Author - Andrzej Kaniewski

Lean – New Zealand style.

Vacation. What a beautiful time which, unfortunately, quickly comes to an end. From this year’s recreational leave in breathtaking New Zealand I have brought some interesting Lean observations: 1. Customer first. A broken fridge in the supermarket. In place of turning off the appliance or setting the ‘Slippery floor’ board next to the puddle, there is a well-marked mat that solves the problem – it’s not slippery, one doesn’t need to go round the board nor pay attention to the puddle [...]

Read more...

Improve what upsets you.

My favorite definition of lean management is the definition of American entrepreneur Paul Akers: ”Fix what bugs you.” To me, it reflects the essence of lean: common sense and action. Often while observing lean implementations or reading studies, I notice excessive formalization and attempts at by-the-book implementation. Point by point, tool after tool. At the declarative level, we are all champions. I am too. But when it comes to action, it’s much worse. The creator of the Toyota Production System, [...]

Read more...

Make your process (one piece) flow!

One piece flow is the basis of lean philosophy. Transition to working in this system provides you with an immediate performance boost of at least 20% (from my experience) and reduced manufacturing costs. It is almost like a magic spell, yet only available to those who are not afraid to solve problems and to be in gemba. In short, one piece flow is the opposite of batch production. In this system, the time when the product is not worked on/processed [...]

Read more...

My notLean shopping

My favorite definition of lean is the one applied by Paul Akers: ‘fix what bugs you.’ So little, yet so much. I often hear from the people I work with that the discovery of lean was the best and the worst  thing that has happened to them. They simply look differently at a lot of things surrounding them and… they get upset because they see how much waste there is around them. At 9 p.m. I decided to do some shopping [...]

Read more...

Listen to the Experts on the Process: your Operators.

The beauty of Lean lies in the fact that we can improve our operating results immediately by using ideas that our employees have not only come up with, but sometimes even already implemented to great effect. All we have to do is… take advantage of these ideas. However, an idea can’t be used if it hasn’t been noticed. I’ve experienced numerous situations where employees performed differently in the presence of the manager or foreman, and when that person was absent [...]

Read more...

8 ways not to waste resources.

8 ways not to waste resources. Are cost reductions, shortened production times and better quality aggregates possible without costly investments? The Japanese concept of Lean Manufacturing says it is! The most crucial thing is to solve problems at the source and to identify the different kinds of waste – factors that consume our time, people, energy, resources and money. The philosophy of Lean Manufacturing originated in Japan. It was established decades ago in response to Toyota’s company crisis after the Second [...]

Read more...

Lean is about to test things.

Not enough storage space at an FMCG company – A case study of Lean Optimization in four acts. Act I ‘Why didn’t the BlackTlen 300 gel go to the customer?’ The plant manager was very upset at the morning meeting the next day. ‘Because the production line didn’t make it,’ said the planning manager. ‘Nonsense! How could we even make it, if the warehouse has stopped collecting finished parts from the production lines and we don’t have space to store them anyway? I [...]

Read more...

Improve your processes instantly!

Is it possible to increase efficiency, safety and quality, reduce costs and shorten production time without months of planning, trials and testing, endless meetings and presentations? Could these changes be permanent? Do we need experts to implement them? The Japanese concept of Lean Manufacturing assumes that the most important thing is to solve problems at the source, using the intellectual potential of the employees. There’s no shortage of problems in our daily work. From morning to evening, employees and their [...]

Read more...

Give me the sand faster!

We need to improve the performance of the entire production line. We have identified the performance of the grasper and gantry excavator as a bottleneck. Preliminary suggestions talk about the necessity of: purchasing a bigger gripping device (grasper), installing more powerful drives, to speed up extraction. Following the concept of genchi genbutsu, ‘Go and see for yourself’, after day-long measurement and observations from the operator’s cabin, the stages of the extraction process have been identified together with their time in seconds (minimally [...]

Read more...

Free Competency Matrix – increase efficiency based on employees’ intentions.

Implementation of Lean at workstations usually starts with optimizing the overall workplace organization, maintenance of the tools and machines available to the workers, changing the way activities are performed, and joining positions. This delivers spectacular results. However, very often we skip the worker as a person, who also has professional desires and ambitions. Even the best set process handled by an unmotivated worker won’t provide optimum results. Is Adam Nawałka more familiar with tactics, techniques and physical preparation than Waldemar Fornalik [...]

Read more...