The Yamazumi Chart is a revolutionary, visual method of identifying the roadblocks in a business process. This example shows a simple printing process at a copy shop.
A Yamazumi board is just a stacked bar chart. The process starts at the base of the column, and each block is shown by minutes taken. The steps that are necessary to the process but do not really "add value" are in orange. The steps that make a real difference - the execution steps - are in green. The waste in the process, the blockage or failure mode, is in red. In this example it is a breakdown in the printing machine. These are the failures that must be eliminated through such lean production techniques as kaizen (continuous improvement) and poka-yoke (simple but effective) solutions.
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