Process Improvement, LLC                                  
  International Business Performance Excellence
  
 
 
   

STANDARD WORK

 

Standard Work is the foundation of Lean Production Systems and ensures opportunity for improvement.  We follow the 4 Rules of Effective Production and Service.
 
"Where there is no standard, there can be no kaizen." The famous words of Taiichi Ohno, creator of the Toyota Production System

Rule 1: All work should be highly specified in content, sequence, timing, and outcome.
This sounds too rigid for many companies – it doesn't allow for creativity – creativity breeds innovation and improvement, etc.  In fact, the exact opposite is true; standardized work actually forces improvement to occur.

What really happens in American factories is the lack of discipline to standards allows operators to “do it their way.” Some do it better than others; sometimes “their way” is worse. Usually, the “better ways” are not communicated between shifts and even within shifts for many reasons. Moreover, they are rarely communicated across the plant or between facilities. The result - small silos of knowledge, lack of sharing, and much variation in operation. Variation is the root of most evils concerning production and leads to inventory to make up for variation. The more inventory, the worse you can operate and not feel pain, and so on – the vicious cycle that increases costs and eventually kills businesses.
When everything is highly specified allowing no variation, workers must follow a process and the scientific method to make improvements to the standards. This ensures universal improvement among operators within an operation and helps with standards improvement across the plant when standards are updated and communicated (called Yokoten).
To assist with Standard Work development, Process Improvement, LLC recommends Maynard Operation Sequence Technique (MOST) to develop highly-sequenced work. Though the MOST sequence is used, the standard work developed is made more worker friendly and pictures are added to give visuals to workers.
 
BACKGROUND / HISTORY

Frederick Winslow Taylor (Principles of Scientific Management, 1911) is the Father of Scientific Management, time studies, and standard work. Of standard work he stated,

“And whenever a workman proposes an improvement, it should be the policy of the management to make a careful analysis of the new method, and if necessary conduct a series of experiments to determine accurately the relative merit of the new suggestion and of the old standard. And whenever the new method is found to be markedly superior to the old, it should be adopted as the standard for the whole establishment.“

The importance of this statement is underappreciated, but years later Mr. Toyoda understood the significance.

  
Frank and Lillian Gilbreth, famous for motion and fatigue studies (1905-1924), were efficiency experts that helped change the way operations think about wasted motion of workers and helped increase efficiency and productivity in many fields.
   
H.B. Maynard, famous for time-motion studies, combined the techniques from Taylor and the Gilbreths and created the first predetermined time motion system (PTMS) scientifically. It was called Methods Time Measurement (MTM - 1948). MTM-1 and MTM-2 are still in use today.

 
Maynard refined MTM to make it easier and faster to accomplish time-motion studies. This is known as the Maynard Operation Sequence Technique (MOST system - 1972). Using statistics of average workers working at an average rate, MOST is the best, most scientific way to develop standard work that can be reliably used to determine labor requirements and job performance expectations.

 

Any Lean Production System uses standard work (highly specified in content, sequence, timing, and outcome) as the foundation of all improvement and as the way to ensure benefit sustainment..

Rule 1: Built-in hypothesis testing
Hypothesis Signs of Problem Responses
The person or machine can do the activity as specified.  The activity is not done as specified.  Determine true skill level of person or true capacity of machine – train or modify as needed. 
If the activity is done as specified, the product or service will be defect free. The outcome is defective. Modify the design activity.
 
Rule 2: All customer-supplier connections must be direct, and there must be a completely unambiguous way to send requests and receive responses for materials or service.
 
The standards set by this rule effect all internal and external customer-supplier relationships. There must exist a standardized way for suppliers to respond to customer needs.
 
Rule 2: Built-in hypothesis testing
Hypothesis Signs of Problem Responses
Customers’ requests will be for goods and services in a specific mix and volume.  Responses don’t keep pace with requests.  Determine true mix and volume of demand and the true capability of the supplier; retrain, modify activities, or reassign customer-supplier pairs as appropriate.
The supplier can respond to customers’ requests. The supplier is idle, waiting for requests.
 
Rule 3: The pathway for every product and service must be simple and direct.
 
The standards set by this rule also effect all internal and external customer-supplier relationships.  Every single process connection is a required part of the standardized way to deliver a product or service.  The flow from process step to process step must be made as simple as possible.
 
Rule 3: Built-in hypothesis testing
Hypothesis Signs of Problem Responses
Every supplier that is connected to the flow path is necessary.  A person or machine is not actually needed.  Determine why the supplier was unnecessary and redesign the flow path. 
Any supplier not connected to the flow path is not needed. An unspecified supplier provides an intermediate good or service. Learn why the unspecified supplier was actually required, and redesign the flow path.
 
Rule 4: All improvements must be made using the scientific method under the guidance of a mentor/teacher at the lowest possible level in the organization.
 
The standards set by this rule effect the way employees react to and improve processes. Methods like Kaizen, 5 Why's, 8D, A3, Six Sigma, and any other method of scientific problem solving should be defined and followed whenever prescribed by protocol.
 
Rule 4: Built-in hypothesis testing
Hypothesis Signs of Problem Responses
A specific change in an activity, connection, or flow path will improve cost, quality, lead time, batch size, or safety by a specific amount. The actual result is different from the expected result. Learn how the activity was actually performed or the connection or flow path was actually operated. Determine the true effects of the change. Redesign the change.