Continuous Improvement

I probably read the best quote in a while about Continuous Improvement (Lean) on Don Sweigart’s twitter page @donsweigart where he said “If it doesn’t solve a problem, you don’t need it.”  Think about that quote and then look around your shop and see how much you are holding onto or check out a process that you work through everyday just because…..you have always done it that way.  I think you will find there are tasks being accomplished that do not really serve a purpose or more importantly they mask a process that is not being followed.  To have true continuous improvement each task must stand on its own merit.  Each process should have a Quality-In standard as well as a Quality-Out standard.  Those two standards set the expectations of what comes out of a process as well as what is sent to the next process.  Without measuring those expectations you pass problems downstream until either somebody stops and corrects the defect or the defect stops production.  Either way time is lost correcting the defect.  Look around and if it doesn’t solve a problem, you don’t need it, it is time to get rid of it.