Lean Methodology Archives

Three Critical Elements of Coaching

When we begin our Lean Journey, the stage is set during the initial workshops to establish our current state, create our…
Don’t Understand Japanese Lean Jargon? Don’t Worry!

Have you noticed how many Lean consultants and speakers love to spice their language with Japanese words. Words like “…
Improvement Ideas Scoring with a PICK Chart

There is nothing more exciting than gathering a group of people together to discuss improvement ideas, especially in a c…
Five Reasons You Spend Your Day Firefighting and Expediting Orders – and What to Do About It

Do you find that much of your day "firefighting" to expedite orders in a vain attempt to ensure your customers get what …
Why Lean Business Processes Fail – Does your “Gate” Have No “Fence”?

We have all read the books, we all know the theory – Lean business processes are GREAT! They cut waste, cut lead times…
Creating a Standard Lean Workstation: Low Volume – High Mix Industry

S & A Stairs craftsman work in a low volume, high mix industry. Designing a standard Lean workstation is the first steps…
Top 3 TXM Lean Minute Videos

Our TXM Lean Minute videos have attracted attention from around the globe and we love bringing them to you! They are a f…
Mastering Meaningful Metrics

“What gets measured, gets managed” is the adage by management expert Peter Drukker and you would be hard pressed to …
The Top Lean Tools for Maintenance

As we implemented and refined our Lean Enterprise Production System the stability of the processes becomes extremely imp…
Lean Implementation Planning

Once the Lean direction and vision is set, the commitment has been communicated across the company and the deployment po…
Conducting Audits to Sustain Lean

In the last two articles have discussed the importance of sustaining and implementing a Lean Production system has well …
Lean Manufacturing Goes Hand In Hand with Quality Improvement

How do we use Lean Manufacturing methods improve quality systems? Over the years, while introducing Lean programs into m…
Parts Quantity Analysis

If you are serious about your lean journey, you will need to jump into a Parts Quantity Analysis (PQA), also referred to…
Making My Workplace More Visual

Making our work flows and daily metrics visible is a key to implementing lean and getting our team involved. We want to …
When is “Future State”?

Lean boils down to where are we now? Where to we want to be? and How do we "close the gap"? While there are many tools t…
Implementing a lean project

All businesses are under pressure at the moment. We're trying to do more with less people and as a result have less time…
Advancing Office Productivity with 3 Lean Principles

The Lean principles are so often attached to the manufacturing of goods such as cars, white goods and furniture however …
Growing time for Lean

We hear time and time (and time and time) again that people "Can't find time" for lean, every day is too busy with custo…
Implementing Lean – When and How to Start?

A common question we are asked is when should a business start implementing lean and how should it get started. Many peo…
What Personality Type is Best Suited to Problem Solving

Most of us, at some point in recent memory will have been subjected to a personality test. Most likely it will be the My…
Reinvigorating Your Business

January is a funny month as we wind up work mode while the weather is still warming up outside and our thoughts are drif…
Learning to Define the “Problem”

To improve our problem solving skills we need to begin by clearly defining the "problem". Those involved in the problem …
Total Productive Maintenance is like Servicing the Company Car

Do you often face breakdowns on critical production machines? This condition leads to lengthy delays in production or ma…
TXM Lean Manufacturing Tip – Couple Manufacturing processes

Traditional improvement programs focus on optimising individual pieces of equipment. Anyone with a new machine will unde…
5S and a Visual Workplace – Essential for Sustaining Lean Manufacturing

Many lean experts are critical of 5S and think it is a superficial tool. However while, 5S and Visual Workplace are not …
Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE)

Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE) is a performance measure commonly used to monitor successful improvements to a pro…
Andons – The Bright Lights of Lean

Andon is a term referring to a system that provides notification to management, maintenance, and other workers of a qua…
Learning to use Manufacturing Visual Work Instructions

Visual Work instructions (VWIs) are a tool that transfer knowledge of standard work practises through the use of visual …
Creating a Culture of Continuous Improvement – Lessons from Elite Sport

Many companies that approach TXM tell us that they want to create a “culture of continuous improvement. Some people te…
Implementing a Robust Lean Problem Solving Process

A key transition step from "implementing" Lean to it becoming a way of life is how we build problem solving into everyth…
Point of use

What is Point of Use? Coming out of the many 5S techniques of Sort, Set in order, Shine, Standardise and Sustain, is a…
Using Fishbone Diagrams to Solve Problems

Fishbone diagrams may also be referred to as cause and effect diagrams, or Ishikawa diagrams, after their founder Kaoru …
Getting Lean to stick

Getting Lean to stick and changing a company culture are BIG problems in many companies. If you aren't always improving,…
Lean Production Preparation Process (3P)

Recently I visited an automotive electrical OEM to review their working supermarket for controlling work-in-process. As …
Implementing Daily Problem Solving

A robust problem solving approach is the best method for tackling problems while implementing a Lean production system.…
Takt Time

The concept of takt time is one of the trickiest concepts and calculations to grasp when designing a Lean Production sys…
Top 5 Lean Foundation Tools

The TXM team visit many different manufacturing companies, from the food and pharmaceutical industries to machining and …
Setup Time Reduction – The Quick Change Over

For many manufacturing processes, setting up a machine to change from one product to the next is the biggest part of the…
Considerations for implementing a Just in Time system

Implementing a just in time system is a huge undertaking and the rewards for doing so will also be huge. Previously we o…
Metrics for Business Performance

There a many metrics that are used to measure performance across a business. Without a doubt they are a key mechanism fo…