This article is for production managers, continuous improvement managers and manufacturing engineering managers who are torn between launching a digital project and first consolidating their lean fundamentals.
- The lean rule has three steps: stabilize, standardize, then digitalize.
- A digital tool on an unstable process spreads the drift instead of fixing it.
- Known stops, steady speed, explained gaps between shifts: three proofs of stability.
- Measuring stops is not digitalizing the shop floor: it shows which step you are at.
The question comes up in almost every plant: should you digitalize now, or wait until the shop floor is ready? The most solid answer fits in three verbs, in this order. The remaining question is how to recognize process stability. That is where measurement has a role to play, even before digital.
Stabilize, standardize, digitalize
In Lean and digital: real opportunity or passing fad? (in French), Philippe Frache, managing director of LEANEO Consulting, starts from something he has seen at several manufacturers: high-performing tools installed on disorganized processes, which mainly made the dysfunctions visible in real time, without solving them.
His rule is simple: stabilize the process with lean fundamentals (flow, 5S, problem solving, visual management), standardize it to make it repeatable, then digitalize that standard, and only that. He sums it up this way: “Digital amplifies Lean, it does not replace it.”
Hard to disagree. A tool reproduces what it is given, faster and at a larger scale. If the process drifts, the tool spreads the drift.
How do you know a process is stable?
The whole difficulty lies in the first step. “Stable” is easy to say in a meeting. On the shop floor, it is a claim you need to be able to verify. Three simple questions let you do that:
- Are stops known? Not just long breakdowns, but also short, repeated stops, which are often the first signs of a process that is not under control.
- Is the speed steady? A line that runs one hour at rated speed and then one hour at 80% is not stable, even without a single stop.
- Are the gaps between shifts explained? If the same station does not produce the same output depending on the shift, there is no shared standard yet.
Without a quantified answer to these three questions, the stability diagnosis rests on impressions.
Measuring is not digitalizing
This is the nuance often missing from the debate. Measuring a machine’s stops and speed is not a shop floor digitalization project. The point is not to replace routines, boards or standards with software. The point is to get an honest picture of what is happening, so you know where to focus your stabilization efforts.
| Step | What you do | What measurement brings |
|---|---|---|
| Stabilize | Flow, 5S, problem solving | The real list of stops, including short ones, to choose improvement projects |
| Standardize | Write down and share best practice | Proof that the standard holds from one shift to the next |
| Digitalize | Equip a standard that already exists | A baseline to check that the tool delivers a gain |
In this logic, measurement serves lean at every step. It does not short-circuit the sequence, it tells you which step you are really at.
Three signals that you are not ready to digitalize
- The downtime Pareto changes depending on who fills it in. Reported causes vary from one shift to another, and the “miscellaneous” category comes out on top. Problem solving does not yet have a reliable basis.
- Micro-stops are not counted anywhere. They dissolve into the speed gap, with no cause attached. That is often where instability hides.
- The same changeover takes twice as long depending on the shift. The standard does not exist yet, or it is not applied.
In all three cases, installing a digital management tool would amount to displaying, in real time, a mess that nobody yet knows how to deal with. Better to measure, understand and stabilize first.
A three-step approach
- Measure without changing anything for two weeks on a pilot line: stops, durations, speed. This gives you the baseline picture.
- Launch stabilization projects on the top two or three causes, with the usual lean tools: 5 Whys, standard work, 5S.
- Check that the standard holds, shift by shift, with the same measurement. Only when the gaps narrow can the question of digitalization be addressed calmly.
This is how TEEPTRAK is used in many plants: the module is wired into the electrical cabinet, a sensor is mounted at the edge of the line, and installation takes about one hour per machine, with no PLC connection. OEE is available within 48 hours. Measurement comes before the digital project, not instead of it.
Further reading
- Lean and digital: real opportunity or passing fad?, Philippe Frache, LEANEO Consulting: the stabilize, standardize, digitalize rule explained by a hands-on consultant.
- Kaizen and continuous improvement: how to digitalize your CI programme
- Root cause analysis in manufacturing: when reported data sends you down the wrong path
FAQ
Should you digitalize a process that is not stable? No. A digital tool reproduces the process as it is. If it is unstable, the tool makes the instability more visible without correcting it. Stabilize first, then standardize.
How do you know if a production process is stable? By checking three points with figures: stops, including short ones, are known; speed is steady; gaps between shifts are explained.
Is measuring downtime already digitalization? Not in the sense of a digitalization project. Measurement gives a reliable picture of the situation and supports the lean steps of stabilization and standardization.
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