HEIJUNKA: The art of leveling production
Last updated: December 06, 2022 Read in fullscreen view
Recommended for you
- 01 Apr 2022
Ishikawa (fishbone) diagram in software project management 2306 - 09 Sep 2022 Kaizen, Kaikaku and Kakushin – what’s the difference? 2134
- 24 Nov 2022 Genba Genbutsu Genjitsu (3Gs), (Go to the Genba & see for yourself!) 2129
- 02 Feb 2022 Yokoten: Best Practice Sharing from a success 1022
- 10 Nov 2021 5S methodology - the SECRET to Japanese SUCCESS 872
- 03 Jan 2024 What is the Ringi process? 611
- 10 Dec 2021 What is a Kano Analysis? 610
- 19 Oct 2021 Software development life cycles 598
- 09 Sep 2022 What is 5 Whys (Five Whys)? 597
- 13 Jul 2022 Applying the business mantra "HORENSO" to Achieve 360-degree Communication 595
- 01 Dec 2023 What is Amoeba Management? 563
- 17 Mar 2023 Reduce waste in software development with 3M model: Muda, Mura, Muri 552
- 29 Aug 2022 Difference between Kaizen and Innovation 518
- 15 Jul 2022 Hansei Methodology: Continuously Engaging People in Improvement 515
- 01 Jan 2023 How To Use Poka-Yoke (Mistake Proofing) Technique To Improve Software Quality 509
- 28 Jul 2022 POC, Prototypes, Pilots and MVP: What's the differences? 477
- 15 Apr 2022 Total Quality Management (TQM) - Japanese-style management approach to quality improvement. 453
- 01 Mar 2022 The Toyota Way Management Principles 425
- 18 Jul 2021 How To Ramp Up An Offshore Software Development Team Quickly 417
- 27 Aug 2022 Kaizen - Culture of Continuous Improvement and Lean Thinking 417
- 10 Nov 2021 Automated QA Outsourcing – Hire a Professional Software Testing Team 401
- 12 Oct 2022 14 Common Reasons Software Projects Fail (And How To Avoid Them) 397
- 19 Sep 2022 Jidoka in Software Development and Odoo ERP/MRP 356
- 13 Oct 2021 Outsourcing Software Development: MVP, Proof of Concept (POC) and Prototyping. Which is better? 317
- 28 Oct 2022 Build Operate Transfer (B.O.T) Model in Software Outsourcing 311
- 02 Nov 2023 Unlocking Success with The Amoeba Management Model: Key Lessons, Pros & Cons, and Finding the Perfect Fit 310
- 12 Dec 2021 Zero Sum Games Agile vs. Waterfall Project Management Methods 291
- 05 Mar 2021 How do you minimize risks when you outsource software development? 290
- 04 Oct 2021 Product Validation: The Key to Developing the Best Product Possible 218
- 04 Oct 2022 Which ERP implementation strategy is right for your business? 202
- 12 Mar 2022 The u-Japan concept 195
- 01 Jun 2020 Japan Business Review (JBR) 194
- 31 Aug 2022 What are the best practices for software contract negotiations? 186
- 04 Mar 2024 Tree Ring Management: Take the Long Term View and Grow Your Business Slowly 184
- 07 Dec 2023 The Myths Of Requirements 163
- 02 Apr 2022 Productivity vs. Efficiency – What Are the Differences? 142
- 05 Sep 2023 The Cold Start Problem: How to Start and Scale Network Effects 128
- 01 Dec 2023 Laws of Project Management 125
- 01 May 2024 Warren Buffett’s Golden Rule for Digital Transformation: Avoiding Tech Overload 123
- 06 Mar 2024 [SemRush] What Are LSI Keywords & Why They Don‘t Matter 102
- 12 Aug 2024 Understanding Google Analytics in Mumbai: A Beginner's Guide 53
- 07 Mar 2023 Japan’s Unusual Farming Strategy: Renting Land and Leaving It Fallow for 5 Years — Here’s the Truth… 16
Heijunka (pronounced hi-JUNE-kuh) is a Japanese word that means “leveling.” When implemented correctly, heijunka elegantly – and without haste – helps organizations meet demand while reducing while reducing wastes in production and interpersonal processes.
If you’re wondering whether heijunka is another Japanese term that’s designed to make our work lives better, you’re absolutely right.
Heijunka is a Lean technique similar to other Japanese principals like kanban and kaizen. It is also one of the 12 Pillars of the Toyota Production System. While it may not be as popular as other Japanese lean techniques such as kanban, kaizen, and Just-in-Time, it is an effective approach to establishing a smooth flow of work.
Let’s explore more about what heijunka is and how you can use it.
What is Heijunka?
Pronounced hi-june-kah, it is a Japanese term that means “leveling.” The Lean Lexicon 5th edition defines heijunka as:
“Leveling the type and quantity of production over a fixed period of time. This enables production to efficiently meet customer demands while avoiding batching and results in minimum inventories, capital costs, manpower, and production lead time through the whole value stream.”
The heijunka principle simply allows businesses to respond to changes in customer demand by establishing a standard or leveled flow of work.
Heijunka vs. Batching
Most companies, especially manufacturing ones, would resort to a batch production approach thinking that it is a cost-effective solution. Batching is popular because there are minimal costs due to changeovers and there is prepared stock to meet customer demand. But these so-called “benefits” can actually do your company more harm than good. When you batch your production, you essentially meet these problems:
- Inability to respond to changing customer demand – No matter how many forecasts we produce, it is very hard to predict and be certain of customer demand. There will always be fluctuations and variations. If we consistently produce in batches, we may lose the opportunity to provide the customer with the product that they want, simply because we are not producing it at that time.
- Capital being tied to inventory – Because companies want to make sure they have enough stock to provide to customers, they produce large quantities. But these effectively get stored as inventory and don’t make the company any money until it eventually gets sold. There can be instances where the company needs to sell the products just to free it up. This is certainly not ideal in terms of profitability.
- Overworked machines and personnel – Producing in large quantities every time can eventually lead to machine and staff breakdowns. This can also affect the quality of the final goods, which can lead to more wastes or muda in Japanese.
These are the main problems that heijunka aims to solve.
Heijunka allows companies to produce as close as possible to what demand dictates. This is done by producing smaller batches and creating different types of product at one time. Companies can be more flexible to demand changes, minimize inventory, and balance out the use of its resources with this approach.
How Heijunka Works
Heijunka aims to meet customer demand by leveling the volume and types of products produced in any given production cycle. To understand this better, let’s discuss the factors affecting the implementation of heijunka: Flexibility, Stability, and Predictability.
- Flexibility – Heijunka prescribes the production of various types of product in one timeframe. For example, in a 20-minute production period, the company needs to make 3 types of products using the same machine. Therefore, it will changeover twice within the 20-minute period. The time it takes for the machine to changeover to produce one product to another needs to be as fast as possible so that they can produce all 3 variants of the product within the time allotted.
- Stability – Setting the average amount of products in each type that needs to be produced in each lot allows the process to operate in a steady fashion. Companies would need to know their takt time or the time it takes for a product to get finished in order to meet customer demand in order to come up with their production schedule.
- Predictability – Companies need a way to forecast customer demand. It won’t always be accurate, but it’s still better to gauge how much of a product is really needed by the market and base the production schedule from there. This will make the production more predictable and manageable for the company.
Given these three factors, we can see that heijunka can actually be achieved with Just-in-Time already in place in the system. It also requires that the company has already analyzed and reviewed their value streams so that they can optimize it enough to actually make heijunka work.
The Heijunka Box
Companies would use a scheduling tool called a heijunka box when implementing this technique. The heijunka box indicates the schedule of the production, outlining the types of products that should be produced at a given time period through kanban cards. This allows workers to know how much of each product type should be made and when they should make it.
While heijunka is not exactly rocket science, applying it to real-life production situations can be more complex than we can imagine. It may take a while before you actually get a hang of things. It is important to stay attuned to customer demand and adjust your process as needed. It should also be the company’s priority to continuously improve and optimize their operations so that a more leveled workflow is established.
Applying heijunka can be a trial and error situation. Don’t expect to nail it the first time. But once the company has it in place, they can be sure to reap the benefits of a more standardized flow of work.
Wrote by Lena Boiser
Explore more on these topics
Guest Blogging: The Definitive Guide
Top Trending Topics
Share This
Recently Updated News
