Here you will find advanced Lean tools:  Standardized Work , Pull System / Kanban , VSM ,  One Piece Flow , MTM , TOC .

While implementing advanced tools, you have a great opportunity to situate your company in an elitist group of companies operating in World Class Manufacturing system. But you have to be aware that it will be extremely difficult to implement these tools without solid bases – namely Basic Tools. For example, you will not form a process map if you cannot measure cycle times or OEE. Kanban implemented in disorder, without 5S, would be a catastrophe. There is no sense in measuring times of right hand motions through a tool from MTM family and saving seconds if you can save an hour in a simple way through SMED.

Look at this also from soft point of view. Kazio has been working as a welder for 40 years. He has his own methods and habits. Suddenly, a Continuous Improvement engineer appears and measures something relentlessly. A month later, Kazio receives a standard work sheet. You have about 250 of such people as Kazio on one shift. Believe me that the beginning of a work day based on standards will be the last work day of this young engineer. Simple methods are better suited to change habits of many years. They are methods in which Kaziu can introduce small changes in a commonsensical way and perceive that different does not mean worse. Simple techniques create trust due to which your workers are convinced that you do not propose to change petty issues.

Advanced tools are designed for global optimization. And you are rarely focuses on separate places. You are engrossed in the case of the whole company and you improve what should be done just from this point of view. Using Advanced tools, you often go beyond your production area towards  suppliers and other departments.  Glodtratt in his book “TOC – Production way” brilliantly remarks,  “you improve production and constraints in the company go beyond the production area. What is happening if these constraints appear in areas, where constraints have to be intangible, if they are related to wrong policy of the company? (...) Any further improvements introduced in the production area do not correspond to the company’s flexibility. The only result is unnecessary effort. It is a matter of time when fluctuations in economic situation will cause costs reduction. Where is the natural place for looking for possibilities to cut costs? Of course, where a manpower surplus exists – in the most improved places. Punish people for making improvements, and the improvement process will cease. Both morale and work quality will rapidly deteriorate. Meanwhile, your customers spoiled by excellent products, are unwilling to accept worse quality. Sale falls drastically and there are no financial possibilities to survive on the market.

In management language: at first you change the organizational culture in the whole company, and here you can find Basic Tools useful in the production area. Then, time arrives to work with advanced Lean techniques on solid groundwork.

Learn about refined tools which will guide you into the world of better production managers, who work on the total company development. Standardized Work, VSM, Kanban, One Piece Flow, MTM, TOC.