Poka Yoke is a component of lean manufacturing which involves error proofing of the production process. Like the square peg that doesn't fit into a round hole, it involves designing processes to eliminate the ability to produce poor quality products. Each task in a production process is inspected for defects. If the defects emerging from a task are particularly … [Read more...]
Kanban is a task scheduling method originally developed by the Toyota Production System in the 1960's to track inventory levels. Although it is being still used in some manufacturing plants, today kanban has obtained greater use in the software industry to manage work in progress. It is one of those simple, yet amazingly effective tools that most people who … [Read more...]
Many people have heard of Just-in-time manufacturing. But how does it really work, and how can you use it to improve your operations? Most importantly, what are the risks when there is a hiccup in the supply of parts? Just-in-time manufacturing originated in post-war Japan, where there were neither raw materials nor space to build large factories, hence … [Read more...]
Starting from a point of almost complete ruin after World War II, the Toyota Motor Company rose to become the largest car maker in the world in the mid-2000's. This resulted in many inquiries into the source of their success. Starting in 1988, the engineers and architects of Toyota's success began to open up. As a result, the Toyota Production … [Read more...]
Lean Project Management is the application of lean concepts to project management methodologies. Lean is a method used in the manufacturing industry which results in significant increases in product quality and production efficiency. Project management, on the other hand, seeks to produce one single product or service (or just a few) while satisfying stakeholders … [Read more...]
Lean manufacturing transformed the manufacturing world during the 2000's. Invented in Japan, where there are neither natural resources nor excess space for production, manufacturing needed to be lean, mean, and efficient to provide value. In turn, the success of japanese manufacturing resulted in an explosion of interest from around the world. The Toyota … [Read more...]
Project management is more than just working with numbers, charts, templates, graphs, and computer systems. A common denominator in all projects is people. There is nothing more powerful than a project manager who utilizes one of the three main project management methodologies but focuses most of their time on being a strong leader. This is because strong … [Read more...]
Project managers have one of the most important jobs around. Projects make a one-time improvement to a business process, therefore the end products or services almost always represent an important focal point to the organization. In addition, projects are by definition unique and have little repetition to draw from, hence project managers have little choice … [Read more...]
Every project has distinct roles that must be fulfilled in order to function properly and provide the products or services it was intended to provide. As a minimum, it needs a project manager and a project team who does the work, although those roles could be fulfilled by the same person. It also needs a connection to the larger corporate body who ensures funding … [Read more...]
A common way to differentiate between business organizational structures is between ongoing operational work versus capital projects. Operational work maintains an existing sales channel, whereas projects are one-time, unique expenditures with a defined budget, beginning and end dates, and they accomplish a specific goal. There are four types of organizational … [Read more...]
