M4E #69: Heijunka (production leveling) under 10 minutes
Heijunka is a Japanese term (who would have guessed it, right?) used in the context of lean manufacturing. It can be translated as "production smoothing" or "production leveling." In the next video from Six Sigma Academy Amsterdam you will learn more about it in less than 10 minutes!
Time for Insights
The main idea behind heijunka is to create a more consistent and balanced production flow by leveling the production schedule and workload. This helps to avoid overburdening certain parts of the production process while leaving other parts idle, which can lead to inefficiencies, increased costs, and wasted resources.
Heijunka involves distributing production volume and mix evenly over a specific time period, often on a daily or weekly basis. By doing so, manufacturers can better respond to changes in customer demand, reduce inventory levels, and improve overall production efficiency. This approach helps to create a more flexible and responsive production system, enabling companies to adapt to fluctuations in customer orders more effectively.
Heijunka can be applied in other fields such as software development by balancing workloads and evenly distributing tasks, smoothing demand through regular feature releases, fostering flexibility by adapting to changing priorities, and promoting continuous improvement through iterative reviews and refinements. Maybe you can also apply it in personal tasks!