You probably know this company near you that delivers to its customers in less than 30 minutes. We will see a little further down that it is very Lean !
But before you read on, imagine for a moment that the pizzaiolo is doing production management, as is still practiced in many industrial companies:
- The most expensive piece of equipment is the oven, which needs to be optimized: baking pizzas when there are 5 ready, or even worse, turning on the oven only once an hour: what would this mean for customer waiting times, scheduling management, etc.?
- Look at the previous week's sales and prepare the same pizzas in advance, thinking they'll sell out: How many unsold?
- Roll out the dough for several pizzas in advance, so you can go faster afterwards: How large is the surface for preparation?
- Hiring several people to specialize in one task: how much time is wasted?
- Install scheduling software to optimize planning and series changes, or even worse, reduce the number of pizzas on the card.
In a few figures, this company has around 30 standard products in its catalog, as well as custom-made products. Depending on its workload, delivery time is between 5 and 45 minutes after receipt of order. However, it does not stock finished products. Manufacturing time for each product is 3 to 5 minutes, to assemble 3 to 10 components. It supplies around 40 different components, with very different consumption levels. The surface area of each workshop is less than 10 m², with 1 or 2 employees. Production capacity is 70 to 100 products per shift. It delivers over 30 orders a day.
To succeed, many principles of the Lean have been applied:
- Movements are kept to a minimum: 2 to 3 steps
- 5S is in place: the workstation is set up so that the ingredients most often used are always within easy reach, in small quantities so as not to take up space, and always in the same place.
- The flow is piece by piece. No work in progress is tolerated, enabling us to react quickly to unpredictable customer demand, which can change right up to the last minute.
- Optimization is carried out on the value stream and not on the most expensive piece of equipment, in this case a furnace. The latter therefore operates continuously, but with a deplorable OEE.
- Versatility is very important, as operators are capable of sourcing materials, taking orders, making products and packaging them.
- The production standard exists and is displayed: every gesture is identical, but the operator rarely consults it because he knows it by heart.
- Visual, pull-flow planning: packaging indicates what needs to be done
So, the next time you order a pizza, during the few minutes you're waiting, imagine ... The pizzaiolo explains that your favorite pizza is no longer on his menu to reduce the number of changes, the one you've taken is ready, it only takes 3 minutes to bake, but it will go into the oven in 30 minutes to improve the SRT of his oven.
