Transportation works. There are many names inside a factory, like material handlers, water spiders, forklift drivers, etc., and externally, truck drivers or milk runners, etc. Regardless of their names, are they treated with respect?
The Toyota Production System has seven types of Muda (Waste). One of them is waste in transportation. Does that mean they tell the transportation workers their work is a waste? Absolutely not. If such a comment was made, that person did not understand TPS at all. First, it is a violation of respecting the workers. Second, the root cause of why we need to transport is not because of the worker; it is because we could not design our processes to be continuous one-piece flow. Complete elimination of transportation is impossible.
If so, what roles should they play in the operations team?
My coach gave the transportation workers the role of “pacemaker.” Internal logistics is like the blood vessels and nerves of a body. Blood vessels and nerves have regular activities, but when there is a problem, they also react to solve the problem. Why not ask the transporters to work at a pace that highlights problems in operations? In addition to their regular responsibilities to deliver materials, the transporters have the functionality to detect problems and regulate the flow.
For any transporter to function as a pacemaker, we need the following;
1️⃣ Standardzied work
One truth about logistics work is that it isn’t standardized in a typical environment. Workers were under pressure not to run out of materials and needed to run around figuring out what to do. Locations of materials are in random places, which worker needs to search. In many areas, stealing materials from other lines is easier than finding the missing parts. On the other hand, there are hours when all lines are full, and the logistics person looks lazy.
All transportation works must be standardized. We could have “Fixed time, flexible volume” or “Flexible timing, fixed volume.” The first option is like a water spider, and the second is like a forklift. Once the pace of the work is determined, the route and the locations of the works need to be determined. We can conduct time studies like any work by selecting the work elements and sequence. We should never ask the worker to figure out how the logistics should work. A good standardized work should be given to them. Also, there should be no need to search for materials and information.
2️⃣ Heizyunka (Levelization)
The workload has to be leveled. This rule applies to transportation work, too.
A classic example is the truck. You might have a busy hour in which you have to load five trucks. During other hours, you might have no truck to load. The idea is to schedule the truck departure schedule in a leveled way, such as every X hour. Even if we can’t schedule the trucks, for example, due to local traffic rules, we can level the truck preparation by designing the shipping area. In any case, we must develop a leveling mechanism.
Leveling is also required on the production side. As I stated in my previous post, something not perfect but needs to be done.
3️⃣ Small lots of transportation
The key to standardized work and for Heizyunka to work correctly is considering smaller transportation lots. Many think the larger the transportation lot, the more efficient the material handler. This is a poor understanding. The larger the transportation lots, the less frequently the material is needed; therefore, the transportation work will become more random. Randomness is the opposite of standardized and leveled conditions. By making the smaller transportation sizes, we accomplish the conditions in which the mix of materials we deliver is almost the same every time. Of course, when we run the pull system, we should not be forced to deliver the same materials every time. These should change every time. However, keeping each item's transportation size small makes the mix similar. Note here that we should utilize the capacity of the transportation mode, but by keeping the small lots, we deliver more variety of materials each time.
4️⃣ Jidouka and Andon
How often do we train the transportation worker to stop? Probably never.
However, if the transportation worker can not follow the standardized work, they should stop and immediately notify the team leader, just like any production.
Many factories have beautiful 5S slogans. But, when we look at the logistics side, it is the old way. Transportation workers are getting pressured not to run out of materials. No standardized work was defined, but workers need to figure it out day by day. One day, someone comes and starts taping the floor and calls 5S. When your environment and work haven’t changed, can we follow the 5S? Absolutely not. If we really want to work on the 5S, working on the above three topics and giving the transportation workers the responsibility to stop and notify when there is a problem is necessary.
Once the transportation workers are trained to stop and notify problems, they provide valuable information and become “pacemakers.” They will connect the flow with real-time information. They also visit the warehouses for raw materials and finished goods so they can get information on supply chain updates. If they had to make a detour and delay, that is a problem to investigate. The cause might be something that could impact the whole plant later, such as leakages. After implementing the above topics, I noticed that many transportation workers suggested interesting ideas to improve flow.
I know many of the benefits are replaced by IT, AGVs, or any kind of new technology. But if we design it properly, the best position to think about the flow is the material handler. We recognize so many “walls” that we should destroy to improve the flow. We should respect the underutilized potential of transportation work.