Lean manufacturing in life: how to stop wasting time and resources

Lean manufacturing helps to see the waste of energy, talent, time and eliminate them. You can do more and get tired less. We tell you how to develop the skill of lean manufacturing and apply its tools

Lean manufacturing is the ability to eliminate waste of any kind, and use the saved resources to improve other areas of life.

For example, delegate filling out documents to an assistant in order to free up time for more interesting and highly paid tasks. Or arrange a comfortable workplace for yourself to get less tired and get more done.

The ability to constantly learn, optimize your life and reduce losses helps you adapt in a new complex world, so the “flexible” skill of lean manufacturing is considered one of the most important future skills.

The competency was adapted from the lean manufacturing philosophy that emerged at the Japanese company Toyota in the 1950s. After World War II, Japan’s economy was in decline. The country needed cars, but there was little demand for specific car models. To work effectively in such conditions, several generations of Toyota leaders developed lean manufacturing methods.

In the 1970s, engineer Taiichi Ohno took charge of the Toyota Production System. He proposed to produce products based on current demand, rather than sales plans. The company produced cars on demand, so the Japanese did not have the expense of large stocks of parts and overproduction, unlike the leaders of that time – the American company Ford.

The main rule of Taiichi: “The maximum effect is achieved only with continuous improvement”. The philosophy of lean manufacturing is based on continuous improvement – “Kaizen”. The engineer taught the company’s employees the methods of “Kaizen”, improved equipment and established processes.

A company’s processes are made up of value (Gemba) – the benefit of a product to the consumer – and waste (Muda) – any process that wastes resources and does not create value. Toyota has learned to eliminate waste, and direct the remaining resources to create value. For example, they did not keep large stocks so as not to pay for rent and maintenance of warehouses.

There are eight types of waste in production. These same types of losses can be seen at work or everyday life.

To eliminate losses, you need to learn to notice them. To do this, there are several methods and tools in lean manufacturing. Together with Anna Apolosova, trainer of the Association of Trainers of the Russian Youth Union (AT RSM), we adapted lean manufacturing tools to optimize processes in everyday life. These methods will help you develop the “agile” skill of lean manufacturing—eliminate waste and continuously improve.

Eliminates wastage of unnecessary movements and stocks

5S is a method of organizing your workspace, keeping it clean and tidy, in which you will work more productively and spend less resources. Start developing your Lean skill with this method – it’s simple and straightforward. For example, organize your workplace, computer or apartment. To do this, follow five steps:

The authors of the book “5S for the Office” share a step-by-step plan for organizing a workplace for service companies, government, educational and public institutions:

Improve systems in everyday life: desktop, computer, phone, social networks. The better you build systems, the better you will develop the skill of lean manufacturing.

Eliminates waste of unnecessary processes, waiting and transportation

Kanban is a method of organizing production to distribute the workload between people to do work just in time. The method helps to see the growing pace of work and not forget anything. At Toyota factories, boards with special cards were wound up to transfer information from one stage of work to another.

Kanban as a process management tool in IT was described by David Anderson in 2005. Two years later, the method began to be used in companies around the world: they tracked the stages of creating a site, implementing strategies, or bringing a new product to market.

Trello is a free service for planning tasks and managing projects using a kanban board. You can add photos, set deadlines, and create checklists for each card.

Kanban board is suitable for visualization and management of any creative and intellectual work. Helps to plan things and manage your time.

Try making your own kanban board out of paper, a whiteboard, or use an online service like Trello. Most often, there are three columns on the board: “to do”, “to be done” and “done”. A new card with a task goes into the “to do” column and moves between the other columns as it progresses.

If you set up a Kanban board on paper, a window, or a whiteboard, the cards will be paper stickers. For larger tasks or projects, intermediate columns can be created. For example, to track work on articles, add the “editing” and “approval” columns. Think about what your processes consist of, break them into the right number of columns, but don’t do too much. Kanban board should be simple and clear.

Eliminates the loss of overproduction, defects, transportation

The one-piece flow in manufacturing is the creation and movement of one item instead of several at once. For example, an employee glues labeled stickers on laptops. Instead of sticking ten stickers on and passing the batch to the next worker, he passes them one at a time. The time for the production of the product will decrease, and the rest of the workers will not stand idle.

Think about how often you make batches instead of single pieces. Change the way you work. For example, sort out incoming emails or tasks several times a day, rather than the whole pack at once. So they will quickly leave other people.

Set up the flow of single products to work with documents, tasks, orders. Try it like cooking or cleaning the house.

Eliminates the loss of defects, redundant processes and waiting

Poka-yoke is a method of preventing defects. Defects appear due to human errors: inattention, unwillingness, inexperience. Poka-yoke helps to do the work in only one correct way, without making mistakes. For example, in production, some parts are made in a certain shape so that the worker cannot process them upside down.

The principle of the poka-yoke method is this: if you can make a mistake, then conditions are created for this. It is necessary to change the conditions in order to avoid mistakes.

Ordinary objects and processes also protect against mistakes. For example, you won’t register on a site if the password is too simple. In the bathrooms, holes are made to remove excess water so that it does not overflow and flood the entire room.

Think about the most common mistake you make at home. If you lose your keys, make a rule to rule it out. For example, make a visible place for the keys or hang a beacon on them.

The Poka-yoke method is an illustration of the philosophy of continuous improvement in lean manufacturing. To develop a skill, look for mistakes in yourself, clients or consumers. Create rules and conditions in which they will not be.

Helps to see losses. Eliminates wastage of overproduction, defects, inventory, waiting, and unnecessary movements

A value stream map helps you see the process of creating a product in order to find errors in it and places where waste appears. Such a map must be created together with the team. The team describes all activities to create value: from the idea to delivery to the customer or disposal.

Actions are divided into three groups:

Think about each action and indicate the losses that appear as a result of these actions. You will see the scale of losses and figure out how to reduce them. Make an ideal value stream map, compare it with the real one, and set a time frame for achieving the best result.

Mike Rother and John Shook, in Learn to See Business Processes, go into detail on how to build a value stream map:

A value stream map can be created on simple household processes: cooking, cleaning the apartment, going to the store, commuting to work. If you are a freelancer or entrepreneur, improve your customer value creation process.

Eliminates wasted waiting, inventory, unnecessary movements

It is a method of maintaining equipment and caring for a workplace that helps workers use it effectively. The main value of this tool is not to create losses due to equipment breakdown. For example, production employees work on the same equipment. Each of them takes care of his workplace, monitors tools and equipment.

Take care of the appliances and furniture that you use in the office or at home: printers, computers, desktops, coffee machines. Establish rules for the general care of equipment that all employees will follow. For example, fill the printer with paper and ink in time.

Eliminates all kinds of wastage and loss of unused talent

Kaizen is a philosophy of continuous improvement of everything. All lean manufacturing tools improve something, Kaizen unites them. Each of the tools helps develop the skill of lean manufacturing and develop the habit of continuous improvement.

Toyota is constantly improving its manufacturing processes at all levels. Each employee can suggest an improvement and receive a bonus for it. In enterprises, boxes are created to collect offers. Then they are considered and tried to apply in life.

Every Toyota employee has a mentor. With the help of kata-coaching – a dialogue between a mentor and a student – employees learn self-improvement. Kata coaching reveals a person’s talent and develops the skill of lean manufacturing.

Enter kaizen at work or at home. Make a “change envelope” in which employees will put their suggestions for improvement. When one of the stages of the project is completed, discuss the changes with the team. Write down sentences that you will try to apply in life. Start the next step with an empty envelope. Motivate yourself and others to constantly improve, look for mistakes and learn to avoid them.

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