How effective is Lean? How do we know that our Lean production system is being effective?
The best way to understand your Lean progress is to measure it using an audit system. At TXM we have developed the Lean Diagnostic Tool to cover all aspects of a Lean Production System. The audit has been develop across a large group of companies to a manufacturing best practice criteria. The Lean Diagnostic Tool takes a snapshot of the lean manufacturing culture and kaizen initiatives across a specific site. In order to achieve this, the Tool gauges the level of implementation and improvement observed in a number of key lean manufacturing components which include:
The Lean Diagnostic Tool will tell us how Lean systems are developing and assist in planning the next steps. This measurement is critical in developing a lean culture and the skills to sustain the hard-earned improvements. In simple terms, it is difficult to live PCDA (Plan-do-check-act) without measuring it’s results.
The Lean Diagnostic results are represented on a spider diagram to show the score progression in each component as well as an overall total representing the site lean score.
The Lean Audit is conducted by an experienced Lean team which has no vested interest in the lean score. Like with any audit they can be easily influenced, not reflecting the actual observed improvements. Following a set critial for each element is essental.
The Lean Diagnostic is a great place to start benchmarking each years results and then have an annual planning day to outline your top level plan and increase the pace of lean improvements across the business.
Benching the results is also a great way to compare Lean progress with other companies.
How do you measure up against the rest?
