Goods to Person (also known as Goods to Man) technology affords efficiency, speed, and accuracy from order picking to shipping. How is this done in large warehouse distribution centers? The Goods to Person Concept: “The goods to person concept is straightforward – associates stay in one location while the items to be picked and packed [...]
When constructing control charts with subgroups, there are two sources of variation: between subgroups and within subgroups. Standard Shewhart Xbar-R or S charts assume that the within subgroup variation is dominant. But that is not always the case. When that assumption is violated, what should be done? In an earlier blog, we discussed control chart [...]
Bootstrap Resampling takes an initial sample and randomly samples from that repeatedly with replacement. One then uses the data from the resamples to estimate various statistics. Bootstrap Resampling should be in your statistical toolkit. We will explore the Bootstrap approach from various sources. First, Mike Marin, Professor at the University of British Columbia clearly explains [...]
Warehouses are everywhere. How are some companies using Lean in their warehouses? We will look at four: INFILCO Ryder United Electric Supply Regal Plastics And finish with a 3 minute virtual tour of a Lean warehouse. INFILCO INFILCO Degremont’s 3W Warehouse applied Lean management principles using A3 Problem-solving, 5S, and visual controls. Their improvement project [...]
Maton Guitars in Australia manufactures handcrafted high quality guitars. Learn how they use mass balance to lean their guitar-making processes. In this video from Sustainability Victoria Government, Ian Young, Sustainability and Business Excellence Manager at Maton Guitars, discusses the use of mass balance to optimize the use of all the resources focusing on the materials [...]
Having access to an online game simulator is quite useful in teaching various aspects of statistics. We will look at three in order of complexity: a basic projectile simulator, a catapult and the trebuchet. While using an online simulator loses the hands-on aspect and the associated errors, it relieves us of having to have the [...]
Use a Yamazumi Chart to highlight the three broad types of process deficiencies to improve in Lean: Muda (Waste), Mura (Unevenness), and Muri (Overburden). Yamazumi is a Japanese word translated as huge mound, heap, or pile. A Yamazumi chart is simply a stacked bar graph. But by plotting process cycle time by process steps and [...]
We’ve heard a lot about the Plan/Do/Check/Act (PDCA) and the Plan/Do/Study/Act (PDSA) Cycles. What are they? Are they different? Are they related? We will first hear from two experts: The first, explaining PDCA and the second, explaining PDSA. Then we’ll explore the history, differences, and relationship via an important paper that includes W.W. Edwards Deming’s [...]
Visual Management. What is it? Why use it? Examples. Do’s and Don’t’s. To address these, we first hear from two experts giving their take on visual management. Then we’ll get information on why visual management boards fail and finish with a look at what a professional visual management company has to say. Craig Otto, Production Support [...]
Predictive Maintenance is used to assess the state of operating equipment, materials, or other items in order to determine when maintenance is necessary. Machine Learning, Artificial Intelligence, and Statistical Methods are helpful in making the predictions in order to prevent more costly breakdowns later. Ryan Chan, CEO at Upkeep Maintenance Management, discusses Predictive Maintenance. “Predictive [...]
