What Are Lean Tools?
The Japanese word for waste is muda, which is defined as “uselessness.” Lean tools are
designed to reduce Muda in organizations and improve quality control. In other words, Lean
tools seek to eliminate processes that aren’t valuable.
Lean tools are utilized across many industries—from manufacturing to engineering to finance
— and organizations often leverage them together with Six Sigma methods. Though there are
some differences between the two frameworks, the underlying philosophies behind Lean and
Six Sigma complement each other exceptionally well: Lean tools are designed to eliminate
invaluable processes, while Six Sigma focuses on lessening variation within a process. When
used together, the two are referred to as Lean Six Sigma, a process that reduces and manages
different types of waste in organizations.
Though there are several different types of Lean tools, this article will focus on seven of
them, and how they can be applied.
Lean Tools Summary
Bottleneck Analysis Structured way of looking at workflows
Just-in-Time (JIT) On-demand system of production
Value Stream Mapping Analyzing and optimizing a process
Overall Equipment EffectivenessMeasure of productive time
(OEE)
Plan-Do-Check-Act (PDCA) Method to manage change
Error Proofing Analysis tool based on prevention
Root Cause Analysis (RCA) Method to get the foundation of an issue
Lean Tools and Their Applications
Bottleneck Analysis
How many times have your projects gotten stuck somewhere between development and
delivery? Bottleneck analysis is a structured way of looking at the processes and workflows
for developing a product or service. Bottleneck analysis is also used to address both present
and future issues, by identifying and addressing operational and process challenges.
Applications
Utilizing Lean practices to spot and rectify a bottleneck saves companies time, energy and
money. Depending on the type of bottleneck, there are several things you can do to address it.
For example, bottlenecks caused by inefficient processes can be fixed through streamlining
and improving those processes; if it is instead caused by a lack of resources, you may need to
hire more people or purchase technology to make your existing resources go further.
Just-in-Time (JIT)
Just-in-time manufacturing is an on-demand system that allows manufacturers to go into
production only after the customer has requested a product. This means that companies do
not have to stock up on unnecessary inventory, lowering the risk of some components or
products being overstocked or damaged while being stored.
Applications
Professionals who use Lean principles should consider JIT if their business is capable of
working on-demand and can minimize the risk of only carrying inventory as needed. JIT can
be an effective framework for managing inventory, but it can also make it more difficult to
meet customer demand if there is a breakdown in the supply chain.
As an example, the self-publishing sector often uses this model, only printing books as they
are ordered. Digital distribution for media products has also helped to minimize the costs
associated with excess materials.
Organizations in sectors like manufacturing should carefully evaluate their supply chains and
minimize the potential for disruption when implementing JIT. If a critical supplier has to
suspend operations, for example, it’s important to have a backup plan to ensure that the final
product can still be developed.
Value Stream Mapping
Value stream mapping is a technique developed from Lean manufacturing. Organizations use
it to create a visual guide of all the components necessary to deliver a product or service with
the goal of analyzing and optimizing the entire process.
Value stream mapping is used in a variety of industries, including manufacturing, finance and
healthcare. This principle takes all the people, processes, information and inventory
necessary, and displays them in a flow chart in order to get an overview of the business.
Applications
Value stream mapping can be applied to your organization by methods such as:
Encouraging continuous improvement in processes
Enabling culture change within an organization
Facilitating clear collaboration and communication
Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE)
Overall equipment effectiveness (or OEE) measures how much planned productive time is
actually productive. For example, imagine you’re planning to work on a project for an hour,
but then spending 20 minutes of that time answering a client call, meaning your OEE would
be about 67% (40 minutes of actual production time, divided by 60 minutes of planned
production time).
In terms of manufacturing, OEE takes into account the percentage of “good parts” produced
(“good parts” being the parts that meet the quality standards of that particular company). In
the example above, if your project has parts that are poorly constructed, those would not
count towards the “good parts” or overall OEE score.
Overall equipment effectiveness can be calculated by multiplying the following three factors:
Availability
Performance
Quality
These three factors are defined as follows:
Availability = Run Time Divided by Total Planned Production Time
Performance = (Ideal Cycle Time Multiplied by Total Count) Divided By Run Time
Quality = Good Count Divided by Total Count
Applications
Companies apply OEE in order to increase production effectiveness and perform effectively
and efficiently by establishing accurate baselines of performance—while still maintaining
quality standards. This efficiency saves companies money and time.
Plan-Do-Check-Act (PDCA)
Plan-Do-Check-Act is a scientific method used to manage change, and is also known as the
Deming Cycle. It was developed by Dr. W Edwards Deming in the 1950s. The PDCA cycle
involves four parts:
1. Plan – Recognize an opportunity or process that needs improvement.
2. Do – Create a small test.
3. Check – Analyze the results of the test.
4. Act – Move forward based on those results.
Applications
Lockheed Martin used PDCA to create a more efficient process in material management. One
of its award-winning achievements was its ability to reduce the time to move parts from the
receiving department to the stock department. Initially, this process took 30 days, but the
entire process was shortened to four hours.
Error Proofing
Error proofing—also known as poka-yoke—is a common process analysis tool that is based
on the idea of prevention. As stated by Business Map, a project management software
company, poka-yoke focuses on making sure that the right conditions exist before any
process is put in place. This step lessens the chance of defects and human error happening.
Applications
There are a few steps companies can take to successfully implement root cause analysis:
1. Recognize the issue you are trying to solve.
2. Learn details about how long the problem has been going on, and how it is specifically
affecting your process/business.
3. Collect data about the problem, and try to identify as many potential causes as possible.
4. Once you have data, decide what the source of the problem is.
5. Decide how to lessen the chances of the problem happening again.
