Tools

Rapid Lean uses a range of tools, which explain concepts in a clear, straightforward manner.  This allows employees to quickly use powerful improvement tools, delivering rapid change to production or process operations

When choosing the right tools to make improvement, the best analogy we can think of is choosing a golf club. If you looked closely at what the best businesses use, you might see them using a putter to make the last few yards – but that’s not going to be a great club to use if you are still standing on the tee…A few insights first:

  • A simple toolkit focused on the right problems with the right people will make a difference
  • Beware of “magic bullets” or “flavor of the month”, or using new tools where old ones did not work
  • See past competing initiatives (Lean v TPM v 6 Sigma) – the tools are often common, just termed differently

The key is to match the tools to the losses

  • If efficiency = 70%, why worry about 6 Sigma?
  • Have you matched Speed v Potential?
  • What are the causes of resource availability loss?
  • What are the causes of monthly supply variances?

The B&N Europe Rapid Lean toolkit includes the following: