Have you ever gotten to that point on a shop floor layout improvement project where you feel confused and unsure whether you are ready to implement the solution?
You've done the planning, had the debates and then found yourself (and your team) going round in circles.
Why not stop and walk through the proposed solution?
When you walk through the improvement with your colleagues, step by step, you can question whether the proposed layout makes sense.
What looks good on paper might not make sense when you are standing on the shop floor and trying to follow the products around the new layout.
Once you have agreed on the layout don't forget that you can use the early days of the new layout to look for any other ideas to improve the area that you discover whilst using the new layout in anger.
The point of this post is simple - if you are going round in circles with your improvements (whether it is a layout improvement, or any other kind of improvement) stop and walk through the improvement step by step and make sure that it makes sense, changing things as you need to.
Giles
About the author
Giles Johnston is a Chartered Engineer who specialises in helping businesses to grow and improve through better business processes.
Giles is also the author of Business Process Re-Engineering and creator of the 'Making It Happen' continuous improvement toolkit.
You've done the planning, had the debates and then found yourself (and your team) going round in circles.
Why not stop and walk through the proposed solution?
When you walk through the improvement with your colleagues, step by step, you can question whether the proposed layout makes sense.
What looks good on paper might not make sense when you are standing on the shop floor and trying to follow the products around the new layout.
Once you have agreed on the layout don't forget that you can use the early days of the new layout to look for any other ideas to improve the area that you discover whilst using the new layout in anger.
The point of this post is simple - if you are going round in circles with your improvements (whether it is a layout improvement, or any other kind of improvement) stop and walk through the improvement step by step and make sure that it makes sense, changing things as you need to.
Giles
About the author
Giles Johnston is a Chartered Engineer who specialises in helping businesses to grow and improve through better business processes.
Giles is also the author of Business Process Re-Engineering and creator of the 'Making It Happen' continuous improvement toolkit.