By Kenichi Sekine, Bruce Talbot

How do you restructure a traditional assembly production line into a one-piece flow operation based on the demands of the marketplace? By reconfiguring your traditional assembly lines into production cells based on one-piece flow, you can drastically reduce your lead time, staffing requirements, and number of defects. Kenichi Sekine studied under the late Shigeo Shingo and is responsible for many recent advances in the deployment of the Toyota Production System in Japan. In this comprehensive book, Sekine provides an in-depth examination into the why's and how's of the restructuring process. Sekine begins by delving into the basic principles of process flow building, then offers detailed case studies of how various industries designed unique one-piece flow systems (parallel, L-shaped, and U-shaped floor plans) to meet their particular needs. One-Piece Flow describes each step in the process of establishing one-piece flow and provides ample "test your skills" worksheets that guide you through the solution of problems.