Standard Work

Why standard work?

Standard Work is perhaps the single most important lean principle

because it avoids backsliding into old habits

What's so wrong with backsliding into old habits?

How?

Standardized work doesn't just happen.

Without leadership,

people will naturally settle into doing things their own way.

Without Standard Work Instructions,

it's hard to remember what everyone agreed was

'the best way to do it'.

Without Standard Work templates,

it's hard to remember your standardized ways to standardize your work.

9 tools in 1:

1. Standard Work Instructions
2. Time Observation
3. Layout diagram spaghetti map
4. Value Add analysis & pie chart
5. Operator Work Load Balancing & bar chart
6. Standard Work Analysis
7. Standard Work Combination Chart
8. Change Over setup reduction
9. TWI Job Breakdown for employee training

Download free trial Standard Work Template

Standard Work Template

Yamazumi Board

also known as Workload Balancing

To rearrange tasks to eliminate waste and balance work loads.

Download free trial Yamazumi Chart template

Yamazumi Chart

also known as Layout Diagram or Spaghetti Map

Draw spaghetti maps and layout diagrams with this easy-to-use Excel template (without the cost and learning curve of Visio).

Free trial — as part of the Standard Work Combination Sheet

Standard Work Chart

Edit col class for Flex item 1 How Standard Work is layered

Leader Standard Work

To easily hide and unhide rows of popular lean metrics, and easily use everything you know about familiar Microsoft Excel to add unlimited additional rows of unique metrics to measure results for anything importan to your process

Process Analysis

To calculate:

• Takt Time
• Work Time Available
• Pitch Pulse Rate

Takt Time Calculation

A teachable, repeatable system to avoid common mistakes when calculating the correct number of kanbans to minimize stock outs and maximize throughput.

Very easy to use with default settings, yet powerful enough to easily handle unlimited types of Lead Time, unlimited sources of Demand, and user-defined formulas for Buffer and Safety margins.

Kanban Calculation

Easily illustrate PowerPoint, Word, and any other type of document with intuitive stick figure drawings that access the creative, intuitive, problem-solving side of the brain.

Especially useful for illustrating standardized work for Lean Office and Lean Healthcare

While the Standard Work Sheet is the right tool for highly repetitive processes, the Cross Functional Flowchart is often a better choice for less repetitive processes

(think sales order entry, engineering changes, and most Lean Administration processes)

Download free trial Swim Lane Flowchart

The visual Work Instructions template is the right tool for training new-hires, temporaries, and cross-trained workers — by providing pictures of each step, and written training instructions that are far more detailed than is appropriate for Standard Work Instructions.

Download free trial Work Instructions template

Instructor Notes used by a supervisor or trainer to prepare to effectively train a worker using the TWI Job Instructions training method.

Free trial — as part of the Standard Work Combination Sheet

This simple Word template is popular for documenting office procedures and less repetitive processes.

It comes with online help for how to insert screen shots and images, use numbered outlines, Link Icons, dynamic Table of Contents, and more features of Microsoft Word that your people probably would not use if they did not have this easy-to-use Word template with online training and videos.

Just because you trained everyone and got them to agree to swear to always do it the best way that everyone agreed to do it... does that mean that everyone will actually do it that way?

A management axiom is: "Expect people to do the right thing — and be prepared to correct."

This Standard Work Audit form is intended to be printed and completed in handwriting as the Auditor is making observations at the work area.

Then review with the Auditor's mentor, as part of Leader Standard Work.

Keep paper archives — to have a history of progress.

To audit workplace cleanliness and organization.

The only way to solve problems is to reveal them.

And problems are much more easily revealed in a clean, organized workplace.

Download free trial 5S Checklist

To maintain a master list of Standard Work Elements that can be exported to multiple Standard Work documents.

Learn more about Standard Work Estimating

Use your Tool Selection Matrix to choose the right tool.

Download free trial

Tool Selection Matrix