Integrated Lean Assessments

Lean is a journey and your success depends on knowing where you are every step of the way. The purpose of on-site assessment is to determine the current state of your plant or organization and compare it against a desired state. In this sense, on-site assessment is a tool that helps identify the gap between where you are and where you want to be.

This assessment is a quantitative and extremely detailed assessment that covers 13 major categories: product/material flow, visual management, waste elimination and CI, problem identification and elimination, information flow, quality management, policy deployment and alignment, employee involvement and development, standardization, safety/cleanliness and organization, equipment excellence, learning organization, and enterprise integration. Each category has many scripted individual questions and each question is scored. A detailed description of the response to each of the questions is provided and each category is summarized and an individual score for each category is provided. An overall score of the assessment is also provided. A summary section for the entire assessment is provided including: how to use the document, lean assessment summary of findings, and suggested lean plan and recommendations. The scoring is not based on how one organization is compared against another or against a benchmark. The scoring compares the organization against an "ideal state" of lean. This assessment tool is extremely effective in quantitatively comparing progress of an organization by a specific category and is very instrumental in identifying the most significant areas that need improvement and those that are improving. Most clients use this tool to both evaluate performance and to establish lean goals and objectives. This assessment requires two days within the organization directly observing work and interviewing employees. A response to all the questions is developed at the end of the two days. It then takes typically about a month to analyze the results, complete the document, and provide the report.

Customized assessments can also be designed and executed around specific customer requirements. Such an assessment was designed for ZF Industries, for example, to evaluate the ZF Industries Manufacturing Operating System.