Time Out : Using Visible Pull Systems to Drive Process Improvement

Time Out introduces a revolutionary process, Visible Pull, for integrating the new world-class management tools aimed at cycle time reduction, quality improvement, and optimum customer service. Many leading companies—DuPont, Union Carbide, and International Specialty Chemicals—have seen significant benefits from its application. Typical benefits have included a 10 to 20 percent gain in capacity, a 30 to 40 percent reduction in inventory, a 50 percent reduction in cycle time, and more. In this authoritative new book, one of Visible Pull's pioneers describes the development of Visible Pull and lays out a detailed roadmap for applying it to your own unique business. With thirty years of hands-on experience, Wayne Smith knows the obstacles that can impede improvement in a plant. Here, he outlines the changes in philosophy and behavior that must take place before progress can be made. Smith differentiates between the traditional, inefficient "push" scheduling, where forecasts are made and everyone pushes material forward to meet the schedule, and the Pull Systems, which limit and control production based on downstream demand. With Visible Pull, workstations act in concert with one another, which in turn enables the company to better allocate resources, build a culture of teamwork, and link time-on-line to business goals.

In a series of five logical, carefully structured segments, Smith takes you step-by-step through the entire Visible Pull process, including:

• Making the Decision—helps you decide if Visible Pull is appropriate for your organization through a high-level overview of its goals, resource requirements, and potential benefits
• Assessing and Planning—explains how to identify and assess opportunities for improvement, choose the right tools, and develop a specific plan for change
• Pull Systems—demonstrates how to use Pull Systems as the primary tool for managing time in a process and how to apply them to your specific environment
• Visible Management and Continuous Improvement—describes how to use Pull Systems to institute an ongoing improvement process, build employee involvement, measure your organization's evolving capabilities, and guide your future growth.

Preface
Acknowledgments

Section I : Making the Decision
Chapter 1 : An Overview
Chapter 2 : The Foundation for Cycle Time
Chapter 3 : A Process Overview
Chapter 4 : How Will We Know When We're Done?

Section II : Organization and Metrics
Chapter 5 : The Process Industry and the "We're Different" Syndrome
Chapter 6 : Organizing for a Time Implementation
Chapter 7 : Performance Metrics
Chapter 8 : Other Organizational Tasks

Section III : Assessing and Planning
Chapter 9 : Getting Started with the Core Team
Chapter 10 : Cycle Time Mapping
Chapter 11 : Simulation Modeling
Chapter 12 : Assessing Opportunity
Chapter 13 : Other Tools in the Toolbox
Chapter 14 : The Business Plan

Section IV : Pull Scheduling
Chapter 15 : The Pull Concept
Chapter 16 : Pull Adaptations for the Process Environment
Chapter 17 : Designing Pull Systems
Chapter 18 : Additional Design and Management Considerations

Section V : Visible Management and Continuous Improvement
Chapter 19 : Visible Management
Chapter 20 : Linking Visible Management with Continuous Improvement
Chapter 21 : Management Structure
Chapter 22 : The Benchmarks

Notes
Bibliography
Index