Lean manufacturing and inappropriate tooling (or inappropriate processing)
This is the fifth post on lean manufacturing and its categorization of wastes. Today we focus on inappropriate tooling or processing. It is a simple but very important waste to identify.
In manufacturing context inappropriate tooling means using improper tools or processes for the job. Every job requires a set of tools and will have a defined process to follow. Most of the manufacturers use state of art technologies in their facilities. But the reality is in most of the cases only a fraction of the functionalities are used. Tons of money in purchasing and heavy maintenance is involved with these tools and technologies. Obviously this means cost. But the output is minimal. So why maintain such complicated machinery and tools. Lean manufacturing always encourage low cost and simple and low tech automation. They are very easy to maintain and costs very less. Best part is they are custom made for the requirement. When it comes to processes how many checking points a product have to pass through. How many times a part will go back and forth before it getting completed? All these are problems of inappropriate processing.
Waste of over processing is mainly due to poor planning of layouts and machinery. Generally people tend to think more is good. They go for high output and high tech machinery. Most of them forget the requirement and never think about simple solutions. Layouts are generally designed to help this bulk machinery. This increases the unnecessary processing.
In a lean office (or in a lean service place) the courses of inappropriate processing are the same. Unnecessary processes are built like authorizations and signatures. This eats up time yet add no value. Tools like email and other forms of e communication techniques are used extensively and most of the times unnecessarily. Expensive IT systems are built but rarely used and making them worthless.
To overcome inappropriate processing tooling processes must be realigned. Layouts must be redesigned to suit the lean office. Using tools like emails and systems must be carefully analyzed and used to support the system.
In software development inappropriate tooling can be referred as using wrong languages to develop the software, using wrong methodologies of software development and so on. From a user point of view this means extra steps in getting the expected result or having too many options to choose from (when they always use only one).
Better design processes and requirement capturing and planning will eliminate this waste from software development. Users must get only what they need and they should be able to get the desired result without wondering what to do. Think about Google. How simple is it to use Google than other search engines.
Lean manufacturing always encourages simplicity. Simple solutions works best and most of the times they are very low cost and also they are easy to maintain.
In manufacturing context inappropriate tooling means using improper tools or processes for the job. Every job requires a set of tools and will have a defined process to follow. Most of the manufacturers use state of art technologies in their facilities. But the reality is in most of the cases only a fraction of the functionalities are used. Tons of money in purchasing and heavy maintenance is involved with these tools and technologies. Obviously this means cost. But the output is minimal. So why maintain such complicated machinery and tools. Lean manufacturing always encourage low cost and simple and low tech automation. They are very easy to maintain and costs very less. Best part is they are custom made for the requirement. When it comes to processes how many checking points a product have to pass through. How many times a part will go back and forth before it getting completed? All these are problems of inappropriate processing.
Waste of over processing is mainly due to poor planning of layouts and machinery. Generally people tend to think more is good. They go for high output and high tech machinery. Most of them forget the requirement and never think about simple solutions. Layouts are generally designed to help this bulk machinery. This increases the unnecessary processing.
In a lean office (or in a lean service place) the courses of inappropriate processing are the same. Unnecessary processes are built like authorizations and signatures. This eats up time yet add no value. Tools like email and other forms of e communication techniques are used extensively and most of the times unnecessarily. Expensive IT systems are built but rarely used and making them worthless.
To overcome inappropriate processing tooling processes must be realigned. Layouts must be redesigned to suit the lean office. Using tools like emails and systems must be carefully analyzed and used to support the system.
In software development inappropriate tooling can be referred as using wrong languages to develop the software, using wrong methodologies of software development and so on. From a user point of view this means extra steps in getting the expected result or having too many options to choose from (when they always use only one).
Better design processes and requirement capturing and planning will eliminate this waste from software development. Users must get only what they need and they should be able to get the desired result without wondering what to do. Think about Google. How simple is it to use Google than other search engines.
Lean manufacturing always encourages simplicity. Simple solutions works best and most of the times they are very low cost and also they are easy to maintain.
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