Lean Six Sigma—Three Standardized Work Tools
The process of standardizing work routines is sequential if you use the following tools in the following order:
- Job Analysis
- Balancing Operator Work, and
- Developing and Posting Standardized Worksheets
Tool 1: Job Analysisis an art and a science. The first step is to identify the work elements a value adding staff member must perform to complete one cycle of work at a particular bench or workstation--note that this activity is the first step in helping staff members identify their best practice approach. The people who work at this bench must agree on what the work elements are and in what sequence they are performed. Each sequential work element must have a fixed-point start and stop time so that you can time it with a stopwatch. Each work element should be classified as value adding (changing the form, fit, or function of the specimen) or non-value adding (one of the eight Lean wastes). You should time at least 10 complete cycles using a variety of skilled operators. Identify the best cycle time and the worst cycle time and then calculate the average. Usually the variation between the best and the worst is associated with some form of Lean waste. Be sure to identify it and remove it from the work process before finalizing your cycle time calculations-kaizen process improvement.
Tool 2: Balancing Operator Work--in a laboratory environment, your value adding staff members know which workbenches are over burdened and which are sized right to meet physician turnaround expectations. A visual display of the work being performed at each workbench (a stacked bar chart showing cycle times per sequential work elements) in your value stream enables you and your standardized work team to see which process is overburdened, right sized, or eligible for more work. Discuss the findings with the team and brainstorm approaches to improve the work balance within your processes.
Tool 3: Developing and Posting Standardized Worksheets-Standardized worksheets usually have three major sections:
Section 1: Process title and various process related characteristics and statistical information like TAKT time, planned production time, required number of value-added operators, and volumes.
Section 2: Value added operator work elements copied from the finalized "job analysis" performed using Tool 1. This section usually includes the work elements, key points for each step (quality, safety, technique, etc), your work element-level timings, and total cycle time.
Section 3: The work sequence diagram or walk pattern showing sequential flow, required materials and supplies, and required safety checks.
In the laboratory environment, these standardized worksheets are posted within the process production area facing outward so the lead technologists, supervisors, and operation's manager can readily tell normal operations from abnormal operations without having to debrief the value adding operators, i.e., they are visual management tools not operator training tools. However, these posted worksheets should be tied into your document control system and update whenever you improve the processes-just like your SOPs. Be creative-these tools are suppose to help you manage your operation easily. Make them work for you. Google "lean standardized worksheets" for examples of different styles-click on the "images" tab.
