5 August 2010                www.strategosinc.com

Job Shop Lean

Migrating TPS to The Job Shop

Few job shops implement lean very well. The obvious and most frequent justification is that job shops are not like Toyota. Many job shop managers dismiss lean out-of-hand. Others implement bits and pieces such as 5S, but this is just piddling around the margins.

The fundamental issue is workflow. It seems impossible to rationalize and smooth workflow when no two jobs are the same, skills are specialized and demand is highly variable.The quick answer is Yes and No. But that is not very helpful. Managers of job shops need to know"how" and "why" and "what does it mean?" The difference between Lean in a job shop versus higher-volume and lower variety shops comes in several areas:

Our new web page on Job Shop Lean helps answer these questions. Along with our Implementationpages it can guide planning and help assure effective application of lean principles to specific operations.

Job Shop Lean 2009 Conference is another good place to gain knowledge and share experience. This conference has been organized by a colleague and old friend, Shahrukh Irani. I have attended in the past and can highly recommend it. Shahrukh is one of the few experts in Group Technology(GT), a key element of Lean for those in high-variety, low-volume manufacturing.

Best Regards,

Quarterman Lee

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