Lean QuickStart Guide_ The Simplified Beginner’s Guide to Lean - PDF Room

| 1 | Six Components of Lean
Philosophy
In This Chapter
The six components of Lean philosophy are explored in detail
The D.O.W.N.T.I.M.E. sources of waste are illustrated
The PDCA method and A3 problem solving approach are explored
While the concepts of waste reduction and continuous improvement exist in all
aspects of Lean, there are also six primary qualities that organizations should
embody to maintain a competitive, responsive, and flexible position within the
marketplace. In many cases, management gurus praise to no end the mindfulness
of these qualities as keys to a successful business in today’s marketplace
regardless of their implementation of Lean. Prior to the “leap to Lean,”
companies should already have a focus on these characteristics in one form or
another to establish a solid foundation on which to build the Lean culture. Before
the foundational pillars of Lean are addressed, let’s look at some basic
definitions to better understand the relationship between Lean and value.
At its core, the Lean manufacturing system strives to differentiate between
value-added and non-value-added activities. All manufacturing activities incur
cost; value-added activities incur cost that can be passed on to the customer.
These activities are necessary to produce goods to the customer’s specifications,
though only these activities will generate results that the customer will pay for.
Any other activities are considered non-value-added, and are classified as
waste. Waste events are activities that incur cost, but that do not generate more
value, utility, or satisfaction for the customer. A well-known culprit of waste (by
any definition) is defective production. When a part is generated with a defect,
the customer will not pay for that unit. The manufacturer can’t insist that the
customer pay just because the manufacturer incurred cost in generating the part;
there is no value, and the part must be considered a loss.
A less obvious source of waste is carried inventory. There is no value
provided to a customer merely because a warehouse has kept units on the