Cost deployment 7 steps poster

Cost deployment is a method for aiming improvement at the losses that cost the most. It starts from the plant's total cost, finds the losses inside it, separates the causal losses that start a chain from the resultant losses that follow, puts a money value on each, then picks a method, weighs the cost of the fix against the saving and follows the plan through. This poster gives the seven steps in plain words, after the published method of Yamashina and Kubo.

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The words on the poster

Cost deployment

Seven steps: find where the money is lost, then aim improvement at the biggest losses.

Total cost Draw the boundary: which of the plant's costs are in scope.
Find the losses List the losses in that cost, process by process.
Causal or resultant? Separate the losses that start a chain from those that follow.
Put a cost on each Turn minutes, parts and kilowatt hours into money.
Choose the method Pick the improvement tool that fits each big loss.
Cost of fix against saving Estimate both before the work starts.
Plan and follow up Owners and dates. Savings checked with finance.

Biggest loss first. Cost decides where to start, not opinion.

Steps after Yamashina and Kubo, Manufacturing cost deployment (2002), in plain words.

On the floor

How to use it

Putting the Cost deployment 7 steps poster to work

1
Put it in the improvement room, next to the loss tree or the cost matrices.
2
Use it to explain to a new team why the project list starts with the biggest cost, not the loudest complaint.
3
Walk one loss through the seven steps in a training session before running the full exercise.
4
Pair it with the free cost deployment matrix and loss tree worksheet.

Where the poster goes and how to teach with it, in the order to try them.

Which size to print

24 x 36 in or A2: a main wall or team board, read from a few metres away.
18 x 24 in or A3: a station or notice board. The A3 file also fits 11 x 17 in paper.
Letter or A4: a clipboard, binder or handout, on any office printer.

Every PDF is vector, so it stays sharp at full size. Nothing runs to the edge of the page, so no bleed is needed.

Sources and notes

Plants usually repeat the seven steps as a cycle, once or twice a year, with fresh data each time. Finance should agree the cost figures, or the savings will not be believed.

H. Yamashina and T. Kubo, "Manufacturing cost deployment", International Journal of Production Research (2002): the seven steps from total cost to an improvement plan, and the split into causal and resultant losses.