eTools

The Lean Desktop Application Assessment allows an individual or group to evaluate current information and data flow relative to Lean concepts and tools. The Assessment is a customizable Microsoft Excel spreadsheet that will serve as a baseline as improvements are made over time,

The Lean Desktop Application Assessment should take 5 - 10 minutes for an individual to complete and 30 - 45 minutes for a work group to complete (fill out, not create). Subsequent analysis for the work group may require an additional 1 - 2 hours to plan their first Lean Desktop project from the results of the assessment. The Assessment has 10 main categories that are each linked to an Instruction Sheet that details that particular category as well as to the Overview Sheet (Radar Chart). The score will assist you into allocating the appropriate resources in your Lean Desktop project. The Assessment has 10 main categories of 5S, Quality, Document Management, Visual Controls, Standard Work, Continuous Flow, Email, Leveling, Continuous Improvement, and Digital Waste Training, as well as 34 sub-categories.

The Lean Desktop Application Assessment will:

1. Provide a snapshot view of current information flow conditions that can be compared and monitored before, during, and after the implementation of Lean Desktop practices
2. Allow for prioritization of information flow issues relative to customer's requirements and provide guidance as to a plan for improvement

Begin your Lean information transformation today!

10 Categories, 34 Sub-categories, Microsoft Excel Spreadsheet fully customizable, Scoring and Instruction Sheets for each category, and the Lean Desktop Application Improvement Guide

Work load balancing is the optimal distribution of work units throughout the value stream to maintain takt time or pitch. Also known as employee/staff balancing or line balancing, work load balancing assures that now one worker is doing too much or too little work. Work load balancing begins with analyzing the current state of how work relative to the value stream is allocated and ends with an even and fair distribution of work, ensuring that customer demand is met with a continuous flow mentality. The Employee Balance eTool will make this process easier by allowing you to enter the various process activities and cycle times, as well as automatically displaying them in bar graph form. This eTool is a fully customizable Microsoft Excel file. Everything is here and ready for you to get started!

The Lean Office Assessment was created allowing a departmental work group or individual to continually assess their Lean or continuous improvement initiatives. The Lean Office Assessment is a customizable Microsoft Excel spreadsheet that will provide a baseline from which you can then improve your administrative processes. It also can assist in determining which Lean tools may be of value during a continuous improvement project. The Lean Office Assessment has 10 Lean building block categories that are further divided into 34 sub-categories that are individually scored. All categories are automatically linked to the Overview page which displays a Radar (or Spider) Chart of the total category scores. The score will assist you into allocating the appropriate resources in your Lean project. When conducting the Assessment the work group or individual must relate their database management procedures and Microsoft Office practices to the overall concepts and tools referenced. The 10 categories are: 5S, Quality, Physical Layout, Visual Controls, Standard Work, Continuous Flow, Pull Systems, Leveling, Continuous Improvement, and Training.

10 Categories, 34 Sub-categories, Microsoft Excel Spreadsheet fully customizable, Scoring and Instruction Sheets for each category, and the Lean Office Improvement Guide

This eTool is designed for you to gain a practical understanding of a simplified Pull system using kanbans for your daily Desktop (PC) work. A Pull system is set of rules or business standards that ensure nothing (i.e., work, information, data, and service) is produced by an upstream process until the downstream process signals the need for it. The signal is referred to as a Kanban. Since information (data, work, etc.) does not flow continuously between processes (i.e., departments or work groups), there needs to be something in place something between those processes that can assist the flow concept without wastes of upstream overproduction and downstream time delays. This can be accomplished by incorporating an In-process supermarket between processes utilizing the concept of the Pull system with Kanbans (i.e., eKanbans). An In-process supermarket is the temporary placement of work until it is needed by the downstream process.
The upstream process will be referred to the Work Kanban Folder (see illustration below). Work Kanbans are specific work requirements that have a defined cycle time. The downstream process will be the Critical Process Folder and Non-Critical Process Folder. Critical processes are those work requirements that are defined by the user (work that must be completed within a certain period of time, typically a day). Non-critical processes are those work requirements that can be done at some other time (another day which then may become a critical process). The worker must first "fill" the In-process supermarket (or Work Kanban Folder) with a list of both Critical and Non-critical processes. Once completed, each day (or what the time allocation that has been set to) the worker will "pull" work requirements from the Work Kanban Folder into either the Critical Process Folder or Non-Critical Process Folder. The Critical Process Folder will be green as long as the total time allocated is less than 80%. If work exceeds 80% then the folder turns red, signaling that nothing more can be "pulled" from the In-process Supermarket or the Non-Critical Process Folder. Both red and green are the visual indicators for this Pull system. The default time is 450 minutes, but can be easily changed. Let this eTool help you manage your daily work activities in a Lean way!
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