Ohno Circle

Named after Taiichi Ohno, an early innovator of the Toyota Production System, the technique is used to make deep observations of a process or scene with the goal of improving what you see (Wilson, 2011). This method differs from the others in that it is done by an individual, not a group or team. However, it is intended to enable an 

But how about taking 30 minutes, finding a quiet, unobtrusive place in one of your classes, meetings, offices, or laboratories, or in the field at a project site, and simply observe. More specifically, in the spirit of continuous improvement, look for wasteful or otherwise undesirable situations like these. 

Then document what you saw and possibly a few improvement ideas, share with your team, discuss, decide what to do, and act. By the way, while you are watching, also listen. Because is causes us to focus, the Ohno Circle method enables us to see and hear what we would probably otherwise have missed. 

Consider, for example, a manufacturing organization that has defined and is striving to achieve quality. The organization might use the following metrics, maybe on a quarterly or annual basis  

Similarly, a consulting engineering business committed to quality might use the following metrics, perhaps on an annual basis  

---

Problems first meetings Mind mapping Ohno circle Metrics... 

APPLY THE OHNO CIRCLE METHOD This exercise will enable you to try... 

C. Apply the Ohno Circle method, modified so that you stay at your observation point for only one hour, not the up to eight hours that Taiichi Ohno required The idea is to be there long enough to see everything. More specifically, look for underutilized resources (e.g., personnel, equipment, materials) excess motion of personnel unnecessary movement of parts or materials excessive parts or materials defects (e.g., production or constructed elements that do not seem to meet requirements) waiting because materials, information, or resources are not available where and when needed and safety and health hazards. While you are watching, also listen carefully as suggested in Chapter 7, because it will cause you to be even more focused. 

Fig. 9. Magnetic field dependence of the magnetization at selected temperatures for a 150-nm thick Ga xMn As film with a Mn composition x = 0.03S. The magnetic field is applied parallel to the sample surface (direction of magnetic easy axis) except for the closed circles at 5 K taken in perpendicular geometry. The solid line for S K shows the magnetization determined from transport measurements. The upper left inset shows a magnified view of the magnetization in the parallel field at 5 K. The lower right inset shows the temperature dependence of the remanent magnetization (Ohno et al. 1996a).

Fig. II. (a) Temperature dependence of the magnetization for 200-nm thick Ga, MnrAs with x =0.053. The magnetic field is applied perpendicular to the sample surface (hard axis). The inset shows the temperature dependence of the remanent magnetization (0 T) and the magnetization at 1 T in a field parallel to the film surface, (b) Temperature dependence of the saturation magnetization determined from the data shown in (a) by using ArTott plots (closed circles). Open circles show inverse magnetic susceptibility and the Curie-Weiss fit is depicted by the solid straight line (Ohno and Matsukura 2001).

Fig. 19. Magnetic field dependence of the diagonal resistivity p (open circles) and magnetization Afnaii (close circles) determined from the ratio of the Hall and diagonal resistivities, Afnall = PHM/CP< where c = 6.3, for a 1.3-rrm thick film of lni tMnr As with x = 0.013. The solid line is a fit by the modified Brillouin function B (y), where S = 5/2 and y = SgpgB/(T + T0) with T0 = 1.5 K. The inset shows the hysteresis observed in the Hall resistivity at 3.5 K (Ohno et al. 1992).

Fig. 30. Barrier height A measured by current-voltage (/-V) characteristics of (Ga,Mn)As/GaAs diodes. A shown by closed circles is the barrier height between the Fermi energy of (Ga,Mn)As and the valence band top of GaAs as shown in the inset. Open circles depict the effective Richardson constants. (Ohno et al. 2001).

Figure 14 Plots of (a) (Rp/[M]fvs. [BPO]oand (b) / ct vs. (/ p/[M]) for the styrene/PS-l(Po-X)/BPO systems (80 °C) [Po-X]o=0 (open circles) and 17 mM (filled circles) [BPO]o as indicated on the abscissa in Figure 14(a). Reproduced from Goto, A. Ohno, K. Fukuda, T. Macromolecules 9Si, 31, 2809-2814, With permission from the American Chemical Society...

---