Creating Level Pull: A Lean Production-System Improvement Guide for Production-Control, Operations, and Engineering Professionals (Lean Tool Kit) [Spiral-bound]

Art Smalley (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 2004 | ISBN-10: 0974322504 | ISBN-13: 978-0974322506

Creating Level Pull shows you how to advance a lean manufacturing transformation from a focus on isolated improvements to improving the entire plant-wide production system by implementing a lean production control system. Lean efforts at most companies focus on point kaizen (e.g., reducing set up times, implementing 5S, etc.) that improves a small portion of the value stream running from raw materials to finished products. Or they focus on flow kaizen that improves the entire value stream for one product family. Creating Level Pull shows how companies can make the leap to system kaizen by introducing a lean production control system that ties together the flows of information and materials supporting every product family in a facility. With this system in place, each production activity requests precisely the materials it needs from the previous activity, and demand from the customer is leveled to smooth production activities throughout the plant. Creating Level Pull is written in plain English and walks you through the implementation process using a clear question-and-answer format, supported by diagrams, value-stream maps, and key formulas. Using a realistic example facility, the author shows you how to make the transition to a robust pull system. This involves answering a series of 12 critical questions including what items to hold in finished goods inventory and what items to make to order, how to buffer the system against instability, how to schedule batch processes, and how to level the production schedule. Careful attention to leveling (called heijunka) permits facilities to accommodate variations in demand with minimum inventories, capital costs, manpower, and production lead time.

Product Details

• Spiral-bound: 114 pages
• Publisher: Lean Enterprises Inst Inc (April 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0974322504
• ISBN-13: 978-0974322506
• Product Dimensions: 11 x 10.9 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #239,881 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Art Smalley is a consultant specializing in the area of methods for operational improvement and has served numerous major companies around the world. Art was one of the first American's to work for Toyota Motor Corporation in Japan first studying at different universities in Japan and then learning TPS manufacturing principles in the Kamigo engine plant where Taiichi Ohno was the founding plant manager. During his stay in Toyota Art played an instrumental role in the development and transfer of both precision equipment and TPS methods to Toyota's overseas plants.

After a decade in Japan, Art returned to the United States and served as Director of Lean Manufacturing for Donnelly Corporation. Art subsequently joined the international management consulting firm of McKinsey & Company and was one of the firm's leading experts in the area of lean manufacturing for a period of four years. During this time he counseled numerous Fortune 500 clients on operational matters involving lean implementation and lead specific cost, quality, and delivery improvement projects.

In 2003 Art launched his own company Art of Lean, Inc. and now divides his time serving a diverse base of manufacturing clients. In addition Art serves as senior faculty member and periodic adviser to the Lean Enterprise Institute and its global affiliates delivering lectures to leading manufacturing executives around the world.

Through the institute Art published the definitive workbook guide on implementing basic pull production methods entitled "Creating Level Pull" which was awarded a Shingo Prize for distinguished contribution to manufacturing knowledge in 2005. In 2006 Art was inducted as a lifetime member of the Shingo Prize for Excellence in recognition of his contributions to manufacturing. In 2008 Art also co-authored the Shingo Prize award winning book entitled "A3 Thinking" with his friend and colleague Professor Durward K. Sobek.

In his spare time Art enjoys time at home with his family, woodworking, playing golf, and reading books.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant! Key to succesfully draw a VSM "future state", June 15, 2005

By 

Michael Balle (Paris, FRANCE) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Creating Level Pull: A Lean Production-System Improvement Guide for Production-Control, Operations, and Engineering Professionals (Lean Tool Kit) (Spiral-bound)

Every other lean management book encourages you to use "Value Stream Mapping" to improve your processes. The idea is that, having seen what is wrong with current processes, you will somehow "solve problems" and "improve the flow". In practice, unfortunately, it's rarely so simple. The real challenge of Value Stream Mapping is not just drawing the "actual state", but coming up with a robust "future state", and then to visualize it on the shop floor - which is a skill in itself. And in fact, there is very little published about it, apart from this remarkable workbook.

As a lean consultant, helping clients to come up with a transformed process and to put on paper an "ideal state" has been a recurring stumbling block, if only because there are so many new things to explain: leveling, kanban, material handling - all at once! This workbook has helped me immensely because I now get clients to work through it step by step to clarify and share their understanding. It's both general in its scope and explanations, and very specific in how to attack the problem. Indeed, it's one of the very few lean books that gets into the real nitty-gritty of how to redesign a flow beyond telling you to "just do it".

I can't recommend Creating Level Pull strongly enough to all those who try to really implement lean (as opposed to just talk about it). This is it: this is where lean really happens: capability vs demand, creating the pacemaker, controlling production. I'm really impressed with it because it explains clearly and simply some tricky and counter-intuitive lean mechanisms, which are at the core of just-in-time. Definitely a key to successful lean implementations.

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great addition to my lean library, September 13, 2004

By 

Tom (Dayton, Ohio) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Creating Level Pull: A Lean Production-System Improvement Guide for Production-Control, Operations, and Engineering Professionals (Lean Tool Kit) (Spiral-bound)

I liked this workbook from the folks at LEI a lot. I have gotten lots of use out of Learning to See over the years and finally they have published a worthy follow up book that expands my thinking. This book provides a ton of meaty advice about the creation of a complete pull system for a typical discrete parts plant. Like the other stuff these guys write it is in the form of a case study answering sequential questions that unfold as you progress through the text.

The Pro's: 1) This format really helped me stay focused on the topic by providing a single complete end to end example. 2) The graphics and examples are very clear, 3) the 12 questions seem logical and complete, 4) the formulas are overall thinking are simple and logical, 5) It moves beyond a simple value stream with only one product The Con's: 1) I only have one really and it is true of all LEI stuff - I would like to see different examples from a variety of industries. Specifically some low volume high variation, more build to order stuff, and job shop or off the wall examples would help out a lot of us with diverse situations. (Maybe too much to ask for in one book). Overall though this is a minor detraction and it is a great learning aid. I can see using this a lot to lead some of the plants I am in charge of improving by expanding their pull systems in a step by step manner.

5.0 out of 5 stars Creating Level Pull - An excellent reference book, February 22, 2011

By 

Pandey Anupam (Basel, Switzerland) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Creating Level Pull: A Lean Production-System Improvement Guide for Production-Control, Operations, and Engineering Professionals (Lean Tool Kit) (Spiral-bound)

Creating Level Pull is an excellent book written for amatuer as well as professional lean deployers. Highly recommended inspite of its price.