Toyota Lean Management: A Lean Approach to Facility Layout

Imagine a facility with a perfect layout. It's spotlessly clean. Workers have the tools they need, where and when they need them. There are no bottlenecks, and work flows seamlessly throughout each shift. Don't pinch yourself. This isn't a dream. It's what a facility can become when it adopts the principles of Toyota Lean Management. Don't let your facility fall short. Read on to learn what lean management is, how it benefits your facility, and what core concepts you need to master to get started.

What Is Lean Warehouse Management?

Lean warehouse management is a philosophy devoted to streamlining operations. Toyota Lean Management was the genesis of this concept and continues to be the leading paradigm. It focuses on implementing warehouse techniques that improve efficiency and productivity by optimizing your warehouse space and minimizing waste. These warehouse techniques reduce operational friction and result in a multitude of benefits that pervade your organization.

Lean Warehousing Benefits

Toyota Lean Management isn't just a buzzword or corporate ideology. It offers tangible benefits that holistically improve warehouses on every level.

• Increased Efficiency. Lean principles reduce friction in process, workflow, management, and layout. They touch on every layer of an institution, allowing each to work optimally with the rest. Increased efficiency is the natural outcome of this process.
• Reduced Costs. Toyota Lean Management removes waste throughout an organization. That means less process waste, less wasted space, and lower labor costs due to less wasted effort. These incremental improvements facility-wide combine to create significant savings.
• Improved Quality. The continual improvement aspect of Toyota Lean Management focuses on adding quality and value at each step in the process. It helps identify and address errors quickly, reducing quality lapses and improving customer satisfaction.
• Greater Agility. The modern marketplace requires every business to adapt quickly to changes in the market. Lean principles help companies to keep up by maintaining ideal inventory levels and optimizing processes. When a facility carries only what it needs, adjusting course as the market demands is much easier.
• Enhanced Safety. Lean warehouses put a high value on organization and cleanliness. These principles make work sites inherently safer, as workers are less prone to accidents when job sites remain clean and orderly.

Toyota Lean Management Principles

Toyota Lean Management has two fundamental segments.

The 5S Method

The 5S Method is a simple continual practice that steers an organization towards optimization.

• Sort. Survey the warehouse for unused material and eliminate that clutter. In a warehouse setting, this might be stagnant inventory or obsolete equipment. Removing the unnecessary items frees up space.
• Systematize. Organize the remaining items for efficient use. This means making frequently used items more accessible than rarely used items. For example, a warehouse might shift faster-moving inventory closer to the packing stations.
• Shine. Create a culture of cleanliness. Tools and inventory should be put away when not in use, and everything should have a home that is accessible but out of the way. Make cleaning part of the daily routine to keep your facility consistently tidy.
• Standardize. Standardize procedures and protocols. Develop optimized procedures for all routine practices such as shipping, picking, restocking, and packing.
• Sustain. Conduct regular audits to ensure staff adhere to standardized procedures and review those procedures to ensure they remain optimized for your facility.

Continual Improvement

Continual improvement (sometimes called Kaizen) is the process of making incremental changes to your operation and process to improve efficiency and quality. This could take various forms within a warehouse setting, including continually examining the picking process to identify route inefficiencies and reorganizing to create solutions. This is a never-ending process that requires a bottom-up commitment to excellence. Still, successful implementation yields enormous benefits that radiate throughout the organization.

Steps for Implementation

The exact process for implementing Toyota Lean Management will vary from operation to operation. However, most will follow these nine basic steps.

1. Understand the Fundamentals. First, educate yourself and your management team on the fundamentals of Toyota Lean Management. Understanding the philosophy and its benefits is vital to implementing its methods.
2. Identify Value. Identify what value you seek to achieve from the process and consider how these align with customer needs. For example, you might seek to reduce shipping times by increasing storage and improving picking efficiency. Identifying your target values is essential for keeping your team aligned throughout the process.
3. Assess Your Starting Point. Conduct a thorough warehouse analysis of the current state of your facility. Examine your processes and identify areas of waste and inefficiency. Often, it is helpful to bring in fresh eyes in the form of a third-party consultant.
4. Set Clear Objectives. Set clear and measurable goals and use them to build a road map toward optimization. These goals give you markers to help your team track their progress toward your envisioned end state.
5. Engage and Train Employees. Get your entire staff involved in the process. Train everyone in lean management principles so that each employee can add value to the process.
6. Implement the 5S Method. Now it's time to start implementing the 5S method. Focus on the whole facility, but remember your road map and objectives.
7. Optimize Layout. As more efficient practices reveal themselves, restructure your facility’s layout to optimize routes better and organize materials.
8. Optimize Process. Once your facility’s optimal layout is established, finalize your standard processes.
9. Monitor and Adjust. Continue to monitor and examine your facility and processes. Look for new inefficiencies and make modifications where you can. Remember, continual improvement is a process of incremental changes.

Toyota Lean Management Masters

Lean management isn’t a singular event but a philosophy applied to each and every day. That can make it challenging to learn at first, but once you understand the core principles, you can start making improvements in as little as one week. Luckily, you don’t have to figure it all out on your own. We can help. With our free warehouse optimization consulting, we can help you embrace Toyota Lean Management and start growing toward your ideal facility right away. To learn more about lean management or to request a consultation, contact us online or visit one of our locations throughout Georgia and Florida.

Florida
Jacksonville
Lakeland
Ocala
Orlando
Tampa
Winter Haven

Georgia
Albany
Macon
Columbus
Valdosta