Managing Standard Work at Plants With Many Assembly Lines Bonus Q&A from IndustryWeek's Highlights from Toyota Talent webcast, featuring David Meier
Question from Walt:
Do you think the work instructions should be posted at the workstations? I work in a plant that has 9 assembly lines with 70-90 operators each that will run a combination of 200+ models on any line. How do I manage the standard work for this application?
Answer from David Meier:
Walt -- I would not post all work instructions at the work place. You need to post critical information only (info that NEEDS to be confirmed with follow-up).
As for the other challenge -- BREAK IT DOWN -- use the same principle as breaking down a job. Look at all the models and group the work in similar groupings. For example maybe they have common fundamental skills. How much difference is there between models? Is it different parts for each model? Maybe same parts different color or whatever. I think you may be going into too much detail on standard work. It is not intended to show every detail of the work.
