Touch It Once

Touching something more than once is nearly always a big waste of time.

It feels more efficient to make items in big batches, but it's not often true in reality. Below is a list of the steps involved in a 2-step operations, beveling edges and stamping a logo into three soap bars. Processing the bars three at a time has 18 steps, one at a time has 12 steps. Of course, not all of them will take the same amount of time, and setup is a factor, but this should convince you to at least time yourself doing operations in different ways instead of always doing one single operation for as many items as possible. Single piece flow also cuts down on the amount of space needed for an operation, since it doesn't require all of the production for the day to be sitting in each step at the same time.

BATCH OPERATION:

1. Pick up a bar #1.
2. Bevel the edges of bar #1.
3. Set bar #1 down.
4. Pick up bar #2.
5. Bevel the edges of bar #2.
6. Set bar #2 down.
7. Pick up bar #3.
8. Bevel the edges of bar #3.
9. Set bar #3 down.
10. Pick up a bar #1.
11. Stamp bar #1.
12. Set bar #1 down.
13. Pick up bar #2.
14. Stamp bar #2.
15. Set bar #2 down.
16. Pick up bar #3.
17. Stamp bar #3.
18. Set bar #3 down.

SINGLE PIECE OPERATION:

1. Pick up bar #1.
2. Bevel edges of bar #1
3. Stamp bar #1.
4. Set bar #1 down.
5. Pick up bar #2.
6. Bevel edges of bar #2.
7. Stamp bar #2.
8. Set bar #2 down.
9. Pick up bar #3.
10. Bevel edges of bar #3.
11. Stamp bar #3.
12. Set bar #3 down.