Technical Lean Tools 04: Heijunka

Module: 05 Technical Lean Tools
Section: 04 Heijunka
Course Description:
This section covers the concept of Heijunka or load leveling. After an initial discussion of the thinking behind the lean tool, several different leveling and balancing approaches are studied. The result is a demonstration of the most effective methods of sequencing production in order to minimize inventory and manpower. As Heijunka can be difficult to grasp initially, a brief summary of concepts is included at the end of the section.
Material covered in this section:
Heijunka thinking
Production leveling
Resource stabilization
Leveling production by volume
Method 1
Method 2
Leveling by volume and style
Method 3
Manpower efficiency
Conveyor example
Heijunka summary
This section is structured to first present the benefits of load leveling followed by a review of the benefits and drawbacks to traditional production sequences. The material follows a logical path to the final method of production leveling by volume and sequence and demonstrates the potential reductions in waste. Heijunka is a powerful lean tool capable of dramatically reducing overhead costs and manpower requirements. This section builds upon the foundation of the previous tools and bridges the gap to the remaining high level skills.
See more at www.conceptsoflean.com

[@BoredAtWork2000]

Thank you. This is one of those lean concepts that is pretty basic, but oh so difficult to explain (sometimes). Your examples make the concept crystal clear and easy to present to someone who doesn't already "get it".

[@LeanSixSigmaTrainingLtd]

Very well presented by Jacob. A difficult concept explained extremely well by Jacob... and with good accompanying graphics.

[@rgrana1977]

Thanks a lot Jacob! I'm a Black Belt in Lean Six Sigma and I find your videos really clear and interesting

[@nolelover]

Amazing, thank you for such clarity!

[@manojillangasooriya3590]

thank you very much for such a wonderful video series

[@PetraNovacekova]

Thanks for this video. Very understandable and helpful

[@gkntext]

Great video. Shared with good presentation.

[@peteraugust5295]

Great Video, thank you very much!

[@alstarvlbl]

Great video! Verry helpful.

[@gauravpandey6000]

Great explanation

[@thelaktionov4329]

cool thing! thank you

[@shiveshverma5795]

A key point that got missed emphasized in the discussion is that to enable Heijunka in a manufacturing environment , very small set-up and changeover times are required and would be a prerequisite. SMED concept in lean discusses that but worth stressing here as well.

[@nebreprah]

3 very boring things equal something very boring. no style.

[@davidsimonett8043]

Great video presentation on Heijunka! We are a small manufacturer and would like to implement sequential scheduling as you described. Is there scheduling software that will take our orders and develop the production schedule based on these concepts? Thanks

[@dayenipedroso2710]

help me- gostaria de assistir a este vídeo com legendas em português

[@dayenipedroso2710]

I loved the video. thanks for lean class. I do not have to put subtitles in pPortuguese ? I hope to learn more from subtitles . Thank good work !!!

[@mahit7]

Excellent explanation. Mr Jacob, have you written a book on Lean concepts and tools? Any additional resources?

[@Conceptsoflean]

+mahit ohri No book yet but have a few things in the works. In the meantime, check out www.conceptsoflean.com if you haven't already. It's got some additional downloadable worksheets and handouts.

[@maevic11]

Thanks for this video. Very informative. I have one question though, I hope you can help. On your lecture, it actually tells me that in order to balance out the cycle time against the takt time, I can change the sequence of the products I make instead of batching it or creating an inventory. But what if the changeover time (from one product to the next) is also time taking, in other words, it will increase my production time. What technique or tool you can advise? Thanks in advance.

[@Conceptsoflean]

+Mae Ann de Leon Great question! We always experience some downtime when making changeovers. The trick is to work on problem solving to minimize the the changeover time so we can balance the cycle time without building inventory. Take a look our Pull System Section for more information: www.conceptsoflean.com/Technical_Tools_06.html

[@z3mikus]

I really enjoy your presentations. Does production leveling will work if product A,B,C will require set-ups every time?

[@Conceptsoflean]

Thanks for the kind words. The ideas of leveling still apply even with setup/change over time. Once way to combat the impact of change over is to work on reducing the time required to make these setup changes. These types of activities make great early kaizen projects that allow team members to see real world results of implementing lean. For more information on the value of reducing change over time, see Technical Lean Tools 06: Pull System(s) (about the 20 min mark). Thanks.

[@andreaswold8490]

I need you to take my production logistics exam