LEAN: 5S According to me. An Innovative Thought

According to standard definition, the term 5S comes from five Japanese words:

1. Seiri
2. Seiton
3. Seiso
4. Seiketsu
5. Shitsuke

In English, these words are often translated to:

1. Sort
2. Set in Order
3. Shine
4. Standardize
5. Sustain

But I would like to re-define 5s as follows

1. Simplify: To understand the work need to be done and simplify the work in smaller chunks.
2. Sort: Once simplified, arrange in order on how to tackle the chunks of work to accomplish the main stream work that is simplified.
3. Simulate: Try to attack in various conditions and situtations by creating various situations by simulating the workflow. Understand the outcomes and enhance the process from learnings through simulation.
4. Speedup: Speedup the process to produce better for demand and supply
5. Survive: Survive by acting to the customers’ demand and support them as per the need.

Why is it important for me?

The above define 5s’ help any product to start off from the scratch and help build innovative products by accomplishing smaller chunks of work (simplify), arrange them (sort), test the pices of work done in various conditions (simulate), gain cognition on the work done (speed up) and continue their existence in the marketplace (survive).

Do you have a new definition of your 5s? Mention them in the comments and describe why it is important for you?

By,

Navule Pavan Kumar Rao

TAKT Time Demystified

Lets go through the definition of TAKT time and how it is calculated with a real-time example.

Definition of TAKT Time:

TAKT Time is defined as the ratio of available minutes to the required units of production.
Mathematically it is defined as follows:

TAKT Time = Available Minutes for Production / Required Units of Production per day

Available time is the actual time spent on production activity. It does not includes meetings, administrative non-working time, tea breaks and lunch breaks.

Calculate TAKT Time Step by Step (A real-time Situation):

Assume a situation where in you want to release a plugin to enterprise dealers. Provided there are 300 roof tops for this dealer to which this plugin needs to be released for. The Client Account Manager has set a target of 60 roof tops per day so that he wants to complete all roof tops released with the plugin within 5 days. Then the Takt time can be calculated here as following:

From the definition of Takt time, An employee works 8 hrs a day. 8 hrs = 480 mins

Tea breaks= 10mins ( 2 breaks of 5 mins each)

Daily standup = 30 mins

Available Minutes for Production = 8 hrs a day – (Tea Breaks + Daily Standup meeting)

= 480 mins – (10 mins + 30 mins)

= 440 mins

Available Minutes for Production = 440 mins

Plugin needs to be released for 60 roof tops per day, which means

Required Units of Production per day = 60

TAKT Time = 440/60 = 7.33 mins

This implies that a release for every roof top should be completed with in 7.33 mins or precisely 440 seconds, to reach the goal of 60 roof tops per day.

This is ideal situation provided that there are no unforeseen situations like connectivity issues, network outages.

By,

Navule Pavan Kumar Rao