasks that you need to complete and the order that you are going to follow. ​

#4: Listen To Music:

listen to music
The truth is that one of the things that may be affecting your productivity may be related to the noise around you. In case you share your office with other co-workers, you may feel the need to find a peaceful location just to do your job. While you probably don't have this option, you can consider listening to music while you work. Music tends to calm people down and some types of music can even help you improve your focus. Besides, when you are wearing headphones, you will be able to keep the noise out.

These are the top gaming chairs that you need to improve productivity.

#5: Don't Have Lunch At Your Desk:

When you have a tight deadline that you just can't miss, you may tend to have lunch on your desk. After all, you can keep working between a bite and another. However, this won't work out as you planned.
​
The reality is that it is better to actually leave your desk and have lunch in about 15 minutes then eating in your workplace. You will be able to stretch your body muscles and clear your mind a bit. ​
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Lean Manufacturing Tools - The Six Big Losses

2/24/2019

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One important tool of Lean Manufacturing is the Six Big Losses. While it is sometimes forgotten, you should make sure that you use it within your business.

The Six Big Losses were developed originally by Seiichi Nakajima back in 197. According to him, employees were responsible for all maintenance and they should carry it out divided into small groups.

Learn more about Lean Manufacturing.
Six-Big-Losses

Why Should You Use The Six Big Losses

​When you need a more detailed perspective on equipment loss, there is no better tool than the Six Big Losses. But let's take a closer look at each one of the Six Big Losses in more detail:

#1: Unplanned Stops: ​

Unplanned Stops occur when a piece of specific equipment should be up and running but, instead, it is stopped due to an unplanned event. Some examples include being blocked by downstream equipment, being starved by upstream equipment, lack of materials or operators, unplanned maintenance, tool failures, equipment breakdowns, among others. ​

​#2: Planned Stops:

Another one of the Six Big Losses is Planned Stops. These occur whenever the piece of equipment is stopped due to a planned event but it should be running. Some examples of Planned Stops include quality inspections, planned maintenance, cleaning, tooling adjustments, changeovers, among others. There are some businesses that also consider meetings and breaks as Planned Stops.

Discover more about the production line balancing.

#3: Small Stops: ​

Small Stops are stops that usually only take about a minute or two. They occur suddenly but the problem is solved by the operator. This type of stops is usually called chronic since they can occur within any day. Some examples include periodic quick cleaning, equipment design issues, blocked or misaligned sensors, incorrect settings, material jams, misfeeds, among others.

#4: Slow Cycles:

Six-Big-Losses-and-OEE
Whenever a piece of equipment runs slower than the Ideal Cycle Time, we can say that Slow Cycles are occurring. Some examples include shutdown, startup, operator inexperience, poor environmental conditions, substandard materials, poor lubrication. worn out or dirty equipment, among others.

Learn everything you need to know about the Jidoka.

#5: Production Rejects:

Simply put, Production Rejects are the defective parts that are produced during steady-state production. Some examples include lot expiration, equipment or operator handling errors, incorrect equipment settings, among others. ​

#6: Startup Rejects:

Startup Rejects include the defective parts that are produced since the startup and up to stable production. While they are more commonly tracked after changeovers, Startup Rejects can occur after any equipment startup. Some examples include equipment that inherently creates waste after startup, equipment that needs warm-up cycles, suboptimal changeovers, among others. ​

The Main Six Big Losses Benefits

Six-Big-Losses-performance
The Six Big Losses has benefits both in terms of the short-term as in terms of the long-term. In what concerns the short-term, the Six Big Losses provide additional information to the OEE. In what relates to the long-term benefits, you can expect it to help you identify effective countermeasures for equipment-based losses through improved actions. ​

Using The Six Big Losses Within Your Business

As you can imagine, when you implement the Six Big Losses within your business, you will have some roles assigned to different members of your team:

- Operator: Is the one who should collect the reason codes on the equipment during Planned and Unplanned Stops. He should also be able to suggest improvements based on what he sees.

- Supervisor: His main role will be to validate Ideal Cycle Times. He will need to review all the losses at the beginning of each shift to identify and assign improvement actions.

- Manager: He is the one who defines how data should be collected as well as he also defines the standards for the Ideal Cycle Times. The manager will also be the one responsible for identifying strategic improvement initiatives, setting and tracking improvement targets, defining and maintaining reason codes, and auditing for sustainability. ​
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PDCA Cycle - What Is It And How To Use It

2/24/2019

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In case you are looking for the different lean methods that you can use within your business, you should consider the PDCA cycle. ​

But what exactly is the PDCA cycle?

PDCA-Cycle
imply put, the PDCA cycle refers to Play - Do - Check - Act cycle and it is a model that you can use when you need to make a change within your business. When you are looking for constant improvements in management, manufacturing, among others, then you should consider using the PDCA cycle.

Discover everything you need to know about Six Sigma.
​

We can definitely say that the PDCA cycle is an interactive approach when you want to continually improve services, people, and products, and is an integral part of the Lean management.

Within the PDCA cycle, you will need to test, analyze results, and finally improve the process.

Let's say that your customers are always complaining about your support team is slow. Now that you know that you have a problem, you will need to improve your team so they can be faster in customer support.

The PDCA Cycle In Detail

As we already mentioned above, the PDCA cycle refers to Play - Do - Check - Act. This means that the PDCA cycle includes 4 different stages. Let's take a closer look at each one of these stages:

#1: Plan:

PDCA-Cycle-diagram
When you suddenly discover there is a problem within any area of your business, the first thing that you need to do is to plan what you need to do.

Depending on the problem, you may need the help and support of your team to ensure that you detail each step of the plan to prevent any failures.

During this stage, you need to make sure that you are able to answer to the following questions:

-  What exactly is the problem that you need to solve?
- What resources will you need?
- What resources do you already have?
- Taking into consideration the resources that you have available, what is the best solution for the problem that you have in hands?
- What are the goals that can be considered the plan to be a success?

Learn the key steps to make your business agile.

#2: Do:

Now that you already defined the entire plan that allows you to solve the problem, it is time to take action. During this stage, you will be using all the information gathered during the previous stage.

One of the things that you need to keep in mind is that there is a chance for unexpected problems to occur. In addition, you need to make sure that everyone in your team knows exactly what they needed to do as well as their responsibilities.

#3: Check:

PDCA-Cycle-in-detail
Considered by many as the most important stage of the PDCA cycle, the Check stage is when you clarify the plan and ensure that you avoid all recurring mistakes. In addition, this is also the stage where you apply continuous improvement successfully.

This is the stage where you look at your plan and how things went and you evaluate if the plan actually worked or not as well as if it was well executed. In addition, you should also ask your team to identify any part or parts of the plan that was more problematic so that you can eliminate them next time.

In case there was any kind of problem executing the plan, you need to make sure that you find the root cause.

//www.sixsigmatrainingfree.com/six-sigma-blog/gemba-gembutsu-genjitsu

#4: Act:

This is the last stage of the PDCA cycle and this is where you can finally act.

In case everything worked out fine and your team was able to get to the defined goals, then you can process and apply your initial plan.
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Key Steps To Make Your Organization Agile

2/9/2019

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As an entrepreneur or a business owner, you already know that having an efficient business model is crucial. It's not really important if it is a formal one or not, but having one is extremely important.
​

However, it's not just a matter of thinking about making your business more efficient. It's a matter of acting or keep on acting, to be more accurate. After all, making your business more efficient involves changes. And while some changes can be made quickly, others may need a lot of time. However, the results are well worth the effort. ​
​
Key-Steps-To-Make-Your-Organization-Agile
Strange enough, not all organizations are already making the necessary changes. According to the Achieving Greater Agility report from KPMG and the Project Management Institute, only 27% of business leaders considered that their organization was highly agile. Nevertheless, more than 90% of these same business leaders, agreed to say that agility is crucial to business success.

Agility - Where Should You Begin?

The truth is that agility should involve the entire organization. However, it needs to start in one place only and it doesn't need to be at the top. Sometimes, it is better to start is the upper management or even in the middle management.
​​
agile-benefits
Then, the agility should then expand to the rest of the organization. The executives should make their stand as well as employees should have some training in Agile, Lean, and Six Sigma.
​​

Without the involvement of everyone within the organization, there is no way agility can be a success. So, there is the need to emphasize some important issues such as making better products for customers, cutting waste, and improve the speed to get the products on the market. ​

Agility - The Steps For Transformation

The reality is that every organization is different. So, the process of introducing agility into your organization will probably be different from a fellow entrepreneur that you know. Nevertheless, there are some approaches that have been getting a lot of success. So, we believe that it is worth to mention them:
​

benefits-of-agile-long-term-planning
  • A formal transformation plan should be created. In most successful cases, this has been done by the Project Management Office who reports directly to the chief executive officer.
  • Make an investment in coaching and training people. This will help them transition to their new roles easily and more efficiently.
  • The change should be made across the entire organization at the same time. However, it is important to notice that you should divide the changes into smaller pieces. This will be easier for everyone to get used to these changes.
  • You should try to implement the changes in waves and don't try to do it all at once. This way, you will be able to coordinate the support, technology, and management that you specifically need for each wave.
  • Agility is a continuous change. Therefore, it is important to keep monitoring changes as well as to make adjustments when they are required.
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7 Reasons to Get a Six Sigma Certification

2/9/2019

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As you probably already know, Six Sigma can help you improve your analytical skills. So, you can be sure that a Six Sigma certification will look very well in your CV.

But what exactly is Six Sigma certification?

Six-Sigma-certification
​Simply put, Six Sigma is a set of techniques and tools that help improve processes within organizations. So, the main goal of Six Sigma certification is to validate you as someone who has the knowledge and skills to identify defects or errors in a business process as well as to eliminate them.

In case you don't know, there are different skill levels of Six Sigma certification: Yellow Belt, Green Belt, Black Belt, and Master Black Belt.

In case you're still in doubt about if you should get your Six Sigma certification, here are the main 7 reasons why you should:

#1: Eliminate Errors Within Your Organization:

When you have a Six Sigma certification, you become crucial for the organization. After all, you're going to be able to identify and eliminate errors that are many times repeated over time. Ultimately, this will increase the revenue of the organization and improve customer satisfaction.

#2: Improve Processes & Maintain Quality Improvement:

As soon as you get your Six Sigma certification, you will be able to easily look at the organization business and manufacturing processes and you should be able to measure, analyze, control, and improve them. In addition, you will also have the ability and the knowledge to perform a complete review of the organization practices and see where quality can be improved.

#3: Applicable To All Industries:

different-Six-Sigma-certification-belts
Even though most entrepreneurs know a bit about Six Sigma, most of them still believe that Six Sigma certification is more important in manufacturing, for example. However, and time has proved this over and over again, all industries can benefit from the Six Sigma methodology. Some of the industries that we can mention include marketing, Human Resources, IT. electronics, banking and financial services, and telecom.

#4: Ensure Compliance:

When you have a Six Sigma certification, this means that process and manufacturing errors are reduced to a minimum. So, you can see this as the result that everyone inside the organization is applying Six Sigma standards. So, you are actually helping your organization comply with the international standards as well as you can maintain profitable contracts.

#5: Improve Your Managerial And Leadership Ability And Skills:

As part of your Six Sigma training during the certification process, you will also learn more about how to become a good leader. You will learn different techniques that allow you to increase revenue, cut costs, and even the different ways that you have to improve the efficiency of the business process. ​

#6: Great Salary:

Six-Sigma-certification-cost-benefit
According to a recent survey, the salary for Six Sigma certified individuals tends to be one of the highest globally. You can expect to earn more than $100,000.

#7: Practical Certification:

One of the best things about Six Sigma certification is that besides all the theories and things that you need to learn, it also includes a substantially large practical part. So, during the Six Sigma certification, you will be able to gain experience with real-life scenarios.
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Best 5 Free Online Courses With Certificate Of Completion [2018]

8/28/2018

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Best 5 Free Online Courses With Certificate Of Completion

When you want to get more qualifications and increase your skills, you can find many good online courses that can help you. However, you need to think carefully about your future before choosing the first one that appeared in the search results. ​
Career skills to jumpstart your future.
Despite you may have enrolled and completed many different courses that give you a wide range of skills, and despite you can still mention them on your resume, this might not be enough. After all, we live in a world where competition is the king. So, you need not only to find the best online courses for you as you need to get the proper certificate of completion. If you put yourself in the shoes of your employer, you would also like to see this kind of certificate ideally paired with a solid college GPA.. He's not taking you the credit to take some of your free time to improve your skills. But if he has the option to choose between someone who took some online courses and someone who took free online courses with certificate of completion, he will choose the second option. There's no question about it. 
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So, if you want to make the most out of the time you'll spend taking a free online course, you better search for one free online course with certificate. 
​Here are the best 5 free online courses with certificate of completion:

#1: Udemy

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Udemy is a well-known website where you can find video courses on the most diversified subjects. The courses are taught by experts in each field and you'll be able to watch the video lectures, do some quiz tests or polls, depending on the course that you choose. Some also have homework or assessments that you need to do. 

Udemy allows you to buy a course but they also have free online courses with certificates. Despite not all the courses provide you with a certificate, most do. So, when you're choosing an online course from Udemy, make sure to check the details to see if you chose one that allows you to get a certificate of completion at the end.
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#2: Coursera

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Coursera is an amazing website where you can take courses at some prestigious universities like the Stanford University, for example. They cover many different topics so you can be sure that you'll find what you're looking for here. 

Most courses only require that you have a computer and access to the Internet so that you can take the course as well as to make any upload of an assessment that you might need to. By searching their free online courses, you'll see that most of them are usually video lessons with quizzes and a final assessment. 

Although not all free courses provide you with a certificate of completion, many do. And the best thing is that they're free.

#3: OHSC - Oxford Home Study College

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At the Oxford Home Study College or OHSC for short, you can find many different courses that you might like. Their courses cover a wide range of topics and despite they're not all free, you have pretty good odds of find one that will suit your needs. 

When you're looking to get a free online course with certificate of completion, the OHSC is definitely one website to check. Their high-quality courses and materials that they put at your disposal are very good. In the end of the course, you'll notice how much your skills improved in such a short period of time.

#4: Saylor

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Working since 2008, Saylor's Academy is a non-profit organization with the goal to provide free courses to anyone who wants to learn. They have more than 100 different courses on the most varied subjects that you can take at your own pace, on your own schedule. 

Their materials are a little different because they're curated from a huge number of online and free sources. So, you can expect the courses to be high-quality and that you'll learn everything you need. And the best of all is that they will give you a certificate of completion as you finish the course. ​
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#5: Six Sigma Certification

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There's no doubt that Six Sigma is becoming more and more popular every day. The fact that it allows your company to optimize its processes and improve both effectiveness and efficiency, removing all the waste, it's one methodology that attracts many business owners. However, and despite a lot has already been said about Six Sigma, the information is spread all over the Internet. If you want to access, for free, at a complete training program about Six Sigma that will also help you prepare for the different certification exams you might be considering, you should check here. 

Besides learning a lot more about the Six Sigma, you'll also have the chance to get Six Sigma certification at the end of the training program.
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As you can see, you have plenty of options when you're looking for the best free online courses with certificates. Taking an online course has multiple advantages, both personally as well as professionally. You can either take the course about some subject that particularly interests you or you can take one that will help you get a promotion in the new future, allow you to search for a better job than the one you currently have, it may help you if you're having problems finding your first job, or even if you needed to be out of the job world for some time, an online course may be just what you need to turn the skills you already have fresher in your memory as well as to learn new ones.

Coursera
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Gemba, Gembutsu, Genjitsu - The 3 G Of Kaizen

8/10/2018

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Gemba, Gembutsu, Genjitsu - The 3 G Of Kaizen

Kaizen is a very used strategy that is mainly focused on continuous improvement. Kaizen tends to be very used by many different businesses especially in manufacturing and warehouse facilities. The main goal of the Kaizen methodology is to improve efficiency and eliminate waste.

Check out the ultimate Six Sigma guide you need.

gemba gembutsu genjitsu
One of the things that you need to know about this broad methodology is that it can be applied under many different strategies. One of these strategies and probably one of the most well-known is the 3 G Principles - Gemba, Gembutsu, Genjitsu.
The main goal of the Gemba, Gembutsu, Genjitsu is to work together to allow decision makers or managers to go directly to where the products are and where they are produced and see them with their own eyes. When this principle is followed correctly, decision makers and managers will have a better perspective and information that will allow them to make better decisions.
​
Read more about Kaizen and Kaizen Blitz.

So, what exactly are Gemba, Gembutsu, Genjitsu?

#1: Gemba – The Shop Floor

kaizen-3G-principles
Gemba is the first one of the 3 G principles and it is usually described as where the action occurs or the shop floor.

In case you already heard about Gemba, you probably already heard about the Gemba Walk. What the Gemba Walk means is simply to have the managers, leaders, or decision makers go to the shop floor where the real work is done. So, instead of managers and leaders to stay in their offices and get the information only from workers, they should take the time and see how things are done on the shop floor.
​
Should you get Six Sigma certification? 

#2: Gembutsu – The Actual Product

manager-at-shop-floor
While looking at the overall manufacturing process is important, it is also important to look at the actual product. And this is called the Gembutsu.

The truth is that one of the main concerns of managers and leaders needs to be the quality of the products they sell. So, they need to make sure that they review the finished products to be certain that they have the quality required by customers. However, the Gembutsu goes a bit further. After all,  managers and leaders need to check the product at their different stages. This will allow them to notice if there is any quality issue with the product. This will also be extremely helpful to determine where there might be a flaw within the process in a quick way.

One of the major benefits of using Gembutsu is that it allows managers and leaders to see where the real value of the product is created and, this way, they will be able to determine where they can save time and money.

#3: Genjitsu – The Facts

take-business-to-a-different-level
The last principle of the # G f Kaizen is Genjitsu. This is the time where managers and leaders analyze the facts, what they see on the production process.
​
One of the things that you need to know about the Genjitsu is that it isn't meant to point fingers or blame someone for anything. This is simply the step required to get more information that can help managers and leaders make the necessary changes to eliminate waste when possible as well as to avoid problems.   ​

How much can you expect if you are a Six Sigma black belt?

Gemba, Gembutsu, Genjitsu - The 3 G Principles

When working together, the Gemba, Gembutsu, Genjitsu are a powerful and important tool when you are looking to improve your business. After all, by using Gemba, Gembutsu, Genjitsu, managers and leaders will be able to be on top of what is happening, and more importantly, they will see exactly what is happening with their own eyes.

In case you want to start applying the Gemba, Gembutsu, Genjitsu, the truth is that all it takes s for managers and leaders to get out of their offices and go to where the real work is done. By observing everything, they will be able to gather a lot of precious information and data that will serve them to make better decisions to eliminate waste as well as to improve efficiency. ​
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Yamazumi Chart Explained

8/10/2018

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Yamazumi Chart Explained

When you know that a company or organization is applying the Line Balancing system, you can be sure that they are using the Yamazumi chart.

But what exactly is the Yamazumi chart and how does it help?

Discover more about Lean Six Sigma.
yamazumi-chart
Simply put, the Yamazumi chart is a diagram that allows you to immediately know when supply and demand are unbalanced. This way, organizations or companies have the ability to immediately rebalance the project to ensure that efficiency is always kept. Ultimately, the use of a Yamazumi chart is able to deliver immediate results for both the company as well as for the customer. ​
Yamazumi is a Japanese word that means to stack up and can b quite helpful to know when you should begin a Kaizen event. In addition, one of the things that you need to know is that each process task is represented in a stacked bar chart.
​
Everything you need to know about the statistical process control charts. ​

A Yamazumi chart usually includes different categories: value added, not value added, and waste. The duration of each task is also annotated and displayed in the same bar chart. What makes the Yamazumi chart a different visual tool is the fact that each task within the process is stacked up so that you can have a better perspective of the entire process.
yamazumi-chart-different-operations
As you can see in the previous Yamazumi chart, the x-axis represents each process step and the y-axis represents the cycle time.

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Most Yamazumi charts include the same first red bar named Takt Time. Others may simply include a dotted line representing the Takt Time. Simply put, the Takt Time is the limit of time that your processes should take. Ideally, you should never have any process with a bar higher than the takt time bar. After all, this would mean that you would be producing a lot of waste and that the process could be improved in terms of cost and efficiency.
yamazumi-chart-with-takt-time-above-process
However, as you can imagine, the takt time can change throughout the processes as well as throughout time. So, when you are analyzing a Yamazumi chart, you will be able to discover if any of the processes is the bottleneck as well as if there is any process that you can improve.

​Why Should Organizations Use The Yamazumi Chart?

yamazumi-data-using-a-pie-chart
Organizations and companies are always looking to improve their results by decreasing their costs and, at the same time, by increasing their revenues. And the Yamazumi chart can be a good way to help you achieve both goals. After all, this tool allows you to know the processes that can be improved in terms of waste elimination as well as in terms of efficiency.  As a result, the more efficient the company or organization, the faster it will be to create output, quality output, leaving customers happy.

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Overall we can say that a Yamazumi chart is a very helpful tool to help companies and organizations to rebalance their processes whenever there is a change in the takt time. After all, the Yamazumi chart provides a great visual indication of:

  • the operations that are overloaded (beyond the takt time)
  • the operations that are underutilized
  • the delays
  • the wastage
  • the blocks.
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Production Line Balancing And Its Benefits

8/10/2018

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Production Line Balancing And Its Benefits

Many organizations around the world use the production line balancing strategy. But what exactly is the production line balancing?

Simply put, the production line balancing is a strategy that allows making the production lines flexible enough to allow them to absorb both the internal irregularities as well as the external irregularities.

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production line balancing
When you are talking about production line balancing, it is important to notice that there are 2 different types of line balancing:

  • the static balance: The static balance refers to the long-term differences in capacity during a period that shouldn't be inferior to several hours. It is said to be a static imbalance when people, machines, or even workstations are underutilized.
  • the dynamic balance: The dynamic balance refers to the short-term differences in capacity during a period that shouldn't exceed hours. It is said to be a dynamic imbalance when product variations and mixes are done during the work time and that aren't related to the product mix.
Whenever there is an imbalance, no matter if it is a static or a dynamic imbalance, the workmen should be able to take care of the situation. They should be taught to react quickly to them so that the changes in the output aren't significative. ​

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When an organization or company adopts the production line balancing, you need to note that this strategy works under two different circumstances:

#1: Cycle Time Restriction:

accumulation-and-line-balancing
Each workstation has a maximum time in which the products spend. However, not all workstations have the same cycle time. ​

#2: Precedent Constraint: ​

production-line
When applying the production line balancing, a product just can't move to the following workstation if it didn't complete all the tasks that are necessary on the current workstation. After all, there are some activities or parts that need to be performed before the product moves on to the next workstation.

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So, what's the purpose of using or adopting the production line balancing?

Simply put, adopting the production line balancing has a lot of benefits for the organizations. These include:

  • Deciding on the number of workstations necessary to improve the final output
  • A more effective management of the workloads among assemblers
  • Decrease the production costs
  • Recognize and determine when there is a bottleneck
  • Deciding on the tasks assigned to each specific workstation so that the idle time is minimum.
worker-checking-the-machine
When you are adopting the production line balancing, it is important to notice that there needs to be a certain flexibility on the production line that should be linked to the individual capabilities and skills. So, whenever a worker is dealing with problems solving the issue that arose at his workstation and it is causing delays, another worker should intervene and help.

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In addition, workers should be trained to perform a manual checkup of all the machines they will be using each day before they start to work. This will prevent equipment failures during the work time.

Overall, the application of the production line balancing involves some science but it can also be considered an art. The reality is that labor flexibility is an asset for the management since workers will need and will know how to inspect all the machines every single day.
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Jidoka - Toyota Production System

8/10/2018

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Jidoka - Toyota Production System

The truth is that when we think about the Japanese people, we think about individuals who like to have everything in order and where nothing can be out of place. Maybe this is one of the reasons why Toyota Motor Corporation has always tried to improve their manufacturing process by adopting new methodologies.

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jidoka toyota
In case you don't know, Toyota has adopted a lean manufacturing system or a Just-In-Time system that allows the company to be more efficient. In fact, the model was such a success that it was studied all over the world. ​
Toyota has its entire company focused on "making the vehicles ordered by customers in the quickest and most efficient way, in order to deliver the vehicles as quickly as possible." With this in mind, the company is using the Jidoka Toyota, which can be simply translated as the automation via the human touch, in conjunction with the concept of Just-In-Time. With the implementation of the Jidoka Toyota, the company has its own way to operate. When a problem suddenly arises, the equipment will be immediately stopped. The main goal of this interruption is to ensure that the company doesn't produce any defective products. On the other hand, with the implementation of the Just-In-Time (JIT) methodology, Toyota uses one process for only what is needed by the following process. Overall, this is how the TPS Toyota works so that the company can produce high-quality vehicles quickly and efficiently, one at a time, that can make their customers completely happy.

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Here's a more in-depth look over the TPS Toyota and of the two components it includes:

#1: Jidoka:

tps toyota
The main principle behind Jidoka is that quality is key and needs to be present during the manufacturing process. After all, with Jidoka, you can easily visualize the problems that occur.

When a machine detects a problem and stops on its own preventing defective products to be produced, this problem will be immediately communicated via the Andom system.

One of the best things about the TPS Toyota is that since their vehicles are made one by one, the interruption of a process won't affect the next one. SO, workers can continue to do their jobs using another machine while they prevent what caused the machine to break or stop in the first place.

Discover more about the Andon System.

#2: Just-in-Time:

Just-In-Time
The main goal of the Just-in-Time methodology is to improve the overall productivity of an organization by making only "what is needed, when it is needed, and in the amount needed!"

So, according to the Just-in-Time principle, the goal is to produce high-quality products by eliminating unreasonable requirements, inconsistencies, and waste on the production line.

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Jidoka
With the combination of these two methodologies, the TPS Toyota seems to be one that performs well. It doesn't only produce quality products only as well as they also increase the productivity by eliminating all the waste in the production line. In addition, even when a problem occurs and a process needs to stop until the root causes are discovered and the solution found and implemented, this won't stop the next processes from continuing to work regularly. ​
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