Lean manufacturing and consistency - Heijunka
Consistency is a key work in lean manufacturing. Consistency in effort, consistency in innovation and improvement and consistency in vision throughout the organization is the key to successful lean implementation. Consistency in manufacturing is also known as “heijunka” in lean context.
In very simple terms this is about leveling the activities to manage the processes easily with little variation. Higher variation in product volumes and mix creates peaks and valleys in the process. Handling peaks requires additional resources while idling is a direct result of valleys.
Peaks needs additional resources like human, machine and time. This puts extra stress on machinery, people and systems. On the other hand when the volumes are low the resources would be idling. This obviously is a loss to the organization. In lean it is very important to measure the effects on the total organization. There is no point in rushing to finish an order which will reach the customer in two weeks time.
The backbone of lean is JIT (Just In Time) technique. In simple JIT is about fulfilling the customer demand in correct quantities, when they want it. Although the pull system is a main concept of lean, it should be optimized in the bigger picture to obtain the best output. This is why the concept of heijunka is very important in lean.
In very simple terms this is about leveling the activities to manage the processes easily with little variation. Higher variation in product volumes and mix creates peaks and valleys in the process. Handling peaks requires additional resources while idling is a direct result of valleys.
Peaks needs additional resources like human, machine and time. This puts extra stress on machinery, people and systems. On the other hand when the volumes are low the resources would be idling. This obviously is a loss to the organization. In lean it is very important to measure the effects on the total organization. There is no point in rushing to finish an order which will reach the customer in two weeks time.
The backbone of lean is JIT (Just In Time) technique. In simple JIT is about fulfilling the customer demand in correct quantities, when they want it. Although the pull system is a main concept of lean, it should be optimized in the bigger picture to obtain the best output. This is why the concept of heijunka is very important in lean.
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