The LEAN Process – a DIY Process

In The LEAN Process – a DIY Process, you'll learn ...

• How to measure individual performance and productivity
• Capacity planning – knowing how much your team or your facility can produce
• Strategic maintenance management
• How to keep raw materials flowing in to maximize production

Overview

Preview a portion of this course before purchasing it.

Credit: 8 PDH

Length: 132 pages

Much has been written about the LEAN manufacturing (lean enterprise or lean production) practice that “considers the expenditure of resources for any goal other than the creation of value for the end customer to be wasteful, and thus a target for elimination.”

First let me assure you, THIS IS NOT A REHASH OF THAT! There are many volumes available to present that topic from every possible angle telling readers the WHAT and WHY of LEAN practices. Unfortunately, there are not as many telling you HOW.

This course is an attempt to fill that gap in a non-technical, basic examination of several of the concepts within LEAN from a practical application standpoint asking the question, “How do I translate that flowery rhetoric into real-time use in my situation?”

The primary audience for this course is managers or senior engineers with the influence and authority to implement the techniques and practices that are described in the course. There is some math in the course. Naturally, math is nothing new to engineers but there is a chance that the reader hasn’t used it in the manner we present.

While there’s no guarantee you will be successful using these techniques, it’s important to note that all of them have been used effectively in operational settings and will work if given an honest effort to implement them. The extent of their success depends on the skills of the implementer and the support received from upper management.

Learning Objectives

Upon completion of this course, participants will be able to:

• Compare productivity with simply being busy.
• Clarify performance expectations in terms of quality, quantity, and time.
• Explain why poorly defined expectations can contribute to workplace stress.
• Reduce workplace stress by seeking clarification of expectations from leaders.
• Describe SMART goals and explain why they are important.
• Write measurable performance goals and assist others in developing their goals.
• Identify the critical elements necessary for productivity.
• Define and construct feedback loops for a work setting.
• Compare the advantages of sharing information with employees with the disadvantages of hoarding information to appear indispensable.
• Analyze floor plans for optimal workflow.
• Evaluate workflows to determine their current efficiency.
• Explain and apply the principles of line balancing.
• Determine the adequacy of a work-process flow.
• Revise workflows to improve efficiency.
• Explain the concept of flow time.
• Create optimal production-cycle timing.
• Apply three capacity-planning strategies effectively.
• Use the skills learned in the course to complete practice exercises.
• Explain how to integrate a maintenance program into a company’s business plans.
• Identify the four broad generational stages in the evolution of maintenance.
• Describe how to develop the internal talent necessary to maintain a business’s equipment and machinery.
• Identify major changes in the external business environment that present increasing challenges to maintenance professionals.
• Explain four reasons why people represent a major change in the business environment.
• Describe two reasons why processes represent a major change in the business environment.
• Identify three reasons why plants represent a major change in the business environment.
• List four reasons for the "what" of strategic maintenance management (SMM).
• Explain six reasons for the "why" of strategic maintenance management.
• List four reasons for the "how" of strategic maintenance management.
• Formulate relevant questions about talent-development issues.
• Ask relevant questions about talent-deployment issues.

Certificate of Completion

You will be able to immediately print a certificate of completion after passing a multiple-choice quiz consisting of 60 questions. PDH credits are not awarded until the course is completed and quiz is passed.