Is Business an Event or a Process?

• Visible production plans and conditions define a productive company. Visible equipment status, defects, and production instructions all clearly displayed. Work In Process (WIP) should not block views and materials handling is streamlined. Work areas are clean, orderly, and well marked.

• Employees determine productivity. Analysis of employee work content is essential. Equipment will not operate properly without employee work instructions, regular training and updates.

• Employees involvement in improvement determines success. Only the employees know the details of their problems. Projects do not require large investments but rather small groups implementing simple changes with small budgets, based on their own ideas that effect root causes and drive cumulative results.

• Inventory and delays result mostly from Internal causes Inventory and delays accumulate due to several causes such as: WIP or time buffers being used to compensate for capacity shortages; self-fulfilling long lead times used in scheduling assumptions; long changeover or project set-up times directing long installations; and inefficient supply chains driving inventories.