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  Warning Poka-Yoke: Warning Poka-Yoke, as the name implies, provides the team member completing the process that they made an error on a proceeding step.

  Contact method Poke-Yoke: The contact method Poka-Yoke works under an assumption that a third party, either a device or a person, is monitoring the steps that are being taken to ensure no errors materialize. A spell-check program is a good example of this type of Poka-Yoke. Contact method Poka-Yoke is especially useful if the same task needs to be repeated as quickly as possible in order for the process to run smoothly.

  In order to determine where Poka-Yoke can be of the most use to your processes, the first thing you will need to do is to determine which steps in the process already cause the most harm, or have the most potential to cause harm, in the shortest period of time overall. You may want to start by determining the processes’ critical features and then looking at potential causes of failure before determining a signal method that will work effectively in the situation.

  Fixed Value Poka-Yoke: This type of Poka-Yoke is useful in situations where the overall process is quite short but requires the same step in the process to be run numerous times in a row. Poka-Yoke is useful in scenarios like this as they allow the person who is completing the process to know how many times they have repeated a specific step. As an example, think of an administrative assistant making numerous copies of a document who first counts out the amount of paper they need to ensure they don’t have to count each as it is made.

  Motion step Poka-Yoke: This type of Poka-Yoke is useful in situations where a team member needs to perform numerous different tasks, in a specific order, many times. This Poka-Yoke determines when specific steps have been completed to ensure the team member completing the process remains on track. As an example, consider any website where you are asked to enter your payment information. When the website tells you that you haven’t entered the correct payment details and can also track that you haven’t yet checked the box to prove you aren’t a robot, then it is an example of motion step Poka-Yoke.

  Self-Check Poka-Yoke: This type of Poka-Yoke requires the fewest additional resources to complete and instead just requires a little extra time to give the team member performing the process the opportunity to check their work before they move on to each new step. This is a good choice for scenarios where mistakes are extremely obvious, and its biggest drawback is that it requires extra time during which the team member must remain focused as well.

  Task Poka-Yoke: This type of Poka-Yoke is useful when it comes to processes that require a team member to directly come into contact with a customer as it helps cut down on mistakes that are made in live situations. A great example of this is the change machines at grocery stores that prevent cashiers from making mistakes when counting out change.

  Treatment Poka-Yoke: This type of Poka-Yoke works to ensure that the customer always has a positive and efficient interaction whenever they encounter a team member while working through the course of a specific process. The goal here is to standardize what team members say as much as possible in an effort to prevent any potential mistakes before they happen. This is especially useful for new businesses as it gives new team members something to fall back on when they encounter something new, which is basically everything at this point. A great example of this type of Poka-Yoke is the scripts call centers use.

  Tangible Poka-Yoke: This type of Poka-Yoke aims to standardize the physical element of the customer’s experience. In situations where individual customers have widely varying needs, this type of Poka-Yoke is often the best way to standardize service. A good example of this type of Poka-Yoke is uniforms.

  Preparation Poka-Yoke: This type of Poka-Yoke: aims to work with the customer directly to influence expectations and goals prior to the experience. Depending on the requirements surrounding the products or service in your business, this can be a great way to make sure that customers are prepared properly before they speak to a team member to ensure the whole process goes as smoothly as possible. A good example of this type of Poka-Yoke are menus that are visible to patrons of fast food restaurants before they order so the actual order process proceeds as smoothly as possible.

  Conclusion

  Thank you for making it through to the end of Lean Startup: The Complete Step-by-Step Lean Six Sigma Startup Guide, let’s hope it was informative and able to provide you with all of the tools you need to achieve your goals. Just because you’ve finished this book doesn’t mean there is nothing left to learn on the topic; expanding your horizons is the only way to find the mastery you seek. Additionally, it is important to keep in mind that, while there is some overlap between any two startups, much of what is going to take place is going to be largely unique to the startup in question.

  After all, isn’t the point of a startup to do something new? As such, it is important to understand that while following the Lean Startup strategy can certainly lead to success, sometimes you may have to make your own way because what you are trying to do is so out there that the existing methods of testing don’t apply. This doesn’t mean that you should abandon all that the Lean way of doing things has done for you thus far, it simply means that you will need to take what you have learned and use that to create logical ways to test whatever it is you are prototyping. Likewise, it is important to not get impatient and try to rush the process. After all, creating a viable product or service that a targeted portion of the audience is interested in is a marathon and not a sprint which means the slow and steady wins the race.

  Finally, if you found this book useful in any way, a review on Amazon is always appreciated!

  Lean Enterprise

  The Complete Step-by-Step Startup Guide to Building a Lean Business Using Six Sigma, Kanban & 5s Methodologies

  Introduction

  Congratulations on getting a copy of Lean Enterprise: The Complete Step-by-Step Startup Guide to Building a Lean Business Using Six Sigma, Kanban & 5s Methodologies. These days, it is more difficult than ever to build a business that can remain competitive in a world where customers can find your competition with just the click of a mouse. While there is only so much you can do when it comes to adjusting your profit margins, you can still find success by adjusting the method that will complete the processes in making your business successful.

  Making a business Lean can give it the competitive advantage that the perpetual buyers’ market takes away. However, it can be more difficult than it first appears which is why the following chapters will discuss everything you need to know in order to turn your business into a Lean mean fighting machine. First, you will learn all about the Lean system, its many benefits, and how you can get started creating your very own Lean system. Next, you will learn how to move the process forward in the right way by ensuring that you have the right goals in mind and that you go about implementing them in the best way possible.

  From there, you will learn how to create a value stream map which is vital when it comes to ensuring that your business’s various processes are truly on point before learning how to choose the Lean system that best supports the flow of production. You will then learn about the importance of standardization before learning about the several important Lean tools which you can use to really whip your business into shape.

  There are plenty of books on this subject on the market, thanks again for choosing this one! Every effort was made to ensure it is full of as much useful information as possible, please enjoy!

  Chapter 1: Why Lean Matters to Your Enterprise

  Lean principles were first discussed by an MIT student by the name of John Krafcik in his master’s thesis. Before starting at MIT, Krafcik had already spent time as an engineer with both Toyota and GM, and he used what he learned from the Japanese manufacturing sector to posit a number of standards that he believed could help businesses of all shapes and sizes operate more efficiently.

  The basic idea is that, regardless of what type of business a business is in, it is still just a group of interconnected proce
sses. These interconnected processes can be categorized such as primary processes and secondary processes. The primary processes are those that directly create value for the business. Meanwhile, secondary processes are necessary to ensure the primary processes run smoothly. Regardless of the type of process you look at, you will find that they are all made up of a number of steps that can be carried out in a way that ensures they work as effectively as possible and that they need to be viewed as a whole in order for an effective analysis to be completed.

  As a whole, you can think of the Lean process as a group of useful tools that can be called upon to identify waste in the current paradigm either for the business as a whole or for its upcoming projects. Specific focus is also given to reducing costs and improving production whenever possible. This can be accomplished by identifying individual steps and then considering the ways they can be completed more effectively. Some tools that are commonly used in the process include:

  5S value stream mapping

  error-proofing

  elimination of time batching

  restructuring of working cells

  control charts

  rank order clustering

  multi-process handling

  total productive maintenance

  mixed model processing

  single point scheduling

  single-minute exchange of die or SMED

  pull systems

  Beyond these tools, Lean is also comprised of a number of principles that are loosely-connected around the twin ideas of the elimination of waste and the reduction of costs as much as possible. These include:

  flexibility

  automation

  visual control

  production flow

  continuous improvement

  load leveling

  waste minimization

  reliable quality and pull processing

  building relationships with suppliers

  When used correctly, these principles will ultimately result in a dramatic increase in profitability. When given the opportunity, the Lean process strives to ensure the required items get to the required space in the required period of time. More importantly, however, it also works to ensure the ideal amount of items move as needed in order to achieve a stable workflow that can be altered as needed without creating excess waste.

  This is most typically achieved via the tools listed above but still requires extreme buy-in at all levels of your organization if you ever hope for it to be effective in both the short and the long-term. Ultimately, the Lean system is only going to be as strong as the tools your company is using to implement it, and these tools will only ever be effective in situations where its values are expressed and understood.

  Important principles

  While it was originally developed with a focus on production and manufacturing, Lean proved to be so effective that it has since been adapted for use in virtually every type of business. Before adopting the Lean process, businesses have only two primary tenants. The first one focuses on the importance of incremental improvement while the other one is the respect for people both external and internal.

  Incremental improvement: The idea behind the importance of continuous improvement is based on three principles. The first is known as the Genchi Genbutsu and is discussed in detail below. The second is known as Kaizen, and it has its own chapter later in this book. Finally, in order for continuous improvement to be truly effective, it is important to understand that you must lead your business with a clear knowledge of the challenges you are most likely to face as it is the only way to determine how to deal with them effectively.

  When doing so, it is important to approach each challenge with the appropriate mindset which is one that supports the idea that every challenge leads to growth, which, in turn, leads to positive progress. Finally, you will also want to ensure that you take the time to challenge your preconceptions regularly as you will never know when your business might end up operating on an assumption that is no longer true. This is ultimately the best way to find unexpected waste which will ensure that you really start to improve internally not just in the short-term but in the long-term as well.

  Respect for people: This tenant is both internal and external as it applies equally to your own people as well as to your customers. Respecting the customers means going the extra mile when it comes to considering their problems and listening to what they have to say. When it comes to respecting your team, a strong internal culture that is dedicated to the idea of teamwork is a must. This should further express itself in an implied commitment to improving the team as a means of improving the company as a whole.

  Getting an edge

  Prior to the digital age, businesses could determine their sales margin by starting with all the relevant costs, adding on a reasonable profit margin and calling it a day. Unfortunately, the prevalence of screens in today’s society means that everyone is a bargain shopper, simply because it takes so little effort. This, in turn, means that you are not only competing against other businesses in your city, county or state, you are now competing with businesses all around the world as well. As such, there are only a few options when it comes to squeaking by with any profit margin whatsoever. Companies can either add additional real or perceived value, or they can reduce the amount of waste they are paying for as much as possible.

  Most businesses find that it is better to determine their margins by looking at what customers are likely willing to pay for specific goods or service and then working backward from there. Ideally, you will be able to reduce that price by five percent to ensure you are truly competitive in a cost-conscious world. While it might not seem like much, this extra five percent is extremely important as customers are constantly on the lookout for the next sale, regardless of how much is actually being saved. The mental benefits that come along with being five percent better than those around them will be more than enough for them to commit to your product or service over all the rest.

  Value add: Regardless of what your business does, you will find that there are Lean principles that can be implemented in order to improve the overall amount of value you are providing for your customers while also showing them you appreciate their business and respect them as individuals. What’s more, you will be able to address the potential for waste in your organization while also maintaining flow and work to achieve perfection.

  Often, you can manage this by doing something as simple as listening to your customers’ specific wants and needs which will make it easier for you to determine what they really value the most when it comes to the niche your company habits. Value is most often generated by adding on something tangible that either improves or modifies the most common aspects of the good or service being provided. The goal is that this improvement is something the customer is willing to pay for, so when they receive it for free, they see this as a viable reason for your service to cost more out of the gate. It is also very important that the added value is very easy for the customer to claim because otherwise, they will feel that you have misled them.

  Cost reduction: As the Lean system is already quite big on cutting down on waste in all of its forms, it should come as no surprise that it has some ideas when it comes to cost-reducing measures. For starters, it is important to understand that when it comes to Lean, all the different types of waste can be broken down into three types.

  Muri is the name for the waste that forms when there is too much variation within common processes. Muda is the name given to seven different types of waste including:

  Transportation waste is formed when parts, materials or information for a specific task are not available because the process for allocating resources for active products isn’t where it should be.

  Waiting waste is created if a portion of the production chain has ideal time when they are not actively working on a task.

  Overproduction waste is common if the demand exceeds supply, and there is no plan in place to use this situation to the business’s advantage.
The Lean systems are designed to ensure that this number reaches zero so supply and demand are always in balance with one another.

  Defective waste is known to appear when some segment of the standard operating process generates some issue that needs to be sorted at some point down the line.

  Inventory waste is known to appear if the production chain ends up remaining idle between runs because it doesn’t have the physical materials needed to be constantly running.

  Movement waste is generated when required parts, materials or information needs to be moved around successfully to complete a specific step in the process.

  Additional processing waste is generated if work is completed that does not generate value or adds value for the company.

  A commonly added eighth muda is the waste created by the underutilization of your team. This can occur whenever any member of the team is placed in a position that doesn’t utilize them to their full potential. It can also refer to the waste that occurs when team members have to perform tasks for which they have not been properly trained.