ABSTRACT
Swimming relay hand-offs require the next worker to wait until the person prior to them completes their work, whereas a baton relay hand-off allows work to be handed off before it is completed but requires the operator to be able to perform that work. Taiichi Ohno uses the analogy between swimming relay hand-offs and baton relay hand-offs21 to describe the differences in flexing. Standard work is defined by Ohno as three items: Cycle time, Work sequence, and Standard work in process (SWIP) inventory. True standardized work is obtained in the results and found by standard work audits, which means that we follow the steps in an exact repeatable sequence and hit the times with the right SWIP for each step every time. The assembly standard work form is derived from the work flow analysis. It is important to do work improvement first, then equipment improvement, process improvement, facility improvement, and finally information system improvement.
