Standardization

Standardization

Standardization or Standardisation is the process of developing and implementing standards but then what is standards? Standard is the best, safest and easiest way, to achieve and maintain a defined quality level.

Remember STANDARDs should be:

  • Simple and clear
  • Best, easiest, safest way – – – – – – – > should only have one at a time
  • Way to preserve current know – how
  • Guide-lines that enable performance measurement of delegated tasks
  • Ways to assure Quality, Cost, Delivery and Safety
  • Able to show relationship between cause and effect
  • Basis for management (maintenance and improvement of standard)
  • Basis for training
  • Basis for audit or diagnosis
  • Way to prevent recurrence of problems and control variability

SDCA Cycle

A refinement of the PDCA cycle aimed at stabilization of production processes prior to making attempts to improve.

Standardized work is one of the most powerful but least used KAIZEN/Lean tool. If current best practices are documented, standardized work forms the baseline for KAIZEN™ (continuous improvement). Once the standard is formed it is further improved and helps to form new standard and so on. Improving standardized work is a never-ending process therefore.

Standards can help organizations to reduce time, effort and money. It can help to assess the processes, allowing organizations to take steps to increase efficiency and become more profitable. It can help to provide a reliable benchmark against which performance can be judged. standardization provides a solid foundation upon which to develop new technologies and to enhance existing practices. Specifically standards helps to:

Open up market access
Provide economies of scale
Encourage innovation
Increase awareness of developments and initiatives
Where there are no standard there won’t be standardized work and organizations may suffer or experience below given problems:

Products/services might not work as per the expectation
The quality of product or service may be inferior
Products/services may not even connect with the customers requirement
Non-standardized products/services may be dangerous in the customers or society as a whole
Customers would be restricted to one manufacturer or supplier
Limited opportunity to compete with others and therefore grow in the market

Recent Posts

Daily Work Management and its Importance!
Economic Revival – Are we Ready?
Extracting Cash from Working Capital through Lean Distribution
 

arrow up