Design for Operational Excellence: A Breakthrough Strategy for Business Growth

CHAPTER20The Fourth Principle: Create Standard Work for Flow

Once we’ve created a good visual lean flow that lets employees see how the flow should normally work and the present condition of the flow, our next step is to apply the concept of standard work to that flow. Think of this principle as raising the guardrails and narrowing the road to keep us on course.

Standard work is a fundamental tool in continuous improvement. It is usually applied at the process level to ensure that operators can perform a specific amount of work in a preset amount of time by following a prescribed method. Standard work is usually posted at the process in the form ...