We have all struggled to learn the concepts of continuous improvement and lean flow by reading published materials, attending seminars, and sitting through training demonstrations suggested in books.

The concept is to simulate a product flow by having each participant:

• Perform some repetitive task
• Measure the results
• Adjust the variables to focus on the value-added steps
• Measure again.

These exercises mainly consist of using simple materials such as paper, pen and ink, and color markers to simulate a production process. The result is more like a kindergarten class than a serious attempt to teach hard working team members the theory of lean. Imagine what must be going through their minds the first time the Continuous Improvement trainer asks these grown adults to make smiley faces out of paper plates, color markers, glue sticks and cotton balls!

There are many paper games that attempt to teach the concepts of lean. Here’s a simple example using paper and pen:

• The first person tears three paper sheets into three strips and passes the stack of nine to the next player, and then repeats with another stack.
• The second player signs all nine strips, and passes the batch to the third player, and repeats
• The third player signs all nine and passes them on. You add as many players as you want.
• The last player acts as a finished goods inspector and warehouse person.
• A timekeeper keeps score and tallies the metrics at the end of a set period.
• Repeat again, this time passing three pieces at a time, and measure the results.
• Do it once more with 1 piece flow and see how fast the customer gets the first delivery.

The problem with this simple approach is the inherent variability of each player and the fatigue factor. People get tired of signing their name over and over. What starts out looking like script quickly turns to a scrawled line, or less. The eventual metrics of the game become lost, the boredom factor is high, and the people want to get back to the shop to do something useful.

The LeanMan Factory Simulation Kit was designed to provide a training tool that is fun for participants, simple to use and reuse for the trainer, easy to transport to the training site, and provides repeatable touch time for meaningful metrics.