Muda Walk for a Month – Week 1: 09/01 to 09/09 - Reminder

The focus for this week is: Eliminate Overproduction and Reduce Inventory

Have you seen any of these?

• Stacks of material at the job site?
• Rental equipment not being used?
• Trailers full of fabricated or ordered material?
• Stashes around the work area?
• Job site trailer closets stuffed with supplies?
• Piles of fabricated material in the yard?
• Boxes of paper goods stacked in the hallways?
• Fabricated product on pallets in the warehouse?
  

All of these and many more are indicators of overproduction and they are inventory.  Inventory is a double serious waste because it produces or hides other wastes. We don’t want the crews to ever run out of material, but we want to avoid as much inventory as possible while still allowing the work to FLOW.

When you spot these waste ask WHY – why do we have to keep this inventory? Why do we have so much inventory? Why are we over-ordering material? Keep asking why until you find the root cause and implement countermeasures.

Ways to reduce inventory are:

• Better job site planning and coordination. Use the Last Planner System® of look-aheads and weekly work plans.
• Use a Kanban method. It means a signal to refill the inventory. This is especially useful for consumables in the shop, field and even office supplies. Use a min/max marker. Use an inventory card with a dual bin system so when one bin is empty you pull the card and keep using the 2nd bin while the 1st bin is being refilled.
• Work with suppliers to service your material needs and include them in identifying how much material to stock. 

Remember: Go and See – Ask Why – Show Respect – Do No Harm

Just DO IT