Pulling the cord

A few weeks ago I had a course called Yellow belt, a basic introduction of lean. There are a few belts, next one I’m planning is the green belt. Something like judo, without being physical you need to find a way to improve a process. Any process can be improved, using a few methods you can find improvements. Ask why five times and find the true underlying problem.

Some fun thing remained with me; the Toyota Production System is long line where every part is there just-in-time. When a part is not or someone is not keeping up there is a yellow cord. This yellow cord stops the entire production line and let co-workers no where the problem is, giving them the possibility to help where possible. At my own work, everybody is usually doing their own stuff although still communicating with each other. However when a production problem occurs most of them are not aware, to make it more clear I had a little project.

Using a emergency stop button, a rotating beacon and a cable I created an alarm to notify my co-workers when there is a problem. Adding some magnetic tape we can put it on every cabinet or metal wall at my work. And when something is going on in the production environment we can smack the button and everybody could find a way to help.