Lean Warehouse Ideas: The Incredible Benefits of Standardization

You wouldn’t reinvent the wheel, would you?

Yet, that's exactly what you're doing without standardization in your facility. Without it, every team member must invent their own version of your process. This creates confusion, wasted labor, and lost revenue. Standardization can fix all of these issues and revolutionize your facility by creating the consistency that leads to efficiency.

Read on to learn how standardization benefits you and how to apply it to your unique organization.

Why Is Standardization So Important?

Standardization puts everyone on the same page.

With it, every team member understands their place in the overall framework of your organization. They know their function and how to do it in a way that integrates with everyone else on your team. That means they can spend less time fumbling through the day and more time adding value. Some of those benefits include:

• Less time wasted on shift planning
• Improved production accuracy
• Reduced product loss
• Faster delivery
• Increased available floor space
• Easy onboarding for new employees

Standardization is fundamental to lean management and running a successful business.

Key Areas for Standardization

Standardization is the practice of codifying every aspect of your operation.

Writing standards and standard work are an upfront investment, but this investment is guaranteed to yield tremendous productivity and customer satisfaction results. It involves defining the most efficient way to do everything in your warehouse, down to the best tools and practices. Once created, record these standards in a detailed document (known as standard work) that eventually outlines every aspect of your operation.

Process, equipment, technology, and workforce are some areas to include in your standardization plan.

Process

Process is often the first thing people think of when they visualize standardization.

Standardizing your best practice is an essential aspect of your overall standardization scheme. It removes inefficient idiosyncrasies in technique and streamlines production. Additionally, a standardized process scales more easily than an ad hoc one. It also removes many sources of error.

If your team follows the standard best practice every time, they are less likely to make mistakes.

Equipment and Technology

Have you ever tried to run a meeting where one presenter used a Mac and the other a PC?

The differences between those two platforms make swapping back and forth an inefficient process at best and a debacle at worst. The equipment and technology you use in your operation are very much the same. By standardizing your tools, you create a network of technologies and equipment that work synergistically, minimizing inefficiencies and errors.

Likewise, standardized equipment means you have backups to fill the gap if something breaks.

Workforce

At its heart, lean is a people development process. Monozukuri wa hitozukuri is the lean vision and translates to “making things is about making people.”

However, consistency is key for training efficient, effective team members. Standardizing your training programs ensures everyone on your team receives the same baseline education on the company and their role in it. This puts all stakeholders on an even playing field and sets your whole team up for success.

Consistent, practical training is critical to standardization.

Lean Warehouse Best Practices for Implementation

There is no single way to go about standardization.

Every business is different and will have its own unique approach to standardization. However, there are several general steps you can take to get the ball rolling. Following these stages, you can start the standardization process and take your first steps towards lean management.

It all starts with identification.

Identification

Identification is the process of determining which areas of your business need standardization.

Government regulations, management preferences, or worker experience might already standardize some applications. However, you'll need to examine your entire process, equipment, and technology, and training programs to see what areas need standardization. The more thorough your investigation, the more inefficiencies you'll correct.

If you’re unsure where to start, look at the greatest pain point in the process and start there. If there aren’t any significant pain points, start with the point in the process that is closest to the customer.

Once you have a prioritized list of needs, you can move on to the next stage.

Developing Standard Work

Standard work is not done to people. It’s developed by and for people. Go to the expert in the process. Who is that expert? The people doing the work. Start with them. Document their best practices. Then begin to Kaizen the process and improve the best practices from there.

As you write the standard work, it must be concise and simple. Start with the what, how, and why. This is the critical information for the trainer to train so the learner can learn. Then add to the standard work by defining who, when, and how many. This information is vital as well.

Don’t worry about perfection in your first iteration. Think of this initial manual as a strong first draft to improve upon in the future.

Training Employees

Once you have established standard work, you’re ready to start training your team.

Keep in mind, the onus is on the trainer to train the learner. If the learner didn’t learn, it’s because the trainer didn’t train. Furthermore, training is not the same as telling. Training is an investment in the learner, and if treated as such, will yield impressive results.

Training is an essential part of the plan. Without it, employees won't understand their role in the new process. Use your newly created manual as a basis for developing this training program. Be sure to involve all stakeholders in the development of the program to ensure it covers the details necessary for all members of your team.

With training in place, you are ready to implement your new initiatives.

Monitoring and Evaluation

As you roll out your newly standardized programs, monitor their success.

Continue to evaluate these initiatives. Look for areas where they excel and where they fall short. Interview team members who are implementing the newly created standard work and get their feedback. Collate all this data and examine the overall efficacy of your new programs.

Use this information to guide the last step in the process.

Improve (Kaizen)

Continual improvement is the foundation of lean management.

As you deploy the process and feedback starts rolling in, opportunities to strengthen or Kaizen will become apparent. Kaizen the standard work, update the training, and the results will continually improve.

Consider this a continual loop to reduce defects and costs, reduce cycle times, and build quality into the process.

The Lean Warehousing Experts

There’s no magic formula for standardizing your operation.

The process will be different for each facility, which can make it a daunting prospect. Yet the benefits far outweigh the challenges. Better still, you don't have to go it alone. Our solutions team is here to help. Our experts can consult on all levels of lean management, including standardization. We can perform a consultation to help you get started.

To learn more about lean management or to request a consultation, contact us online or visit one of our locations throughout Georgia and Florida.

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Further Reading
Toyota Lean Management vs. Six Sigma – Which is Better?
Toyota’s Lean Management Program Explained (with Real Life Examples)
Manufacturing Optimization: Are You Investing in the Wrong Area?