Inventory levels rise and fall as supply and demand ebb and flow.  Inventory is at it's peak just as the next batch, kanban, or order arrives and then decreases as materials are consumed.  This rise and fall is known as cycle

Triangle kanban, while one of three types of signal kanban, are unique in that there is only a single kanban per part number or stock keeping unit. Accordingly, kanban sizing math has nothing to do with determining the number of kanban - that’s obviously fixed.

Multi-Voting, also known as N/3 multi-voting, N/3 voting, dot-voting and sometimes mistakenly thought to be identical to nominal group technique, is a technique used by small groups to quickly select a subset from a broader set of options. This democratic approach allows team member to cast a finite number of votes, with few restrictions (e.g., individuals can’t “plump” all of their votes on one single candidate), for their options of choice. Ultimately, the process yields a rank order.

Be cautious when there’s some, be cautious when there’s none, and be cautious when adding more than one.

What do the heck does that mean???

Let’s take these correlation cautions one by one.

Be cautious when there’s some. Suppose you did a study and found a correlation between job performance and high school grades. Does this mean that if we simply increase everyone’s high school grades that they will perform better at work???  Clearly not! 

Every part every interval (EPEI) is my favorite lean metric for high mix/low volume (HMLV) value streams and probably the least known. It’s especially helpful when changeovers are a significant portion of capacity as frequently is the case with machine-oriented operations.

As some of you may recall, I launched a new blog called Lean Math back in February with a couple of my buddies. In my humble opinion, I think that the ever-growing content is pretty useful stuff for lean practitioners.

In any event, I just wanted to share some basic holiday lean math...

PEACE ON EARTH + GOODWILL = HAPPY HOLIDAYS

On behalf of Michael O'Connor, Larry Loucka, and myself, I would like to thank you for investing your valuable time this year reading our posts and sometimes sharing your thoughts. We truly appreciate your readership and we hope that we have, in some way, provided assistance in your lean journey.

In that spirit, some basic holiday lean math follows...

 PEACE ON EARTH + GOODWILL = HAPPY HOLIDAYS

We are coming to the end of the year so it is a good time to reflect on where we have been and start thinking about next year. And to make the thinking definite, let’s suppose that you estimate that 85% of your customers will stick with you next year and 10% of your competitor’s customers will switch and become your customers. Is it time to open the champagne and give everyone a big holiday bonus???

And just to make the math easy, let’s just suppose that you presently have 1000 customers and your competitors have a total of 1000 customers as well. 

Heijunka, also known as level-loading, production-leveling or production-smoothing, is a foundational element of the Toyota Production System. It facilitates system stability by addressing workload unevenness (mura) through the leveling of both volume and mix over time, see Figure 1. Heijunka also serves as a pacing mechanism for operations, often reflected in the use of heijunka, leveling, or schedule boxes, which are typically designed using pitch intervals, see separate pitch post.

OK, I know that what I’m about to say may sound cynical, but 20 years of personal, hard knock lean experience tells me that this is reality. And most folks I think would, or at least should (I hope), agree with me. The majority of companies pursuing a lean implementation do so superficially. (Did I just hear you yawn?!) Many fail to understand the transformational lean principles, much less have the will to rigorously live them.