Lean Building Brick Flow Simulation

The Lean Building Brick Flow Simulation is a staple of any Lean training library. It is designed to help people see the benefit of flow over batching in a non-threatening environment.

(Obviously, this isn't the actual building bricks, but this is what you are simulating)

Trainees will be assigned to work stations where they will build a small model. A material handler will transport batches, and other trainees will act as waste observers.

This is a fun, engaging activity that will help you convert your team to Lean thinking.

REVIEW THE OVERVIEW FROM THE AVAILABLE ONLINE LEADER'S GUIDE.

Simulation Contents

1. Building bricks for 90 models
2. Workstation mats (5)
3. Instructor Guide (printed, 30 Pages)
4. Laminated results sheet (11x17)
5. Digital content needed to complete the training.
   1. Flow Exercise Results (xlsx file)
   2. Waste Recording Form (xlsx file)

Participants

In addition to an experienced Lean practitioner to act as the trainer, this exercise is designed to be conducted with a minimum of 6 people in the following roles:

• 5 people to act as production specialists.

• One person to act as a material handler.

• One person (or more) to act as waste observers. (Optional, but recommended. People not participating in other jobs act as waste observers.)

• One person to act as a timer/counter/customer. (Optional. Can be done by the trainer if there are not enough people.)

The optimum number of people is 9 or 10, including a few waste observers. If you want more people, you can split the timer/counter/customer role, or add more waste observers.

But as a word of warning, it gets chaotic if you add more than a dozen people. 

Downloads

We are in the process of migrating from delivering files on DVD to downloading them via Continuous Improvement Central. You may have access to one or both of these options.

Exercise Overview

In this Lean simulation, teams will build the driver's consoles for our Vel-ActionKart, a fictional product.

They will start with batches of 6 units, then progressively reduce the lot size to 3 and finally single-piece flow. They will then implement a handful of kaizen (continuous improvement) ideas to streamline the single-piece flow.

During each production run, the instructor or assigned team member will collect data on a handful of metrics-lead time, work-in-process, productivity, etc.

In the end, teams should see improvement each time the lot size is reduced, with a substantial improvement once the one-piece flow kaizen is completed.

Learning Points

Our Lean Building Brick Flow Simulation is a training tool designed to show the benefit of Lean and one-piece flow. It walks trainees through the process of reducing batch sizes from 6 to 3 and then to 1. It follows this up with an additional round or two of kaizen activity. In the first round, they simply move the work stations close to each other in a 'cell' orientation. In the second kaizen round, they may make any additional changes they wish.

The goal is to highlight the benefits of simply reducing inventory in a system, as well as other key Lean concepts.

Key Concepts Addressed in this Exercise

• Flow
• Batch Size
• Waste Reduction
• Transportation Waste
• Waiting Waste
• Waste of Excess Inventory
• Waste of Overprocessing
• Waste of Overproduction
• Co-Location/Work Cells
• Kaizen
• Line Balancing
• Kanban/Pull Systems
• TaktTime

Please note that while this kit addresses these topics and provides a simulated opportunity to observe them, it does not include detailed training on those concepts. It is intended for you to use either your existing training or our companion training to provide instruction between simulation cycles.

That allows you to focus on exactly what you need in your organization while keeping our training costs down.

Learn More in Our Online Guide

This building brick is designed to be used as a stand-alone product in a classroom setting. We also offer an online training and resource platform to help you develop a top-tier continuous improvement culture and business management system.

While it is not included in this building brick training, it is an outstanding companion to it. In fact, we offer the leader's guide in our training platform as part of our Leader and Transformation Toolkits. It lets you prepare for training even without access to the kit.

Check out the preview (free) lessons at CI Central.