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Chapter 11
People—Predictable
Interruption, Source of Ideas
People and their ideas for improvement are close to the heart of Lean
production. People can also seem to be close enough to the neck to cause
a pain there. Perhaps that is because of Lean leaders’ experience when
they go to start the production day only to find one or more people have
“called in” as unplanned absences. It is a big deal to be missing a person
or two when the day’s labor plan has been matched to the rhythm of
takt time, or the allotted time per workflow, or the expected number of
patients or customers. Without just the right number of people, flow does
not flow, pull can ...