The Psychology of Quality and More

Heijunka

Heijunka is production leveling, working to produce only the parts and products that are needed whilst also keeping all machines and people as active as possible. This is done by by load balancing and sequencing orders in a repetitive pattern and smoothing the day-to-day orders to correspond to longer-term demand. Heijunka can be used to help create pull in a system rather than the more problematic push, thus helping to remove bottlenecks and reduce inventory.

Thus, for example, people might move between working on different jobs and building a blend of different products.

See also: