Creating Your Lean Future State: How to Move from Seeing to Doing

By Tom Luyster with Don Tapping

Creating Your Lean Future State: How to Move from Seeing to Doing  is a workbook which provides a roadmap for lean implementation after creating current and future state maps. The workbook follows a case study of a manufacturing company which has already developed a future state map. Using this case study, a step-by-step roadmap illustrates how to focus efforts on key information, visually manage flow, and level production.

The three-step system includes stabilize, standardize, and simplify. The first stage, stabilize, focuses on demand planning and self-evaluation. This stage begins with demand planning and then steps through customer evaluation to develop takt time. This enables the appropriate buffer stocks to be developed. In addition, your own operations can then be evaluated for labor, capacity, capability, etc.

Standardize, the second stage, focuses on visual layout, visual production process, and load leveling. Visual systems support continuous flow manufacturing and ensure that production only occurs in response to customer demand.  Elements of visual layout, cell design, supermarkets, and visual address systems are discussed.

Finally, in stage three, opportunities for simplification are addressed. Methods for processes and procedures are standardized. Continuous improvements are made throughout the value stream to eliminate duplicate efforts, excess equipment, etc. Some of the tools applied in the simplify stage include paced withdrawal, load leveling, heijunka, information flow (kanbans), and kaizen.

Creating Your Lean Future State: How to Move from Seeing to Doing is an easy to read and follow workbook which provides a comprehensive roadmap for implementing lean. The case study provides a framework in an easy to understand format. The workbook also includes a CD with blank worksheets to use in lean implementation.

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