Yamaguchi san Circle (‘Ohno Circle’)

‘ Taiichi Ohno’
Taiichi Ohno

( 大野 耐一 , Ōno Taiichi?, February 29, 1912 – May 28, 1990)

Born in 1912 in Dalian, China,

Graduate of the Nagoya Technical High School (Japan).

Joined the Toyoda family's Toyoda Spinning upon graduation in 1932.

He moved to the Toyota motor company in 1943

. He wrote several books about the system, including Toyota Production System: Beyond
Large-Scale Production

. He is considered to be the father of the Toyota Production System, which became Lean
Manufacturing in the U.S
 ‘Ohno Circle’

Taiichi Ohno invented novel method of making improvements

which is referred today as the ``Ohno Circle.’’

The Method is simple.

 Ohno would go to for walking onto the shop floor where the work was being done.
 Drawing a circle on the ground.
 Stand in the circle
 Observe and note
 Think
 Analyse.
 Learn what was actually going on in view of 7 types of waste
 Suggest ideas to eliminate wastages
 Pick up the best suitable idea
 Implement to improve in Man,Machine ,Method Material,Layout,Process,

This gave him the insight he needed to make Lasting improvements.

 ‘Ohno Circle’
So this is what Ohno encourage line leaders to do.

 If necessary, arrange for some supervisory cover for 30 minutes (so as not to be disturbed).
 Armed with a pad of paper and pen, Go into the work area and stand in one central spot
 Stand in the circle
Do not move out of the circle, not even to ask a question, just observe.
Write down any problems that you see

 Also things that are difficult to understand apply the 10 second rule,
ie . if you cannot understand what is going on in 10 seconds, write it down.

 At the end of the Observation, step out of the circle and analyze what as seen.
 Were there parts of the process it was difficult to understand the status of?
 Were there problems with flow or quality?
 Consider each thing that was seen.
 The need of Ohno Circle..

Olny srmat poelpe can raed tihs.

I cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht I was rdanieg.
The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid, aoccdrnig to a rscheearch
at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny
iprmoatnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be in
the rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit a porbelm.
Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed
ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe.. Amzanig huh? yaeh and
I awlyas tghuhot slpeling was ipmorantt! if you can raed tihs psas it on !!
Taichi Ohno Principle:

Deeply understanding and reporting what u see . Think and Speak Based on
Personally Verified data.

Data is off course important in Manufacturing , But I place the greatest

emphasis on facts…Taichi Ohno.
 The need of Ohno Circle..

 Section Leaders or Manager running around & struggling to gain control for be managing day to day.

 Marked drop in both quality and efficiency as issues are missed and errors made.

 Due to the commitment & dedication of the individual leaders to keeping the 'section running
at all costs'

 What is of the role of a leader?

 What does the organization expect of him or her? The answer is not ground breaking.

 To keep their process running, producing high quality product, on time at minimum cost. Right?

 Use a tool to be able to see what is really going on.

 The need of Ohno Circle..
People running around with clip boards, counting inventory, or in some cases, just looking at it.
waiting for instructions or guidance.

Scrap material hidden under benches or documents piling up in trays with dust starting to gather.

In fact a whole series of examples of what appears to be a lack of organization.

Another thing that you can be sure of is that the process was never designed to run like that,
so what's gone wrong?

The answer is not a lack of organization, but the fact that the process is not Visual.

One of the biggest problems that a leader faces in trying to run the process smoothly is the number

of 'surprises' that they face on a daily basis.

 Problems crop up without warning with amazing regularity, forcing even the most hardened
supervisor into 'fire fighting mode'

 If only those problems could be seen a little earlier and investigated properly.
 The need of Ohno Circle..

 One of the key tools in the Lean ‘toolbox’ is Abnormality management.

 The process of finding a problem, then investigating the issue and applying a fix,
all in a controlled manner.

 Sounds simple, but unless you can actually see what is going on, how are you going
to find the problem?
 Ohno Circle – Watch and Think for Yourself

There are many stories about the famous Ohno circle. I was fortunate to speak in person with
Teruyuki Minoura, who at the time was president of Toyota Motor Manufacturing, North
America. He had learned TPS directly from the master and part of his early education at Toyota
was standing in a circle:
Minoura: Mr. Ohno wanted us to draw a circle on the floor of a plant and then we were told,
‘Stand in that and watch the process and think for yourself,’ and then he didn’t even give
you any hint of what to watch for. This is the real essence of TPS.
Liker: How long did you stay in the circle?
Minoura: Eight hours!
Liker: Eight hours?!
Minoura: In the morning Mr. Ohno came to request that I stay in the circle until supper and after
that Mr. Ohno came to check and ask me what I was seeing. And of course, I answered,
(reflecting) I answered, “There were so many problems with the process….” But Mr. Ohno didn’t
hear. He was just looking.
Liker: And what happened at the end of the day?
 Ohno Circle – Watch and Think for Yourself

Minoura: It was near dinner time. He came to see me. He didn’t take any time to give any
feedback. He just said gently, “Go home.”
Of course, it is difficult to imagine this training happening in a U.S. factory. Most young
engineers would be irate if you told them to draw a circle and stand for 30 minutes, let alone all
day. But Minoura understood this was an important lesson as well as an honor to be taught in
this way by the master of TPS. What exactly was Ohno teaching? The power of deep
observation. He was teaching Minoura to think for himself about what he was seeing, that
is, to question, analyze, and evaluate.

These days we often depend upon computers to analyze and evaluate data. For example, in a
Six Sigma quality improvement initiative, we collect data and run it through our statistical
package—correlations, regression, analysis of variance. Some of the results we get are
statistically significant. But do we truly understand the context of what is going on or the
nature of the problem?
Data is of course important in manufacturing, but I place the greatest emphasis on facts.
—Taiichi Ohno
 Ohno Circle-The Chalk Circle

In “ The Toyota Way ” and “ The Toyota Way Fieldbook ” Jeffry Liker describes “standing in
the chalk circle.”

This, of course, is a reference to a legendary exercise where Taiichi Ohno would stand a
manager in a chalk circle drawn on the shop floor. His direction would be simple: “Watch.”
Several hours later, Ohno would return and ask “What do you see?”
Usually Ohno had spotted something earlier, and wanted the manager to learn to see it.
So if the reply to “What do you see?” was something other than what Ohno had already
seen, his response would be “Watch some more.”
This would continue until the manager saw the same problem Ohno had seen.
Tools to use for Observation and analysis and Idea Generation

 Questioning technique (6 W , 2H)

• What
• Which
• Where
• Why
• How Much
• How
• Who
• When

 Paroto Analysis

 Fish Bone Diagram

 Ishikawa diagram

 Kaizen

 Pokayoke
 Practicing Ohno Circle
" Let start now ,,

1. Draw a circle in center of your processes.

2. Don't forget bring a pencil, blank paper.

3. Also , for your drink

4. Stand up in the circle

5. Watch your environment

6.See, people, motion, process, flow, layout, machineries, etc

.
7.Write on your paper improper or abnormal things

8.Get solving those kinds of no.7

 7. Types of Wastages

1. Over Production Uses extra space Raw material,

utilities, transportation, scheduling
costs

Producing
too much
.

Way Out

Occurs because products are made

• Reduce charge over time. earlier or faster or more than is
• Reduce Srt up time. needed by the next process
• Cell balancing based on TAKT Time.
• single piece flow.
• Pull production system.
 7. Types of Wastages

2. Repair

Normal Continuous flow

gets affected

Requires additional Requires additional material for

labor for repair repair

Way Out

• Sop
• Defect possibility matrix
• Pokayoke
• Visual Control
 7. Types of Wastages

3. Motion

Bend awkwardly

Reach too for

Excessive walking
Way Out
Lift Heavy Loads
 7. Types of Wastages
4. Transport
Long
Lead
Large
Times
Storage
areas
Poor Plant
Layout

Scheduling
Poor Cell Problems
Design

Way Out

Batch
Processing • Reduce
• Increase Speed
 7. Types of Wastages

5. Inventory

Raw Material, parts, WIP, supplies,

finished goods are all inventory

Uses extra space

transportation, labor, interest
on materials
Way Out

Inventory sitting around gather

• JIT dust, deteriorates becomes
• KANBAN obsolete, gets damaged in
handling
 7. Types of Wastages

6. Over Processing

• Additional Steps in the

manufacturing process
• Extra handling process
• Reshaping a piece due to
poor dies
• Removing burr
Way Out • Maintaining extra copies of
information

• Combination of operation
• Deletion of NVAs
 7. Types of Wastages

7. Waiting

Operator remains idle waiting for the next

operation

Some causes for waiting

• Machine downtime
Way Out • Lack of parts
• Long changeover times
• Patch flow of material
• Work balancing
• Set up time reduction
• Reduce mirror stoppages
 What to Observe
AN EYE FOR OBSERVATION MEANS WHAT WE CAN SEE & IMPROVE.
HENCE POINTS LISTED ARE RELATED TO “GOOD OBSERVATION – GOOD ANALYSIS”
Attribute Observe for
1. Walking unnecessarily
2. Waiting, Searching
3. Stretching ,Bending, Lifting
Motion Loss 4. Use of Both hands -Simultaneously
5. Difficulty posture while loading / unloading ,positioning etc.
6. Scan 32 Motion losses

1. Poka related to
a. Forgetting – Part
Man b. Forgetting – Operation
Mistake Proofing c. Wrong orientation / reverse fitment
d. SOP
e. Inspection itself / inspection frequency
f. Reading of gauge
1. Ergonomics in Safety( Bend / Stretch / Turn)
2. Unsafe Condition
3. Unsafe Act
Working condition 4. Near Miss
5. Noise / Dust / Dirt / temp / vibration / smell
6. Use of PPE
 Attribute Observe for
1. Mix – up due to similar looking
2. Scratch / Dent / Damage – During storage / handling
Inspection 3. Ok / Not ok can mix up.
4. Carrying contamination.
5. Metal to metal contact
a) 1S , 2S of components stored
b) Storage location b) Part Desc. / Number
C. Status Rm / WIP / OK / Not Ok
Identification
2. Storage standards w.r.t.
& Storage a) Storing method b) Handling method c) min – max level
Material d) FIFO e) Free from contamination f) visibility
3. Visuals for Instructions/storages
1. Single Piece flow 2. Metal to Metal Contact 3. Non moving / slow moving
Flow & 4. Non continuous flow 5. Unnecessary handling 6. Back tracking
Handling 7. Condition of handling equipments 8. More Distance 9. Can fall during flow
10. Karakuri
1. Over processing
2. Standardization
3. Combination (Possibility of combining 3 or more part)
Cost 4. Unnecessary packing / unpacking
5. Yield
6. Excess Inventory
 Attribute Observe for

1. Seven Types of abnormalities

2. Sources of contamination
3. Difficult to access
4. CLIT
Restoration of 5. Forced Deterioration
Basic Condition 6. 1S,2S
7. Poor environmental condition
8. Safe operation – Guards
Machine 9. JH check sheet
10. Use of Energy efficient motors
1. JH Visuals
2. Safety Visuals
3. SOP
4. Visibility of Visuals
Visuals
 1. Lay out as per process sequnce
2. Distance between machines
Workstation 3. Facilitates good man machine balancing ?
4. 1S,2S
5. Quick model changeover
1. SOP for Routine Operations-Confirm Yutori
2. SOP for Non Routine Operation-Confirm Yutori
a)Safe b) Standardized c) Easy to do d) Poka possible
Method SOP e) Time reduction – Inside to Out side ?
2. SOP for Inspection –Confirm Yutori
c) Possibility of inspection poka d) Wrong reading

1. Easy of handling
2. Need orientation change after unloading ? For loading ?
Handling 3. Heavy / cumbersome action ?
4. Possibility of damage ? Scratch ? Falling ? Mix up ?
5. Chutes / Bins / Trolley – easy to maintain ?
 Stand In A Circle Exercise Worksheet

Sr.No Observation Observation Suggestion/Ideas

. Category
P/Q/C/D/S/M