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Lean, Maintenance and Continuous Improvement

Lean as a system, problem solving, DMAIC, maintenance, TPM, OEE, warehousing and turnarounds.

13 chapters · About 146 minutes · Free to read

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KEVOS® LibraryOPERATIONSAPDCLean, Maintenanceand ContinuousImprovementLIBRARY COLLECTION13 CHAPTERS

Inside this book

Chapters

  1. 01Lean, Six Sigma or the theory of constraints: choosing an improvement approach that fits the problemLean attacks waste, Six Sigma attacks variation and the theory of constraints attacks the bottleneck. How to diagnose which problem you have, combine the methods and make results last.
  2. 02Small, frequent improvement on the shop floor: gemba walks, point kaizen and keeping 5S aliveMost waste is invisible to the people who see it every day. How to observe work properly, run fast local improvement cycles, lock in better methods and keep workplace order from fading.
  3. 03A3 problem solving and PDCA: structured improvement on one pageThe A3 method puts a whole problem-solving story on one sheet, from current condition to causes, countermeasures and results. How to use it well and develop people who improve the work.
  4. 04Fixing a recurring problem with DMAIC: define, measure, analyse, improve, controlSome problems keep coming back however many quick fixes are tried. How the DMAIC method moves from a clear problem statement to verified causes, tested fixes and a gain that lasts.
  5. 05From owner-dependent to process-run: building standard operating procedures in a small companyWhy many small businesses only work when the owner is present, and a step-by-step method for writing SOPs that capture know-how, reduce errors and let the business run without you.
  6. 06A weekly execution system for small teams: goals, difficulties, rituals, scoreboards and the improvement cycleA seven-step framework for turning goals into weekly action: write short-term goal statements, plan around difficulties, set success rituals, track effort and result scores, and improve weekly.
  7. 07Measuring productivity: output per input, labour measures and overall equipment effectivenessHow to measure productivity in a small business or factory: the output–input formula, choosing the right measures, OEE with a worked example, the six big losses, and avoiding perverse targets.
  8. 08Maintenance that prevents breakdowns: choosing a strategy for each machine in a small factoryRunning equipment until it breaks feels cheap until the breakdown comes at the worst time. How to rank machines, match maintenance to each, involve operators and learn from repeat failures.
  9. 09Total productive maintenance: operators, maintainers and managers sharing responsibility for equipmentWhat TPM is, the six big losses, the pillars of a TPM program, how autonomous maintenance works step by step and how a small factory can start without a large program office.
  10. 10Lean warehousing and material flow: slotting, picking, replenishment and stock you can trustA busy store is not necessarily a productive one. How to cut travel and searching, slot stock by how often it moves, keep pick faces full, count accurately and feed production on time.
  11. 11Stock record accuracy: cycle counting, root causes and why the system disagrees with the shelfWhen system stock and shelf stock disagree, planning, promises and accounts all suffer. How to measure record accuracy, run cycle counts, find root causes and prevent errors.
  12. 12Cutting energy use in business premises: finding where it goes and fixing the right things firstEnergy bills say how much you used, not why. How to read interval data, find waste in base load, cooling, air, motors and lighting, fix the cheap things first and prove the savings.
  13. 13Turning around an operation without cutting the workforce: stabilise, measure, focus and redeployWhen costs must fall and quality is slipping, cutting people is the obvious lever and often the wrong one. How to stabilise, measure, focus, structure improvement and redeploy capacity.

These topic-based reading collections are organised alphabetically; chapters may be read in any order.

Apply This in Practice

Use these KEVOS® tools to try the method from this reading with your own numbers.

Learning pathway

Measure and value equipment losses

Learn how OEE separates availability, performance and quality losses, then analyse a production period of your own.

  1. 1 Learn

    Read Measuring productivity: output per input, labour measures and overall equipment effectiveness in Lean, Maintenance and Continuous Improvement.

    How to measure productivity in a small business or factory: the output–input formula, choosing the right measures, OEE with a worked example, the six big losses, and avoiding perverse targets.

  2. 2 Apply

    Open OEE and Downtime Analysis and enter your own figures.

    How effectively is this production asset being used?

  3. 3 Verify

    Read the tool’s feasibility and verification checks under the result, and test your answer against its stated limitations:

    • Performance above 100% indicates an ideal cycle time that is too long or a wrong count
    • Rework counts as a quality loss

  4. 4 Improve

    Download the decision report or copy the link with your inputs to keep a record, then change one assumption at a time and compare.

    Next reading: Putting a dollar value on equipment losses: using OEE to guide capacity and capital decisions in Valuing Time, Delay and Uncertainty.

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