“I recall you inquired about ways to start 5S and implement Lean in a job shop environment.”
– email excerpt I recently sent that may help some others on this who are also looking for more of the ‘how to’
For 5S:
You can find a lot online and many books may provide a good guide; where in your facility you start may provide additional leverage.
I prefer to let problems determine the counter measures, so perhaps you have a problem this can potentially address. Initially focusing on this 1 spot that would make the biggest difference to help people experience benefit. You’re probably familiar with the 5 steps – Sustain seems to be the one most people do not ensure, so Sustain may be the one to place more emphasis on regularly after.
Communicate with everyone what’s being done & why. There’s a typical 15% productivity improvement from a #5S rapid improvement event the operators in that area will experience. We had an operator who was quite pleased because they didn’t need to search the shop for their tools.
Once you’ve done this, look for the next area. Once you have a few done, you may want to have a similar system to your Job Instruction where different people support each other on progressing areas and it’s visible to all. I like my employees to have friendly reviews of each others areas. We also have a map up of each area in the plant to clarify zones, however you might not need this.
John in the tool room is actually a great example - even if not through the 5S steps – of how much easier work can be through organization;
I can provide examples from several different plants I’ve done if it helps
also read Getting at the Larger Purpose of 5S by Karl Ohaus here: http://www.lean-transform.com/articles-by-our-partners/getting-at-the-larger-purpose-of-5s
Implementing Lean in a Job Shop
Every job regardless of quantity has repeatable processes, they just might be more broad. For instance, you still receive an order, order material, receive it, setup a machine, do the work, and ship it. Even if it’s a single piece order.
Always being set up, and preparation for each new job for quick turn around may enable time based competition; you’ve already started quick changeover which is a big part of this, and 5S will help reduce search times.
You can look for commonalities in parts or setups; you may want to look into how Procedure Quantity Analysis helps you route product. I would do both
Pay attention to whether the most common problems are due to materials; supplier relationships can play a big part if you are experiencing external delays regularly; this may show up through value stream mapping or some other method of tracking defects in your process.
For us it is missing information: 49% of all problems are due to missing information, initially in the sales process and if it isn’t available up front it triggers 2-3 problems due to the same missing information (plus associated rework increasing lead times to customers)
I have yet to see a job shop where it cannot be applied
I hope this helps; curious how things are going; and feel free to reach out anytime
Best,
Ryan Cartier