What is Standard Work?
Standard work is the foundation of Toyota Production System. If we think to Toyota Production System as house, standard work is the foundation of the house. Everything is built on the standards and is improved above it.
What is Standard Work?
Standard work is the doing the same works in the same sequence and in the same way in a specific time. Determining the standard works is based on the ensuring work safety and quality and working without waste.
Toyota’s definition on own site is like that: “The Toyota Production System organizes all jobs around human motion and creates an efficient production sequence without any “Muda.” Work organized in such a way is called standardized work. “
What are 3 Elements of Standard work?
- Takt time: Takt is a German word and it means pace. Takt time helps determining to our pace when we work and it shows how fast the customer wants the products. It is the time that the customer requests 1 product.
- Standard work sequence: It is operator’s working sequence in one cycle. (Cycle means operator’s all repeated and sequent works from beginning to end.)
- Standard In-Process Stock: SIPS is the minimum stock amount for that operators don’t wait each other due to speed and time differences. It provides that operators can repeat their standard works.
What is the Difference Between Standard Work and Work Standard?
It seems like quibble but they have certain definitions and they are different from each other. Standard work is the doing the same works in the same sequence and in the same way in a specific time as I said in the beginning. Work standards are the standards which are necessary for the ensuring of doing standard works. For example, it is a work standard that the operator is maximum 30 cm far from the screw box and automatic screwdriver. They must be also in the left side of the operator. It is a standard work that the operator takes the screw and automatic screwdriver on the way back after s/he finished the previous product. If you want to do this process with same work safety, quality, and efficiency conditions in any place of the world, you must create the same work standards.
Standard work is not something that is defined once and remains constant. Standard works must be defined again after each kaizen. The picture below is a good example to illustrate this.
Let’s end the writing with a word of Taiichi Ohno, father of lean production about standard work
Picture source:
https://leansmarts.com/lean-101/standard-work/
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