Library skill · Thinkers' principles
Ford-style flow and waste review
Follows one item through a process and checks it against Henry Ford's flow principles: bring the work to the person, arrange steps in sequence, fixed handoffs, paced by trial, minimal stock. Use it when work waits between people and people spend their time fetching, searching or carrying.
Not affiliated with or endorsed by Henry Ford or their companies. About these principles: Henry Ford's ideas, explained.
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When to use it
- Work waits between people and people spend their time fetching, searching or carrying
- A workspace, tool layout or handoff needs redesigning
- Stock or a backlog keeps piling up between steps
What you give it
- One process as really done, arrival to exit
- Work and wait time per step, and how the item moves
- Trips, searches and carries with times
- Stock between steps and daily use
What you get
The item's path with work and wait time, the trips, searches and carries sized, layout and handoff changes that bring the work to the person, and one small trial.
How it works
- Follow one item
- Mark who moves (principle 1)
- Check the sequence and distance (principle 2)
- Check the handoff point (principle 3)
- Look at pace and waiting (principle 4)
- Look at stock (principles 6 and 7)
- Propose the changes
- Pick one small trial (principle 5)
Example
What you give it
A small dental clinic. A patient checks in at reception (2 min), waits (about 15 min), a nurse walks them to a room, then goes back to the office to print the chart and fetch the X-rays from the other room (about 6 min). The dentist comes in, finds the tray is missing two instruments and the nurse goes to sterilisation to get them (3 min, about 1 in 3 visits). After treatment, the nurse writes notes on paper and takes them to reception, where the receptionist types them in (5 min). We keep a cupboard of supplies ordered every two months 'to be safe'. About 30 patients a day.
What you get back (the start of it)
These are principles Henry Ford described publicly in My Life and Work (1922). Not affiliated with or endorsed by Henry Ford or their companies. Applying them outside a factory is our adaptation.
Summary
Lead time per patient about [check: total minutes]; the biggest flow loss is the nurse fetching the chart and X-rays, about 6 min on each of about 30 patients a day, or roughly 3 hours of nurse time daily. First trial: prepare chart, X-rays and a checked tray at the room before the patient is called, for one week, in one treatment room.
Trips, searches and carries
| Step | Who goes where, or searches for what | Time per item | Items per week | Principle |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Before treatment | Nurse walks to office and X-ray room | 6 min | about 150 [estimate: 30 a day x 5 days] | 1 Bring the work to the person |
| During treatment | Nurse fetches missing instruments | 3 min | about 50 (1 in 3 visits) | 3 Fixed, convenient place |
| After treatment | Paper notes carried to reception and re-typed | 5 min | about 150 | 2 Sequence, 7 Waste of effort |
The rest of this output, the full steps and the checks the AI runs before it answers are in your pod once you add the skill.
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Changelog
- v1.0.1 · · Example output now opens with the attribution and not-affiliated lines, as the skill's own checks require.
- v1.0.0 · · First release.
Sources
- My Life and Work, Henry Ford with Samuel Crowther (1922) - Project Gutenberg eBook #7213 (read 2026-11-04)
- Henry Ford: Assembly Line - The Henry Ford (read 2026-11-04)
- K-12 Research Guide: Assembly Line - The Henry Ford (read 2026-11-04)