TWI Blog - 2009 Year in Review

Following are the top ten most viewed blogposts for 2009. Interesting…50% of them are from 2007 and 2008!? Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to everyone and God Bless!

Job Breakdown Sheet Vs. Work Instruction

Genba, Genbutsu, Genjitsu in Plain English

Life After Death by Powerpoint

Lean Jargon Part II - Muda, Muri, Mura

Lean Jargon Part III - Gemba, Genba?

Job Breakdown Sheet Example

5S, Poka Yoke and Visual Controls

Lean Manufacturing Book Review - Managing to Learn by John Shook

How to Compress a Truckload of Digital Photos in 60 Seconds - JBS Example

Obama's Lean Government?

Job Breakdown Sheet - How to Compress Hundreds of Digital Photos in Under 1 minute

JBS Example for today is "How to Compress 'a lot' of Digital Photos in under 60 seconds"...but first, what problem does this solve?

1) During a lean assessment, there are hundreds of photos taken, maybe even almost a thousand. Since most digital cameras do not have very low resolution settings nowadays, the file space consumed can be enormous. This makes for download and viewing times that actually discourage people from reviewing the photos at a later date. I want them to act on what they see, not have an excuse to ignore it.

2) Using the files in presentations presents a similar problem. The multiplier effect can push a ppt file over the 20MB mark or more. This not only causes ridiculously long download times, but makes it almost impossible to easily email a presentation without the extra work of compressing the photos in the file. Compression can be done to a ppt presentation, but I would prefer to compress ALL of the photos in one shot and not risk forgetting to compress the final product at the end, jamming up hard drives and inboxes. (So sue me, I'm batching o.k.?)

The technique I use actually compresses hundreds of photos in under 60 seconds. It also will compress most photos by 50-90% depending on the initial resolution. With some practice, you will be able to do this in about 20 seconds for about 100 photos.

Word of caution...I think it is still necessary to use the four step method for training even though you may be tempted to let this JBS stand alone. There are little things you can explain that go beyond this simple task of compression once the training is over and a one-on-one interaction is the best way to do that. With that said, here is the link to my Job Breakdown Sheet: "How to Compress a Truckload of Digital Photos in under 60 seconds."

I like the Job Breakdown Sheet because…

As a trainer, it serves as a reminder for the key points to a job. I don’t forget to train people in things that are tricky, safe or build quality into the job. As long as I use it my trainees are able to do jobs safely, correctly and conscientiously. As I follow-up with people, I can pick up and correct errors or bad habits that have crept into the work. I also like the JBS when I use it with the 4-step method. One doesn’t really work without the other, and if used together, people have fewer questions or problems with trivial things and more questions about deeper subjects. In this way, I can keep the workplace more organized, training is faster, we meet our work-cell objectives more often and people are generally more satisfied with the job.

As a supervisor, I can use the JBS to follow-up with people. I can ask questions about the job to test their knowledge and understanding of our products and processes. I can see and hear what problems are occurring with equipment, materials, tools or people. These follow-up sessions in the gemba give me a daily opportunity to tackle these problems. But since there are so many to tackle on my own, I often coach people into helping solve many of these little problems. After all, they are most familiar with the job, right? Because the JBS is really theirs, I like giving them that ownership and opportunity to contribute to making the workplace better.

As a facilitator, I can get people together and have them work out one best way for the job. They can break down each of their methods and find the common best practices, waste, safety issues, bad habits and what is really needed to add value to the job. A big surprise benefit is that they now have a common vehicle for communication and improvement. The supervisors and managers like this about JI the most. The see it as something much more than training, more like a conduit to problem solving that starts with good training. It isn’t about who has the better method or personal preference anymore, it is about what is the best method and are we working together towards that common goal.

As an engineer, I can see what is really needed for the job, and build lean principles into my designs, layouts and equipment so that we create a waste-free workplace. I also like it when a team of operators, mechanics and technicians get together and invite engineering to a Job Breakdown Session. This gives me the opportunity to ensure that design intent and quality key points that may not be obvious are built into the JBS. This really helps everyone get on the same page and understand the process better.

As a manager, it helps me assess how our problem solving culture is progressing. By using the JBS as a reference during my genba walks, I can see how things really are. The simple act of checking a JBS against what the person is actually doing can reveal a lot about our culture. I can see gaps more easily this way and can address them in a direct and tangible manner. In this way, I can talk with my supervisors about problems and solutions in a factual manner. Because the quality, production, safety and cost key points are built into our JBS, I feel that people better understand how their daily work is tied to the company’s objectives. To things come up as gaps when I talk to our genba people, training and communication. Since we have encouraged the use of JI and the simple JBS, people have said that communication is improving and training has become a way to prevent problems from occurring in the first place.

Guest Blogger, Dean Odle Provides a JBS Example

I want to first express my appreciation for your TWI Service site and the TWI Blog. These site have both been a tremendous help in my study of TWI and the history of TPS and Lean. I had a recent experience with the Job Breakdown Sheets that I'd love to share with you and others.

As the school year in Texas is winding down, I notice that the projects my third grade daughter, Alishia, is bringing home lately are getting more interesting and creative. Last week, Ms. Hathaway assigned the students an assignment called Teach the Teacher. Each student was tasked with designing a short lesson to present to the class and teach the teacher. The topic was up to the students to decide but, needed to be something they enjoyed doing such as a hobby or recently learned either in school or at home.

Alishia had no problem deciding the topic she would teach. You see, she just completed her first session of volleyball and she loved to practice passing or bumping the ball every chance she could get. Other than choosing the topic of the lesson, How to Bump a Volleyball, there were other requirements of the assignment such as written description of the Objective, Materials, and Step-by-step instruction of the activity to teach.

Alishia was very excited about the project and began working on writing out the steps at about 6pm. After about an hour of watching her struggle, I decided to offer my help as she was having a very difficult time describing the basic steps. This is tough task when breaking down a job even for adults as it can be very difficult to separate the steps from the many key points.

First thing I did to help Alishia was ask her to demonstrate for me the bump skill her coach had taught her and tell me in her own words everything she was doing to get in the perfect bumping position. "First, Dad, I have to get my hands ready," she said. "Great, do you think that could be the first step?", I asked. And, she wrote it down. Then, it dawned on me we are actually "breaking down a job" so why not introduce to her the JBS?

So, I quickly printed the JBS from your site Bryan and Alishia filled it out with not only all the steps but also the Key Points and Reasons to each step in about 20 minutes. Needless to say, she was so impressed with herself and of course so was I! At one point, she even said out loud, "Wow, you're really good at this Dad!" which was very amusing since she was doing all the work. Once she felt good about the Steps, Key Points, and Reasons, I ask her to go through all the Key Point and tell me which ones are Critical and which just make the step Easier. I thought this would be a difficult task for her but to my surprise again, she said, "Holding your hands together helps a lot but you can still bump it by just keeping your hands close together. They just might come apart." It only took another 3 or 4 minutes and she had worked through identifying all the Key Points for criticality. After Alishia had completed the entire JBS sheet, I helped her type it up on the computer into the Word doc template. She then searched the internet for the perfect volleyball "bump" photo to add to the sheet and added it as the final touch.

The next day, when I arrived home from work, Alishia was eagerly waiting at the door to greet me. "Dad, Dad, they got it! The whole class bumped the ball. It was a blast! Your sheet worked. "I had to confess to her that it wasn't "my" sheet it was her hard work and the sheet was just a great place for her to write out her instruction.

This experience for me solidified my the power and simplicity of the TWI methods and material. If a third grader can use it, I think now I have no more excuses for not introducing it to my entire team and breaking down our many jobs at the office.

Bryan, again I want to thank you for all your efforts to make the TWI material so readily available through your sites. I have also attached Alishia's first JBS on How to Bump a Volleyball for you to review and enjoy.

Quote of the Day, Year or Decade?

Don't expect to get any more "quotes of the day" (QOTD) from me...there are a gazillion websites out there serving that purpose. With out further delay, here is quite possibly the TWI Blog Quote of the Next Three to Five Years (QOT3Y), or until I find another one that catches my eye:

"If you can't serve as a good example you should at least serve as a terrible warning."

I like this quote. Someone sent it to me regarding bad leadership, but I think you could apply this to most anything. I'm in a bit of a stormy mood with the weather up here in the Northeast: -5 F for the past two days and 45F this morning...I refuse to watch the weather reports up here this time of year so I have had no warning of this 50 F swing...so as I turn off the thermostat this quote is sitting well with me this morning. ;-( <----cantankerous Vermonter

This quote reminds me of a way I think about Standard Work or a Job Breakdown Sheet although I admit it, in an odd sort of way. If the JBS isn't a good example of best practice, then it should serve as an indicator of terrible problems in the future. For example: Often times when writing breakdown sheets, or if you are watching them do the job, it is obvious that people know how to get the job done. When asked why it is done that way, the person may say, "I don't know, I just have to do it that way." This type of answer should be our indicator that something is wrong and could (no, will) fail in the future - a terrible warning.

If I've learned anything from key points in standard work it is this: they don't always burn you, but you will get burned. Remember that key points are quality, safety and best practices. A trick that welders use when their mask isn't handy is to close their eyes momentarily - but the weld flash through the eyelids will catch up to them eventually. Key point: wear your mask. This one is obvious. Most are not.

Another key point may be a timing action. I watched a person foul up a control sequence because of other distractions with the machine once while threading some new material, only to have to re-thread after cycle start. Asked when how often that problem happens, the reply was, "once in a while, when things get busy." The result is double the work, double the downtime, extra scrap, frustrated workers and managers. Key points, people.

Key points are the quintessential time bomb, waiting to go off and we are usually ignorant of these little monsters, because we don't take the time to notice them in plain sight. This is the real "Learning to See" waste skill that anyone can use in any situation. There are hundreds of thousands of little QCDSM time bombs in your operation right now, which one is going to blow next?

And don't get me going on how this quote does apply to our current situation of leadership at the business and government levels!!!

Job Instruction Breakdown Sheets Help Design Workcell Training

Another Job Instruction Session is almost in the can this week...

Job Breakdown Sheets help us see work in new ways. The example this week is in a workcell and with the team leader of that workcell. She wrote one job breakdown sheet for the entire job about (40 steps) in the workcell. Naturally, she had many questions:

1) "This sheet feels like it is too long, with too many steps, so we are not using this the way I think we should."

A JBS should be about 5-7 steps and no more than 10 if you can help it. Why? That's about all one person can retain in their memory. The problem she discovered was that many thought the JBS should be used as a reference. So, the natural inclination was to put it all in one sheet so it was seen as, "the book". The result is that no one really used it effectively. Bottom Line: Use the JI-KISS principle: Keep It Short & Simple.

2) "I know that breakdown sheets should be short, but I don't see anyway to break this job down any further."

To the genba we go! A further analysis of her 40 step job found logical stopping points in the job. This helped the team leader see where she could break the job down from one job into six tasks, two of them important quality checks. Doing this will help her achieve several goals that she has been struggling to meet:

Emphasizing quality checks. Breaking the quality checks out separately will help emphasize the key points of the job.

Meeting production goals. Currently, she does a lot of follow-up when training people because the training process is so lengthy - due to the one, 40 step JBS. By breaking it into six parts, she can train a person in one part and monitor the person in the workcell while working on the other five parts. Her plan will be to stagger the training throughout the day, and this is easier for her to do if the job is in smaller, digestible chunks. Bottom Line: the trainee is trained on the job, the team lead maintains a reasonable production level vs. zero, and she can monitor the trainee at the same time.

3) "We have loaded up the JBS with pictures. Should we have done that?"

Visual training aids are great. Pictures do speak a thousand words. Still, I hesitate to load up the pictures in a JBS for several reasons and only do so as a last resort:

Pictures often need updating. Products, materials, methods and tools will change as kaizen continues. Pictures need to be updated accordingly. This makes the cost of training go up and the delays of effective training increase. And if the JBS isn't updated immediately, the credibility of management support functions diminishes. Worse yet, the trainer is more inclined to NOT use the JBS because it is not up-to-date: "that isn't right anyway, so I'll just wing it."

Physical or Visual Aids in the Workplace are Better. If you are showing somebody how to route a flexible cable circuit through a molded assembly, nothing beats a physical model of the work itself. Make up a sample and keep it at the point of use. Your training aid is always up-to-date this way because the worker can create a new sample as needed. Picture maintenance is no longer required. This helps us also understand why the best JBS are usually written in pencil: the leaders in the area change it immediately to reflect the best standardized workplace practice.

Pictures work BEST when there is no other way to train. Sometimes a picture on the JBS is necessary. Perhaps you need a diagram of an assembly. Or perhaps a keypoint is related to something that can not be seen in the workplace, so a picture helps you describe the keypoint better. In a past life, a technician used x-rays of welded assemblies (he kept them from inspections) to show me how certain structures we designed were made. In this case the picture helped him do a better job of training.

The key point here is this:

The JBS is an aid FOR the trainer, it is NOT meant to replace her.

If your intent is to have documents replace your trainers, then you do not need Job Instruction Training, you need technical writers and illustrators.

Hopefully these tips help you like they are helping this team leader.

Job Instruction Training - JBS examples for Software and 5S signs

Part of 5S thinking is making workplace standards visual, simple and easy to understand. An inhouse signmaker will not only allow you to make customized visuals quickly, but you get it done cost effectively. For a couple hundred dollars a month, you can make just about anything you need for your plant, from pipe markers to banners.

One problem with this equipment is that the software is proprietary and you have to be a little crafty and coordinated to make decent signage. So, the software has little tricks that are like Microsoft standards, but not exactly. A job breakdown sheet helps you train somebody in those little tricks.

When it comes to making a good sign - bubbles are the enemy! Putting over the key points to preventing unsightly bubbles in an otherwise perfect sign is not easy to do. Enter Job Instruction.

Follow the link to the newly updated Job Instruction page, where you will find new examples of Job Breakdown Sheets that are essential to success when practicing Job Instruction.

5S & The Genba Training Standard

There is a lot of talk about 5S and how it is the cornerstone of lean manufacturing. If this is true, then why is it that all we ask operators to do when it comes to 5S is clean? Are we to believe that cleaning is the path to world class organizational performance? Why is 5S thought of as a housekeeping program? I’ve published an eight part article series on 5S and the Eight Wastes that addresses these questions about how 5S is a systematic thinking process – NOT a housekeeping campaign.

An offshoot of this systematic thinking was posed in a question by a co-worker in a recent Job Instruction (JI) session: “how am I supposed to audit the workplace when regarding 5S standards?” My reply is simple and something anyone can do: refer to the Job Breakdown sheet for any given job. In the header area of the Job Breakdown Sheet (JBS) you will find a field for tools, supplies and parts required to do the job:


If you have been through a JI session, you will know that one of the four “Get Ready” points for instruction is that we should “have the workplace properly arranged, just as a person is expected to keep it.” Using the JBS, we can determine what tools, supplies, information and parts are needed to do the job as defined by the JBS. Anyone who has been trained using the JI four-step method will know that it is difficult to perform the job correctly, safely and conscientiously (i.e., to the standard) without a properly arranged workplace.

If you are out on a 5S audit and find there isn’t a JBS for the job, create one. It will help process owners define and design a better organized workplace. You can practice observing and adopting a questioning method to coach people versus a telling method. Use the JBS to help formulate your questions: “how do you remove the o-ring?” “What happens if…?” “What is the correct oil to use on this step?” The answers to these questions will give you the facts required for good workplace design.

You can use the 5S thinking method to help you along at this point. In other words, 5S supports the work standards and JI helps you sustain the gains made by 5S through good training and genba follow-up. Are only the parts, tools, materials required for the job in the work area? Are they arranged properly? Are there any unnecessary steps to this job? How can they be eliminated? The two are mutually dependent and one reason why many people don’t make it past 1S or 2S levels. Plus, if you want Lean buy in, supporting co-workers in making their job safer, easier and more consistent sure beats cleaning and getting the plant “tour-ready”!

For a more detailed article series on 5S and the Eight Wastes, see my articles page.

Job Instruction Breakdown Sheets – Stabilizing for Improvement

I’m training a lean coordinator this week in how conduct Job Instruction Sessions. During the training, he needs to coach people out on the floor in breaking down jobs. An example he ran into yesterday highlights a common problem in manufacturing plants around the country and is one of the very subtle reasons why standards are hard to maintain and thus improve.

First consider the simple comparison of the headings on a breakdown sheet to the universal questions of "what, how, and why".

Important Steps are WHAT we are doing. (e.g., washing clothes)
Key Points are HOW we do it. (e.g., by hand or machine wash)
Reasons WHY help us emphasize the Key Points. (e.g., by hand for delicates, or machine wash makes the job easier for people and is safe for more durable textiles.)

Out of the laundromat and into the factory: a resistance welder has two electrodes that tarnish as they are used. An operator is expected to periodically remove the black residue from the electrodes. The important step here was recorded as “sand electrodes”. The key points were 1) between electrodes, 2) NOT bottoms, and 3) no black residue.

The problem here isn’t obvious, but it can result in two things happening and we see this all of the time. First, we think that WHAT we are doing is sanding, but WHAT we are really doing is cleaning. HOW we do it, or the key point then, is to sand. This sounds like nit-picking, but you need to put your kaizen hat on to understand this point. Someday, you must engage these employees to come up with better ways to do things. When I ask a person, “HOW can you improve the sanding”, what responses will I get? “Automate it! Have some else do it! Do it lightly! Sand it harder! Use a different grit size! All good suggestions, but remember, WHAT we are doing is not sanding, we are cleaning. The key point, or HOW we do it the job, is sanding.

So, now I ask the same question, but differently: “how can you improve the cleaning?” Now the possibilities are not limited to sanding, but new technologies, materials and methods. Good kaizen is now possible.

Second, when we mix up key points and important steps, it becomes difficult to maintain the standards. The reason for this is not as simple as the previous example, but we can illustrate this by focusing on SAFETY, which is always a key point and NEVER an important step. Before you call me crazy, let me explain:

Safety is ALWAYS a key point. Important steps are logical steps in the sequence of the work, those that actually advance the work. What does this mean, exactly? It means simply that value has been added to the product. So, if I list the important steps as 1) fixture plates, 2) put on gloves and mask 3) weld seam most people would find no problem with this. But what if I'm at the end of my shift and just completed step two? Do I expect the incoming welder to just pick up the stick and start welding on step three? Of course not. I fully expect him to do it safely. WHAT am I doing? Welding. HOW am I doing it? With gloves and mask. I'm doing the step safely. We can test this by asking ourselves some other fundamental kaizen-oriented questions. Does putting on gloves and mask advance the work, or add value to the product? If I improve welding by automating it, are their any potential safety problems that I solve or must consider? Knowing HOW we do things leads us to better thinking about the job.

This is why it is difficult to maintain standards. If people do the job and skip putting on their gloves, they can still go to step three and weld! They are still doing the job, but they are not doing it safely. The proof that safety is a key point is that we see these types of behavior all of the time. People learn shortcuts, really what they are doing is missing key points. Eventually though, those key points will come back to haunt you.

It is VERY easy to mix up our key points, thinking that they are important steps. This is natural as you begin breaking down jobs, but with the proper guidance from an experienced JI trainer, you will be able to see the possibilities for improvement in every important step and key point. This is why JI isn’t about documenting the job, it is about stabilizing the job so that you can think through further improvements in the future.

Key Points Don’t Always Hurt You…BUT They Do Hurt!

We bought this cool compact treadmill but found that it was marking up the wood floor, so I purchased a mat. The mat arrived a few days later in a taped cardboard box which was taped like a mummy. Anyway, out came the utility knife! I bent over the box without kneeling, reach as far forward as I could and plunged the blade into the gap between the flap and box. As I pulled the blade towards myself, I swiftly cut the taped seam. As the blade came closer, I just nicked my pant leg – a near miss!

I was lucky, but many people in factories are not as lucky as I was. At the recent TWI Summit, Don Dinero and I were talking about key points and how they don’t always burn you, but when they do…they hurt! When I had my near miss...something Don said quickly came to mind: key points don't alway hurt you, but eventually they will! If you have been in any of Don's JI sessions, you know his coffee maker story about key points. If you love coffee like I do, you will find his story about not knowing key points absolutely tragic ;)

Back to my knife problem. How many times have you done something a certain way, only to have it go wrong and you are left scratching your head – “what just happened here? Every other time I’ve done it this way, it worked just fine!” We end up writing it off as a fluke, failing to miss the critical passage of a missed key point.

Surprisingly, I see people cutting towards their bodies or digits often, making the same unconscious mistake that I made. And that is the problem, isn’t it? We do our jobs unconsciously, not really thinking about what we are doing because we think we know the job so well. The reality is, we are often just plain lucky.

I thought about my near miss and wrote a break down sheet so I could work my way through the potential problems I encountered. One of the problems was that if I had kneeled, I probably would have taken my time, in control and not rushed – rather than try to make one cut. If I was kneeling next to the box, I certainly wouldn’t have cut towards my legs.

Often people will purchase cut-proof gloves, safety knifes and fish knives and rely on the PPE to protect employees. Amazingly, I’ve seen people remove the guarding or mechanisms on safety knives, only so they become a more general purpose tool. The reality is this, unless people know the key points of the job, they will never know standard. If they don’t know the standard you are just plain lucky something hasn’t gone wrong today. The following link will bring you to my example JBS:

Job Instruction Breakdown Sheet Example

Job Breakdown Sheet Example - Agriculture

From Farm Work Simplification, an example of a Job Breakdown Sheet used with the 4-step Job Instruction Method:

What struck me as significant is that this was used an example for instructing people in an improved method over an old inefficient way. This dovetails perfectly with the Kaizen Teian or Suggestion System programs which change the standardized work routines. When themethod changes, everyone involved must be "retrained". The reality is, if you have used JI in the past with a JBS, then the "retraining" is made much easier for both trainer and trainee.