6.9 Discussion and Practice

  1. Think about a process in your own life: getting ready for school or work in the morning, cooking dinner for you and your roommates, or studying for a big exam. Try drawing a current state map of this process. What opportunities for improvement can you find?

  2. The ultimate goal of a lean system is single-piece continuous flow. Is this realistic for all processes? What factors might call for batch sizes larger than one?

  3. Consider what performance metrics are used in a mass production system. What performance metrics are valued in a lean system?

  4. In your own words, describe takt time. Why is takt time so important in lean processes?

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