Work­ing in a flow deliv­ers ben­e­fits in terms of speed, qual­i­ty, safe­ty, cost, and cus­tomer sat­is­fac­tion. Cre­at­ing flow requires con­nect­ing process­es and link­ing them close­ly togeth­er. Often this takes the form of a cell. Learn the prac­ti­cal steps and prin­ci­ples that guide us through the study of our prod­ucts, process­es, equip­ment, mate­ri­als, and peo­ple when design­ing a cell.

As orga­ni­za­tions take steps toward achiev­ing con­tin­u­ous flow it’s com­mon for one or more sup­port­ing sys­tems to strug­gle. A typ­i­cal prob­lem is that mate­r­i­al han­dling and sup­ply process­es can’t keep up with the faster pace of one-piece flow. In oth­er words, we need to build a sys­tem of inter­nal logis­tics that enables con­tin­u­ous flow. Learn the steps for build­ing an inter­nal logis­tics sys­tem from cre­at­ing a plan for every part (PFEP), prepar­ing a parts super­mar­ket, devel­op­ing deliv­ery routes, design­ing racks, con­tain­ers and con­veyance sys­tems, and doc­u­ment­ing stan­dard work for logistics.

The super­mar­ket is a parts stor­age area that serves as a key build­ing block of a flow-focused inter­nal logis­tics sys­tem. Learn the main dif­fer­ences between super­mar­kets and tra­di­tion­al stor­age, its advan­tages, and the steps for devel­op­ing, sus­tain­ing, and improv­ing super­mar­ket operations.