Lean Enterprise Institute Publishes Creating Continuous Flow, a New Workbook To Help Companies Implement Flow by Focusing on Pacemaker Processes

    BROOKLINE, Mass., Aug. 22 The Lean Enterprise Institute
(LEI), a nonprofit training, publishing, and research center, has published
Creating Continuous Flow, a new workbook that helps managers, engineers, and
production associates implement continuous flow processing, the ultimate
objective of lean production.  The workbook is available at http://www.lean.org along
with information about corresponding workshops.
    Like LEI's groundbreaking first workbook, Learning to See, which taught
organizations how to rapidly identify and eliminate waste by mapping value
streams, Creating Continuous Flow, answers the key question managers often
have about lean tools and concepts, "What steps do I take Monday morning?"
    "Authors Mike Rother and Rick Harris lead readers through eleven simple
but practical questions to show how to take full advantage of the transition
from traditional processing departments to cellular layouts while achieving
the full potential of cells already created," said Jim Womack, LEI founder and
president.
    LEI has discovered that while many organizations in the aerospace,
automotive, electronics, high-tech, and medical device industries are mapping
product family value streams, they are struggling with the next step --
creating flow. They have moved machines into the classic U-shaped cellular
layout but flow is erratic and output fluctuates. Performance is better than
in traditional layouts, but falls short of the potential gains from continuous
flow, which include doubling productivity, halving space requirements, cutting
throughput times by more than ninety percent, all while improving quality.

    Focus on the Pacemaker
    The new workbook explains how to organize and operate the critical
pacemaker process in a way that supports continuous flow. Products take their
final forms for customers at pacemaker processes, the most important place for
developing flow.
    In continuous flow, items move immediately from one processing step to the
next. Lean production continuously tries to improve the application of
continuous flow because it is the most efficient way of turning materials into
products. It uses the minimum amounts of resources and time, resulting in high
productivity, quick response, and low cost.
    The Lean Enterprise Institute is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit corporation founded
by Dr. James Womack in August 1997 to promote a set of ideas commonly known as
lean thinking. LEI supports the people engaged in lean conversions through its
web site, workbooks, on-site training,  public workshops and conferences

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