Comments on: Keep Calm and Stop the Line—Part 1

By: Christoph Roser

Christoph Roser — Tue, 09 Jan 2024 10:16:48 +0000

Hi Karel, i see it over and over again that “the machines/lines must run”, and then they are surprised that their inventory and its related cost goes through the roof…

By: Karel Vlček

Karel Vlček — Mon, 08 Jan 2024 18:17:51 +0000

Hello Christoph!

I’m so glad for this article! In my work I’m (not alone) in charge of WIP level and storages. The eagerness to produce for whatever cost, which you have described, is certainly apparent in our manufacturing peoples. But it’s hard to explain to them, that for the company, it’s better to stop. They have their means to continue production even without production orders. That’s to say, your article was somehow a relief to me. I will try to explain to managers tomorrow 🙂

Sincerely,
Karel

By: Sid joynson

Sid joynson — Thu, 04 Jan 2024 14:24:16 +0000

Line -stop is a central element of Toyota’s quality system. When Lean was extracted from TPS its importance was not appreciated. “Stopping the machine when there is trouble forces awareness on everyone. When a problem is clearly understood improvement is possible. As problems became clearer they showed me the direction to continue moving in.” Ohno. “It is a capital mistake to theorise before one has data & facts. … Insensibly one begins to twist facts to suit theories, instead of theories to suit facts.” – Sherlock Holmes. I use the following story to explain the power of line stop. I want you to solve a murder. There are two different methods you can choose. 1) You can be there when the murderer has just stuck the knife into the victim. The blood is running out of the wound & all the details of the event are visible. —- Or —- 2) Don’t go to the crime scene until 3 days after the stabbing & the blood is dry. The murderer has left the scene, & other than the body, no other details are visible. The main goal is now not to solve the problem, but to find who is to blame and cover our a###s. —– Been there done that! —- Which one would you chose? No brainer doesn’t come close. Line-stop also reinforces the Toyota long term view, they will lose production today to improve quality in the future,

By: Christoph Roser

Christoph Roser — Wed, 03 Jan 2024 10:15:15 +0000

Hello Andrew, good example from tesla on how NOT to do it. As for stopping the line: The preceding and following segments are decoupled by buffers, if these are full/empty respectively, they should stop, too 🙂

By: Andrey A

Andrey A — Tue, 02 Jan 2024 20:47:30 +0000

Towards the end, you’ve touched on one of the less obvious issues with “just stop the line”. This is the fact that a stoppage in one section does not automatically force the upstream to stop or slow down at the same time. Even if we ignore the fact that some processes can not be stopped easily, this can make an already bad situation much worse.

The root of the mentality to never stop the line is caused by the daily production goals being calculated and set based on the absolute best case theoretical scenario, with no regard for any contingencies and ordinary daily production issues.

A closely related one is performance based pay tied to numbers goals set based on the same mentality.

One time I heard an anecdote of something that happened at a Tesla factory. A body panel press got a piece of debris stuck in a die and every panel unit was coming out with a dent. when the workers told the supervisor, the super said something like “screw it! Let the rework department deal with it because I am not taking a hit to my downtime KPIs”

By: Mark

Mark — Tue, 02 Jan 2024 12:05:31 +0000

This is a very good article that focuses on the lack of understanding of another Toyota management principle called the Andon.
Definition: Andon is for any employee to call should the build in quality of the process be compromised which would lead to change in cycle time.
In other words, anyone, even the CEO can call the Andon.
Who is the Andon for: The Andon is there to protect the client.
What is the Andon as a principle: It is a fundamental culture building tool where quality is assured when the person calling the Andon knows they will be supported and appreciated.
Regards
Mark Forkun