Lean thinking affects all facets of an organization. Every person, activity, product, service, process, system, or method represent an opportunity for continuous improvement. If the devil is in the details, then lean thinking extends to understanding and improving the “little things” we do every day, not just as teams, but as individuals too. Lean thinking embraced at a personal level […]
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Micro Lean in 2020
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Lean – A Race Against Time
Background If “Time is Money”, is it reasonable for us to consider that “Wasting Time is Wasting Money?” Whether we are discussing customer service, health care, government services, or manufacturing – waste is often identified as one of the top concerns that must be addressed and ultimately eliminated. As is often the case in most organizations, the next step is an attempt to […]
Lean Is …
What is lean? The following definition is from the Oregon Manufacturing Extension Partnership website, http://www.omep.org: Lean Is A systematic approach for delivering the highest quality, lowest cost products with the shortest lead-times through the relentless elimination of waste. The eights wastes that accompanied this definition include: Overproduction Waiting Transportation Non-Value-Added Processing Excess Inventory Defects Excess Motion Underutilized People It is very […]
- Advanced Lean Manufacturing
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- Lean
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- OEE: Overall Equipment Efficiency
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- Quality Factor
- Root Cause Analysis
- Training
OEE For Manufacturing
We are often asked what companies (or types of companies) are using OEE as part of their daily operations. While our focus has been primarily in the automotive industry, we are highly encouraged by the level of integration deployed in the Semiconductor Industry. We have found an excellent article that describes how OEE among other metrics is being used to […]
- Advanced Lean Manufacturing
- Availability
- Capacity
- Lean
- Lean Metrics
- OEE: Overall Equipment Efficiency
- Process Control and OEE
- Training
OEE for Batch Processes
We recently received an e-mail regarding OEE calculations for batch processes and more specifically the effect on down stream equipment that is directly dependent (perhaps integrated) on the batch process. While the inquiry was specifically related to the printing industry, batch processing is found throughout manufacturing. Our more recent experiences pertain to heat treating operations where parts are loaded into […]
- Advanced Lean Manufacturing
- APQP
- Eliminate Waste
- Lean
- Lean Metrics
- OEE: Overall Equipment Efficiency
- Problem Solving
OEE: Frequently Asked Questions
We added a new page to our site to address some of the more frequently asked questions (FAQ’s) we receive regarding OEE. We trust you will find this information to be of interest as you move forward on your lean journey. We always appreciate your feedback, so feel free to leave us a comment or send an e-mail directly to LeanExecution@gmail.com or Vergence.Consulting@gmail.com We have had […]
- Advanced Lean Manufacturing
- Lean Metrics
- OEE: Overall Equipment Efficiency
- Process Control and OEE
- Quality
OEE and the Quality Factor
Many articles written on OEE (ours being the exception), indicate or suggest that the quality factor for OEE is calculated as a simple percentage of good parts from the total of all parts produced. While this calculation may work for a single line part number, it certainly doesn’t hold true when attempting to calculate OEE for multiple parts or machines. OEE […]
- Advanced Lean Manufacturing
- APQP
- Problem Solving
- Process Control and OEE
- Quality
- Root Cause Analysis
- Trouble Shooting
How to use the 5 WHY approach
The 5 WHY technique, developed by Sakichi Toyoda, is one of the core problem solving tools used by Toyota Motor Corporation and has been adopted and embraced by numerous companies all over the globe. This technique is unconstrained, providing the team with a high degree of freedom in their thinking process. As we suggested in our “How to Improve OEE” […]
OEE Integration: Can you fix it?
As we are all aware, inspecting or measuring parts does not change the quality of the product. Likewise, measuring and reporting OEE alone does not solve problems or improve performance. While it is fair to say that increased focus and measurement of any process usually results in some degree of improvement, these are typically attributed to changes in human behavior due to […]
- Advanced Lean Manufacturing
- Lean
- Lean Metrics
- OEE: Overall Equipment Efficiency
- Process Control and OEE
OEE Integration – Part II
Training and Integration Integrating OEE into your organization will take some time. However, the benefits are definitely worth the effort. Preparing an effective integration strategy will pay off dividends in the execution phase of your program and can serve as the core theme to launching many of your other lean manufacturing initiatives. The challenge for many organizations is turning lean […]