How My High School FIRST ROBOTICS TEAM Used LEAN to Build a ROKOT

摘要

For the last five years, I've been part of a team of students named STEM punk, building robots that compete in the global FIRST Robotics competition. For four of those years, our robots regularly ranked in the lower third of the 55-plus teams at our regional competitions. But this year, after our leadership group used lean methodology to transform the way we build robots, our machine ranked second overall at the regional in Lacrosse, Wisconsin. You could say our team completely agrees that our new lean management approach will be a constant feature in our future. It all started with an internship opportunity last year. As part of our team's relationship with our sponsor, Vollrath Company, I was hired to work with their manager of continuous improvement, Curt Knoll. Since Curt was studying an assembly line to establish operator balance, I spent many hours recording time study data and developing standard work documents. As I was spending my time in the Ohno circle, I learned to recognize waste and how it impacted productivity.