Muda To The Surface Please

Most people are familiar with the term ‘mass manufacture’. Henry Ford was a pioneer in implementing the production line and achieving economies of scale. However, I am not sure if as many people are as familiar with ‘lean manufacture’? Since the 1970s Toyota has been associated with its increasing popularity.

After reading ‘The Machine That Changed The World’ I became aware of lean and the effects it had in reducing costs, improving quality and enhancing performance. Terms like ‘Just-In-Time’, ‘Kaizen’ and ‘Right First Time’ have a lot of deep theory and cultural changes behind them.

Part of the ‘lean’ approach involves a practice called 5S. The five parts are Sort, Straighten, Shine, Standardise and Sustain. Implementing 5S can reveal waste (or Muda) by bringing problems to the surface so they can be examined, understood and eliminated.

Our new Duty Manager System has increased our admin work and some errors have occurred. The most important thing here is to encourage the admitting of mistakes when they happen. Only then can we find solutions which standardise our approach and ensures the same mistakes cannot happen again.