The Basic Lean Factory Simulation Car Kit is the base building block for all of the Car Factory simulation exercises and makes a great way to expand the capacity of any of the Deluxe Car Factory products.
The Basic Kit is also a great way to obtain a complete hardware set of materials upon which the more experienced Lean Principles trainer can design and implement his or her own lean principles training plan.
In this regard, while the Base Kit does not provide any supporting presentation or supporting simulation exercise materials, it is a very economic method for experienced lean trainers to supplement their own methods. It is also an excellent way to add capacity to an existing Deluxe Car Factory Package without the cost of repurchasing the presentation materials.
The Basic Kit is recommended for lean trainers comfortable with the Lean Principles and their own presentation methods who just desire the reusable kit of hands-on car factory materials and are comfortable enough to know how to use them with no instructional or support documentation.
The Base Kit contains 20 plain car bodies, with enough wheels, disk brakes, and axle pegs for assembly. Extra wheels, disks and pegs are included. There are two painted car bodies which can be used to introduce mixed mode production into the work cell. Plus, two of the "Mole" cards are included to provide velocity timing of the color cars through the process for easy metrics.There are two ergonomic tools included, one is used to provide an easy peg insertion to prevent discomfort to the fingers and wrist (not really needed, but introduction of ergonomic concepts is part of the 5-S safety principles) and a wheel extractor tool used to ease disassembly of the completed cars.
There are 5 sub assembly holding fixtures used to simulate the batch mode operation and the waste of transport moving items as a batch. There are 5 product kit bags used to pick car kits for delivery from the stockroom, plus the yellow plastic box containers are used both in batch mode for material movement and in lean mode for point of use material kanban containers. A large digit stopwatch for timing events completes the kit.
The LeanMan suggests using the Basic Car Factory Simulation in the following simulations:
Large Group Simulation
Purchased as a separate supporting product (it is included in the Grand Package), this simulation is used with multiple Car Factory Kits to expand the event size to accommodate larger groups for an introductory Lean experience. The 4-step simulation is designed as an introduction to Lean for variable sized groups of participants in the four main flow methods.
- Group Size: 5-39
- Duration: 60-150 min.
- Steps: 2 or 4
VSMgt Service & Repair Center
Purchased as a separate supporting product (it is included in the Grand Package), this 3 step simulation exercise will explore the service side of the car factory, so instead of assembling new cars, we repair them. Value Stream Management concepts are used to improve flow door-to-door in this unique and fun exercise. This simulation requires purchase of at least one of the LeanMan Car Factory Kits or Deluxe Packages.
- Group Size: 9-12
- Duration: 140 min.
- Steps: 3