One of the major factors on which successful lean implementation depends is the "customer demand pattern" for a "given product family." If the demand pattern is very erratic, then it poses some difficulty. Hence, many companies first try to see if the demand pattern can be smoothened out.
In Ohno's (TOYOTA Production System thinker) teaching, there is the tale of "the slower but consistent tortoise causes less waste and is much more desirable than the speedy hare that races ahead and then stops occasionally to doze. This tale is an illustration of the leveling principle in which the workload is leveled for the sake of continuity (consistency of tortoise's pace) regardless to orders variations (the dashing of the hare).
The Lean framework adapted by Boeing (Source: Jerell Smith) in which stabilization of demand is shown as a foundational block. If the demand varies from day to day or month to month (which is true in most real life situations), people would take the annual demand and smooth it out over every month, every day or every shift to arrive at the "takt" time. This is called production leveling strategy (Heijunka).
One may still argue that you are creating finished goods inventory using "takt time" concept by production leveling. Why do not we hire and fire people based on the monthly customer demand pattern? In many cases, this may cause more chaos and disrupt the "rhythm." Many people would like "one rhythm" than to deal with the chaos of following "changing daily rhythms" based on the demand pattern for that day.
1 comment:
yes agree with your points
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