Thank you. This is one of those lean concepts that is pretty basic, but oh so difficult to explain (sometimes). Your examples make the concept crystal clear and easy to present to someone who doesn't already "get it".
A key point that got missed emphasized in the discussion is that to enable Heijunka in a manufacturing environment , very small set-up and changeover times are required and would be a prerequisite. SMED concept in lean discusses that but worth stressing here as well.
Great video presentation on Heijunka! We are a small manufacturer and would like to implement sequential scheduling as you described. Is there scheduling software that will take our orders and develop the production schedule based on these concepts? Thanks
+mahit ohri No book yet but have a few things in the works. In the meantime, check out www.conceptsoflean.com if you haven't already. It's got some additional downloadable worksheets and handouts.
Thanks for the kind words. The ideas of leveling still apply even with setup/change over time. Once way to combat the impact of change over is to work on reducing the time required to make these setup changes. These types of activities make great early kaizen projects that allow team members to see real world results of implementing lean. For more information on the value of reducing change over time, see Technical Lean Tools 06: Pull System(s) (about the 20 min mark). Thanks.
Thanks for this video. Very informative. I have one question though, I hope you can help. On your lecture, it actually tells me that in order to balance out the cycle time against the takt time, I can change the sequence of the products I make instead of batching it or creating an inventory. But what if the changeover time (from one product to the next) is also time taking, in other words, it will increase my production time. What technique or tool you can advise? Thanks in advance.
+Mae Ann de Leon Great question! We always experience some downtime when making changeovers. The trick is to work on problem solving to minimize the the changeover time so we can balance the cycle time without building inventory. Take a look our Pull System Section for more information: www.conceptsoflean.com/Technical_Tools_06.html
