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TheoryofEveryPartEveryInterval
(EPEI)Leveling&Heijunka
December 14, 2014
Leveling

Lean Tools

Efficiency, Information Flow, Kanban, Lean Tools,

Probably among the most popular leveling
approaches isEvery Part Every Interval
(EPEI). Often, this is the method people
mean when they talk about leveling (also
known as heijunka [
]).

The theory about this type of leveling is not

very difficult. Unfortunately, hard facts of
reality often nullify any possible advantage
of this type of leveling. In fact, most of
these types of leveling that I have seen
were complete rubbish. They were a dog-and-pony-show to please management at the expense
of performance and shop floor efficiency. In this post I will explain to you how it is supposed to
work in theory. In the next post I will explain why it rarely works in practice .

DifferentNamesfor(Often)theSameThing
This approach to leveling is quite popular. For some reason, many different names are used to
describe (mostly) the same thing. Some of the names I have come across are listed below, but Im
sure there must be some more. For the sake of simplicity, I will just call it EPEI below.
Every Part Every Interval (EPEI)
Every Product Every Cycle (EPEC)
Every Product Every Time Interval x (EPEx)
Fixed Repeating Sequence
(Production)
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Heijunka [
] (Japanese for Leveling)
Green Stream/Red Stream (green for predictable high runners and red for fluctuating exotics)
Fixed Sequence Fixed Volume

TheoryofEPEILeveling
But lets look at how EPEI leveling works (please note that this is complicated by the fact that that not
everybody has the same thing in mind when they talk about EPEI leveling).

TheGoodBasicIdeaDistributetheDemand
Evenly
The underlying idea of EPEI leveling is to distribute the demand evenly across a period of time. For
example, you break your daily production quantity in lots as small as feasible and distribute these
lots evenly throughout the day. This underlying idea is actually pretty good and solid. It is also the
basis for the one-piece flow I will talk about in the next post.

TheFixedRepeatingSequence
The approach of using a fixed repeating sequence takes the expected total demand for a longer
period often one, two, or four weeks and aims to distribute the resulting production orders evenly.
In industries with shorter cycle times such as, for example, the automotive industry, this is often
distributed into daily chunks of equal size. If your change overs differ depending on from what to
what you change, the fixed repeating sequence also allows you to optimize these change overs.
However, if your cycle time is longer or if you have larger changeover times, you may use larger
chunks to distribute the orders in your period. Similarly, if you have small changeover times, you may
even produce the same product more than once at different times throughout the day.

AnExample
Usually, this approach is best explained using an example. Lets assume you have 7 different products
labeled A to G. Products A, B, and C are your high runners that you sell frequently. Together they
make up more than 80% of your sales. Products D, E, F, and G are your less frequently sold exotic
parts. Production planning estimates that you will sell 40 product As next week, 25 product Bs, 15
times C, 5 times D, 2 times E and F each, and only 1 product G as shown below. Every day you have
the capacity to produce 18 parts, so your capacity matches the overall demand of 90 products.

Weekly Demand for the Leveling Example

Not-LeveledInitialState
If someone would not know anything about leveling, they would probably try to minimize the
number of changeovers and make batches as large as possible. Hence your production schedule for
Monday to Friday would look like the image below. First you produce all 40 products of A, followed by
all 25 products of B, and so on.

Not (yet) Leveled Example

FixedRepeatingSequenceLeveling
With an EPEI or fixed repeating sequence approach, you would split the expected demand into daily
batches. The high runners would be produced every day. This means every day you would produce 8
product As, 5 product Bs, and 3 product Cs. The remaining capacity is used for the exotic parts,
which are also distributed evenly across the week. Product D has a demand of 5 pieces, hence we can
also produce it every day. Products E and F are produced every other day, and the lone product G is
produced on the remaining available day.

Leveled Example
Compare the not (yet) leveled illustration farther above with the leveled example directly above. The
latter looks much more evenly distributed. Your weekly demand is leveled evenly across the days of
the week.

SomeVariationstotheMethod
LengthofRepeatingSequence
In the example above, I used a weekly period with a daily repeating sequence. This, of course,
depends on your circumstances. Many real world examples I have seen use a two-week period, also
with a daily repeating sequence. But there are also longer or shorter periods such as, for example,
one day or one month. The repeating sequence can also be shorter or longer than one day.
Ideally, the shorter the repeated sequence is, the better the leveling effect. In a perfect state it would
be a one-piece flow, where every part is different from the next one. However, this may not be
economically feasible if you have larger changeover times. Of course, always remember that
changeover times are not fixed but can be reduced (see SMED for more details).

(Flawed)MathematicalApproachforLengthof
RepeatingSequence
There is even a mathematical approach to calculate the repeated sequence, although I think it is
flawed. You take your total available production capacity and subtract the production capacity
required to satisfy the demand. The remaining capacity is used for changeovers in order to make the
sequence as short as possible.
For example, if you have 80 hours of capacity, but need only 70 hours to satisfy demand without
changeovers, then you should use the remaining 10 hours for changeovers. If you need 15 minutes
per changeover, then you can afford 40 changeovers to create your pattern.
However, this method does not work very well if you have way too much capacity. It does not work
at all if you have not enough capacity. Having a good number of changeovers for a good pattern will
be rather arbitrary. In any case, it will be a tough sell to the manager who has to pay for the time for

changeovers rather than send people home and reduce overtime.

LengthofIntervalLeveled
As for the length of the periods whose demand is leveled well here it gets a bit tricky. The longer
the period leveled, the more leveled the overall demand is but the harder it is to actually follow the
planned sequence. Actually, the ability to follow the sequence or to be more precise, the Inability
is the main reason that most attempts at EPEI leveling fail miserably. More on this in my next post.

SequenceNotBasedonTimeButonQuantity
You can also model the repeating sequence not based on time, but on number of parts. This gives
you, in fact, more flexibility. However, the shop floor still thinks in terms of shifts and production days
and will have a bit more trouble wrapping their mind around it. But it is definitely doable.
This is sometimes illustrated as a wheel, where the same production sequence starts again after the
last part is completed. For our dailysequence example above, this is illustrated below. Only the last
two parts would change every cycle, since these exotics are not produced every time.

The Repeating Sequence as a

Wheel

HeijunkaBoard
The pattern is often visualized in a Heijunka Board (Heijunka Box, Leveling Board). This is a board
with lots of slots to add kanban cards or production orders. Usually it is close to the manufacturing
location. The different rows and columns in such a box represent the time (often days or shifts) and
the product types (separate row for high runners, often shared rows for exotics). The cards are added

to represent the production sequence, and are removed once the product is completed.

Schematic of a Heijunka box

A Heijunka Box can visualize the situation within the pattern very well, but is also a significant effort
to maintain, especially if there are frequent changes to the pattern. A Heijunka Box also immensely
impresses your superiors and gives them the feeling that they have managed you well. In fact,
sometimes the box is all you need to impress your superiors, regardless if the leveling actually
works or not.

Conclusion
Well, the above all sounds pretty logic and reasonable. Unfortunately, the harsh reality on the shop
floor usually messes it up pretty well. While it looks good in theory, it is a total mess on all but the
very best shop floors. But more about this on the next post. In the meantime, go out and organize
your Industry!

OverviewofPostsinThisSeriesaboutLeveling
Why to do Leveling (Heijunka)
An Introduction to Capacity Leveling
Theory of Every Part Every Interval (EPEI) Leveling, Also Known as Heijunka
The Folly of EPEI Leveling in Practice Part 1
The Folly of EPEI Leveling in Practice Part 2
Introduction to One-Piece Flow Leveling Part 1 Theory
Introduction to One-Piece Flow Leveling Part 2 Implementation
Also, Michel Baudin wrote a post on Theories of Lean and Leveling/Heijunka on his blog with a review of
my series on Leveling. Check it out for further details on Leveling.

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Related

The Folly of EPEI Leveling in

Practice Part 1
In "Lean Tools"

The Folly of EPEI Leveling in

Practice Part 2
In "Lean Tools"

Introduction to One-Piece
Flow Leveling Part 1 Theory
In "Lean Tools"

9 thoughts on Theory of Every Part Every Interval

(EPEI) Leveling & Heijunka

Pingback: Theory of Every Part Every Interval (EPEI) Leve...

December 15, 2014 at 03:16

Hi Dr.Roser,

felix

Regarding the sequence wheel,you mentioned Only the last two parts would
change every cycle,but formmy understand for each Repeating Sequence as a
Wheel,there will constantly 5 change every cycle not just for erotic part but also for
changover between high runner,
pls let me know if it is correct
Thanks

December 15, 2014 at 10:52

Hello Felix,

Christoph
Roser

In the wheel there are five change overs where you change the system from one
part to another.
However, what I meant with two changes is that the exotic parts are not the same
every day. Hence, in the wheel above the last part is a yellow triangle. However,
since you need only two yellow triangles per week, you do not produce them every
day, but only Monday and Thursday. On other days you change the pattern and
have for example a purple square or a brown diamond as the last part.
Hope this helps, let me know if you have more questions. Best wishes,
Chris

December 17, 2014 at 04:57

Hi Dr.Roser,

felix

Thanks a lots and recently I was appointed to task to setup training system and
structure
for whole company regarding lean manufacturing for all level of employees(new
employee,shop floor production people,supporting function and management
team) like
setting up lean academy and somehow certification system,could you give a hints
and tricky what is strategy and road map I need work on and what kind of course
and duration ,frequency for which level of employee across the plant
I am looking forward to seeing your pictorial insight
Best regards

December 17, 2014 at 13:36

Hi Felix,

Christoph
Roser

That is a big task. It depends on how large you company is, and if you are on your
own or if you have support by others. In general, there is a tendency by
management to vastly underestimate the effort needed to transform a company.
In any case, you only need to train them in the Lean idea, which is difficult enough.
Learning Lean is like learning to drive a car. A classroom helps, but real learning
happens only on the road. Try to use as many simulations as possible.
Best wishes,
Chris

February 19, 2015 at 20:30

Riky

Excelente Post.
I have been working for some years with this Technique and its very helpful. when
you start working with this tool you have a very high level of lean.

February 20, 2015 at 08:26

Hi Riky,

Christoph

many thanks for the compliments. Best wishes,

Roser

Chris

October 27, 2015 at 17:23

Thanks, very good information

Siddu

October 27, 2015 at 18:05

Thanks, Siddu

Christoph

Roser