One Piece Flow
Updated: Mar 3, 2025
My wife and I have a process when moving heavy items for storage. She moves it to the bottom of the stairs. I carry it to the top of the stairs. She moves it to the closet. I store it in the closet.
Due to our work and travel schedules, it could take 3 days for the process to be completed. Yes, it's a silly example, but it shows how hand-offs can result in completion delays.
The better option is One-piece Flow. It maximizes the work completed, in one step, by one individual, ideally from start to finish. This reduces the 8-types of process waste and overall process cycle time.
When we can eliminate specialization and hand-offs, it also impacts our available resources. So, we also need to consider training our resources to be able to handle more tasks. In my example, I need to learn where to store stuff and my wife needs to hit the weight room. (I did not just say that!)
So, when designing your process, consider one-piece flow and minimizing hand-offs by training resources, grouping tasks that can be done together, empowering decision making, and appropriate resource time allocation.
That's my 8020 Framework. What's yours?
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