Standard Work and the PDCA cycle.

I love teach Standard Work to young Engineers, their expectations are always what type of software I going to show, and they look very confused when I say “ dear Team to day I’ll teach all of you to walk, see, draw and ask why? 5 times, and then Standard Work “...."Genchi Genbutsu".

I recommend to perform the training on Genba rather than, meeting rooms or classroom.

The process to improve a production line using Standard Work is directly related with the PDCA cycle is not just “Before and After”.

The team should PLAN (Draw the current situation Standard Work, ask 5 times why? For all the None Value Add Activities –NVA- that they being capable to see at that moment and creates the Kaizen News Paper – Improvement Plan); and then go ahead with the DO (The first try, or as I call it Try-Storming, physical changes transform the line to U shape cell maybe etc.); following by the CHECK  (this is the second draw or review; for sure the Team will be able to see clear new or more NVA than before, new challenges are going to be added to Kaizen News Paper – Improvement Plan) the Team must now go for the ADJUST ( could be just one or more it is up to the goal achievement in terms of productivity , Takt Time , Operators Numbers, Quality etc.).

On these examples you can see how the changes on production floor are follows.

Obviously many specific improvements on process must being done; this is not easy; the implementation time is up to the Team member’s skills and if tool room that makes possible supports them the process changes. Plus the others formats and tools.

See some improvements that are needed to reach the goal, please take it as examples.

I hope this help you in your next project.