Business Builder Bob - Just-in-Time #7

"Batch of One" Thinking

The objective of applying Batch of One thinking is to streamline the flow of your products or services to meet the exact customer needs in terms of customization and timing. Basically, what would it take to make one at a time. Here are some of the principles...

1. Processing equipment, actions, and/or procedures for making One unit are grouped together to improve flow and reduce time/movement between process steps.
2. Separate the person from the equipment or the operation. What if one person can make the whole product and moves down a line of equipment...no waiting between steps, reduced cycle time, no inventory. This applies equally to administrative processes.
3. Requires workload smoothing...a rethink. If your operation is labor intensive, can you get additional equipment to set up each person to make "one" from start to finish.

The value of this thinking is to explore possibilities! You WILL change workflow, reduce wasted time between steps (process time), reduce paperwork tracking of steps, reduce waste in scheduling, and reduce inventory (the root of all evil) by applying Batch of One thinking.

To succeed, requires each operation to run reliably (that's a good thing), requires reductions in setup time/cost and maybe even dedicated setup on machines.

This should not be taken to extreme. It doesn't make sense for one person to make a car from start to finish, but maybe one person should do everything to assemble the dashboard insert. Batch of One thinking is a mental tool and drives real cost savings and efficiency improvements as the barriers to success are revealed.

This is one of my favorite concepts. Please reach out to me in a comment or email if you want help thinking about this in your operation.