Enabling management to verify that processes are being performed correctly and in an efficient manner, standardized work provides limitless opportunities for process improvements. So much so, that it has become a vital component of improvement efforts in Lean enterprise systems.
New Horizons in Standardized Work: Techniques for Manufacturing and Business Process Improvement is an all-inclusive guide to applying standardized work principles to virtually any business in any industry. It facilitates a fundamental understanding of standardized work principles and the logic behind their development, so readers can successfully extend and adapt them to their own work situation. It also:
- Supplies an accessible introduction to standardized work, from a cyclic perspective
- Explains how to instill and maintain quality in work processes right from the get go
- Provides the foundational basis required to apply standardized work concepts to a wide range of work situations
- Includes several appendices with helpful tips and problem-solving tools
In a step-by-step format, this book discusses the relationship of the work period and the takt time, as well as the importance of the three main worker interface levels in job design. It includes an array of examples that demonstrate how the concepts discussed can be applied across a range of industries-including health care, construction, business processes, and food services.
By going through the process of creating standardized work that Tim and Jeff have outlined in this book, you can go from having process knowledge that is only held by two or three people, to being able to post the correct standard work for doing the work every day. ... There can be no doubt that standardized work is a base for a solid Lean enterprise system. To continually improve your operating systems, there has to be a base to begin, and standardized work is that base.-Rick Harris, President, Harris Lean Systems
Tim Martin and Jeff Bell have assembled all of the process and accompanying details of how to build standard work, so that anyone in any field can learn and apply them. While learning by doing is a must to develop the skills of developing excellent standard work, New Horizons in Standardized Work gives you the baseline (and an abundance of supporting details) to follow to successfully become skilled at standard work and continuous improvement.-Jim Huntzinger, President, Lean Frontiers
