In a previous article, “Productivity or Kosu: Faster or in Less Time?”, I introduced kosu as a more honest way to talk about labour productivity. The core idea was simple: instead of counting pieces per person per hour, kosu measures how much direct labour time you actually consume per good unit. That earlier piece showed
Assembly lines are expected to absorb demand changes smoothly. They rarely do. When demand increases, operators feel it first. They struggle to finish before the takt pulse, idling the next station, or they move with the unit to catch up. Overtime is used to recover arrears, or extra people are added after the fact, not
In my earlier article on constraint‑aware line balancing, I explored how real‑world assembly lines rarely behave like the tidy line balance charts and yamazumi’s we sketch during design. Task dependencies, operator interference, spatial constraints — they all complicate the balancing process. Yet even when the balance looks right, another layer of complexity emerges: ensuring operators
Line balancing is often described as the theory and relatively simple act of more or less evenly loading operators and stations with work. This Lean principle creates flow, limits overproduction, reduces work-in-process, and creates a balanced workload across all operators – without exceeding takt time. Most introductions to line balancing, therefore, start with the same
One of the basic concepts in Lean thinking, if not thé underlying concept, is the concept of “waste”. A recent discussion on LinkedIn made me rethink the way in which I treat this important notion when working on improvements with client teams. The discussion centered around the translation of the word “muda” meaning “unnecessary”, and
One of the ongoing discussions I have on the genba, is the discussion on what productivity is, and how to measure it to spark and track improvement in productivity. Productivity is not the same as efficiency. Unfortunately, people commonly throw both terms into the conversation without properly defining what they mean with these words. During
