by Lee Fried, on 11 Apr 2007 06:18 pm
The Journey
The Power of the Heijunka
In the Model Line area for most teams the rate of demand of incoming work varies greatly by day of the week and day of the month. As a countermeasure we have developed a toolkit and training program for implementing heijunka boxes and have put in place three thus far. Applying these tools has effectively leveled demand for these teams, but this to my surprise is only one of the many improvements that have resulted.
Perhaps the largest change has been in how the team has begun to work differently together. Prior to implementing these tools the teams were really more a collection of individuals then teams. Work in most of these areas was hidden in the computer systems, each job type only had one or two people trained in how to complete it and performance management was focused almost exclusively on individual productivity. As you can imagine this was not very compatible with a Lean culture.
In just a few months it is amazing to see how different these teams have changed. Each day the team now meets to discuss improvement opportunities. All work is visible and loaded in one hour increments with the work rule that everyone will stay until the work is done. Batches are smaller, productivity is way up, inventory is way down and quality is up in each area. When ahead on their work a team member that barely new another a month ago gladly jumps in to help another that is behind on their work. The first few weeks were hard on the teams, because it was so drastically different then what they were used to. Yet, when you talk to them it is evident how excited and how much pride they have for their progress I doubt they would ever go back!
on 11 Apr 2007 at 8:10 pm 1.Pete Abilla said …
Do you mean “level production”, instead of “demand”? After all, heijunka is about leveling production, since demand is really not in our control. But, what is in our control is our ability to triage, prioritize the work that enters our queue, then we pull from that queue as an item leaves the queue.
In Agile, this is better known as “backlog”, where software features are created on cards, then placed in a backlog area on a whiteboard. Those cards are later sized and prioritized and pulled from the backlog and assigned to an iteration. That is the software manifestation of heijunka.
In software and non-software cases, however, heijunka aims to level production, not demand.
on 11 Apr 2007 at 8:17 pm 2.Lee Fried said …
Hi Pete,
Thanks for the catch you are correct the Heijunka is used to level production. Our software teams are also applying Agile and our initial pilots have shown great success. For the first time we are able to estimate with reliability how long it will take to develop software enhancements. Ted, the co-writer of this blog has been leading much of this work.
Thanks for writing,
Lee
on 16 Apr 2007 at 9:35 am 3.Curious Cat Management Improvement Blog » Management Improvement Carnival #9 said …
[...] The Power of the Heijunka by Lee Fried - “Each day the team now meets to discuss improvement opportunities. All work is visible and loaded in one hour increments with the work rule that everyone will stay until the work is done. Batches are smaller, productivity is way up, inventory is way down and quality is up in each area.” [...]
on 15 Oct 2008 at 11:44 am 4.Leslie said …
I am conducting a kaizen event at a manufacturing job shop plant where bottlenecks are occuring in the machining shop. I had the idea of implementing a heijunka box process with the ultimate result being FIFO lanes which would eliminate the waste of waiting and scheduling delays. My company loved the idea and they want me to create a cost benefit analysis for the savings. The only problem is that I’m unsure on how to begain the implementation process on paper let alone in the facility.