LANGUAGE OF LEAN
Pareto Principle
The 80/20 rule demonstrates that things have an unequal distribution. Out of 5 one will fly and have the most impact. With 20 percent of action 80 percent of your target state is already reached.
The Pareto Principle describes that 80% of problems can be closed with 20% of the causes. This principle is named after Vilfredo Pareto who found out that 80% of Italy’s wealth belonged to 20% of the population.
With this in mind it is worth to have a look at it.
Let us start with an assumption, according to the Pareto Principle it allows us to assume that
20% of input creates 80% of the output
20% of customers create 80% of your revenue
20% of causes create 80% of failures
20% of your employees create 80% of sales
and so on…
But before you run away now and think you have the answer hold a second. With the 80/20 rule you might tend to say that it always have to be 100 - it’s not. Make a deep analysis before making such statements! 20% of your employees can also make only 20% of sales or 60%. So before you fire 80% of your employees keep in mind that the Pareto Principle only gives you an idea on the distribution.
The whole idea behind it is that most things in life are not distributed evenly!
When we talk about value adding activities and the final product is 100% What is with all the necessary tasks, that are not adding any value to the final product but have to be done to run the company.
Or think about failures and finding the root cause, where to start to take actions? This is great when you think about a Failure Pareto and you want to satisfy your customer as quick as possible. Of course you are focusing first on the most failures and most of the time - not always - the other failures will disappear as well.
But most important of all, your customer gains trust in you that you have the competencies to do the job.
The key point is that most things are not in a 1/1 actio = reactio relationship.
So what can we use it for this 80/20 rule?
The Pareto Principle in first place supports you on realizing that most of the outcome are based on a minority of inputs. This means:
20% of input creates 80% of the output > try to reduce those non value adding activities
20% of customers create 80% of your revenue > install a key account manager that the customers knows he/she is important to your company > your customers success is your companies success
20% of causes create 80% of failures > Focus on fixing those failures first
20% of your employees create 80% of sales > get those employees a reward
We could continue on and on. To bring it to the point > focus on the 20% and not on everything at the same time.
Some examples that might help you for a better understanding:
Instead of spending a whole night to prepare a presentation and thinking about where to start > focus on one topic and do it. You will get a feedback anyway during the pitch. This feedback gives you the chance to take it and improve it.
Instead of focusing on one solution that might be the best and go through all the details. Make a list of three and go through the pros and cons with your colleagues that probably know the topic better anyway and based on their opinion make a decision with what to go on.
Maybe this examples are nuts for you but we want to emphasize that you should focus only on the important 20% and forget - for the moment - the other 80.
Last but not least - the Pareto Principle is not a law of nature it is a guideline to steer your focus and to save time on problem solving or simply getting your job done faster.
FMEA
The method of the FMEA - Failure Mode and Effect Analysis has been used for years in the automotive and manufacturing industry.
Failure Mode Effects Analysis - FMEA
The method of the FMEA - Failure Mode and Effect Analysis has been used for years in the automotive and manufacturing industry.
The risk analysis framework has been applied in a wide range of industrial sectors. The first areas of application were traditionally in product development. Based on this the integration of the production process planning and the production. In the automotive industry, the joint creation of FMEA for products and processes by Today customer, supplier and subcontractor are a natural part of a cooperation.
The user is guided through the "10 Steps to Creation of the FMEA".
Step 1 - Review the process
Use a process flow chart or an already existing value stream map to identify each part of a process
List all process steps in a FMEA table
If you think the list gets too long it might is. Use this chance to split up the process and cut the elephant. It makes more sense to work on smaller parts of the process instead of getting lost in the woods.
Step 2 - List potential failures
Review all existing data and documents that can give you a hint about each component that can lead to a failure
After having a complete list try to cut it down and to combine the parts of the initial list
The chances are high that you will identify several potential risks of failures for each component
Step 3 - List potential effects of failures
The effect is the outcome of a failure on the finished good or a process step
It is common that not only one effect will occur for a single failure, don’t be suprised
Step 4 - Assign the level of failure to risks
This is based on the consequences for each failure
Think about the ranking as the worst impact that it can have
Step 5 - Assign the possibility of occurrence
How high is the possibility of occurrence
What impact will it have if occur
Step 6 - How can it be detected
What are the chances that you will detect the failure before occurring
Step 7 - Calculate the RPN (Risk Priority Number)
Severity (S)
Severity x Occurence (S x O) = criticality
Severity x Occurence x Detection (S x O x D) = RPN
Step 8 - Define the action plan
With the decision making process followed by the prioritization from the RPN (Step 7) focus on the topics with the highest RPNs
Follow a classic action plan by defining who will be doing what till when
Step 9 - Take action
Get things done!
Implement the defined improvement actions
Follow the PDCA principle
Plan - done
Do - right now
Check - Step 10
Act - loop starts over
Step 10 - Re-evaluate the RPN
Time to check on the impact of your actions
Re-evaluate each potential failure identified and determine if the improvement measures have an effect or not
If not follow the PDCA and start over with step 8
The FMEA is linked to all CIP and Kaizen activities - there is always something to improve.
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