The Fundamentals Of

Standard Work

Quick Review
 Standard Work Is:

• The best combination of people and equipment,

• Utilizing the minimum amount of labor, space,

inventory, and equipment,

• For a specific level of customer demand

The way we choreograph the operators within a process for a given

level of demand (takt time)
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 Standard Work

Standardization …
• Reduces Variation
• Enables Flow
• Eliminates Waste
• Fuels Continuous Improvement
... in quest of the:

shortest lead-time

highest quality

lowest cost

Standard Work is part of the foundation

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 Why Implement Standard Work

• To make it possible to identify and eliminate variations in

operator work

• To sustain the gains achieved from improvement

activities

• To provide a baseline for future improvement

Standard work and variation reduction are key

in creating a foundation of stability.

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 How Leaders Support Standard Work

• Ensure that SW is Documented for Each Operator

• Ensure that SW Documentation is Displayed

• Ensure that all operators are trained and follow

agreed upon SW

• Encourage Experimentation and revisions to SW

after improvements are found

• Repeat above cycle

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 Applying Standard Work

• Team Leaders determine the SW work goal (shared by

work team).
• Everyone seeks to improve against the standard focusing
on identifying and eliminating waste
• Each process in the flow becomes the customer of the
preceding process.
• Each preceding process becomes a just-in-time supplier
for the consuming process (RM towards FG).
• Operational tests, Quality checks, 5S actions, and
material conveyance are included in SW.

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 Essentials of Standard Work

• Standard Work Is:

• Created by people doing the work, facilitated by their leader.
• Operator Specific
• Specifies content, sequence, timing, and outcome.
• Includes Takt time and Standard Work-in-Process (SWIP)
inventory.
• Clear, visible, and posted at the process.
• Defines the normal condition; normal is not chaotic.
• Only changed based on Takt or improvement by the owners.

Standard Work always enables production.

The standard is the specification for evaluating potential
improvements.
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 The Path To Standard Work

Work
Takt Time Line Standard
Content &
Balance WIP
Sequence
• Available time • Time Observation Form • Load Chart • Location
• Customer demand • Total work content • Balance work • Amount
• Enable flow • Enable Flow
• Required resources

• SW Combination Sheet
• Content
• Sequence
• Timing
• Outcome
• Safety Standard Work

Standard Work is central to the Continuous Improvement Process

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 Capturing Work Content
Process: Observer: Date:
Step Description Time Notes / Improvement Ideas Step Op Element 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Task Time Remarks

Time for 1 cycle

Activity of the Product Multi-Cycle Analysis

21
20
19
18
17
16
15 Takt
14 Time
Time

13
12 Total Manual Workload
11
10
9
= Manpower
8
7
6
5
Takt Time
4
3
2
1
Op A Op B Op C Op D Op E Op F
Line Balancing Staffing

Activity of… analysis, line balancing and staffing calculations all

come together as inputs to Standardized Work
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 Standardized Work Combination Sheet
Pulls it all together…..
• Takt Time
• Work Content and Sequence
• Line Balancing
• Standard WIP

Specifying…….
• Flow of human work within a process
• Time requirement for each work element
• Work content contained within the Takt time

Helping…..
• Identify improvement opportunities
• Balance human motion and machine operations

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 Example: Standardized Work Combination Sheet

Standardized Work Revision Date: Walk Time: Manual:

Combination Sheet Revision # Manual Time: Automatic:
Hr/ Sec/day Total Takt Head Cycle
day Labor Value Added Time: Walking:
Labor time time Count time
Machine Time:

S
Basic Time Requirements Hrly output TT
t manual machine walk Operations Times Denote Cycle / takt time with a bright marker
e time auto time time User Defined Intervals
p Element sec. seconds seconds 1 5 10 15 20 25 30 35
1 Pick up RM 2 2
2 Un/re-load start M1 6 21 2
3 Un/re-load start M2 6 24 2
4 Un/re-load start M3 5 18 2
5 Gauge shaft OD 7 2
6 Put down FG 2 2

Standardized Work combination sheet specifies all elements of

work content, time and work flow

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The Fundamentals Of
Standard Work

Quick Review