Kaizen: continuing improvement

Dr. Ron LembkeSCM 462

Kaizen A philosophy of continually improving all areas.

Personal life, home life, social life, working life Workplace: continuous improvement involving

everyone- managers and workers alike Quality:

There is very little agreement on what constitutes quality. In its broadest sense, quality is anything that can be improved. When speaking of “quality” one tends to think first in terms of product quality. When discussed in the context of KAIZEN strategy nothing could be further off the mark. The foremost concern here is with the quality of people. … Building quality into people means helping them become KAIZEN conscious.

Masaaki Imai – Kaizen, 1986, McGraw-Hill. Pp. xx-xxi, xxiii

Kaizen

How to measure and define quality? Other side of the coin is KAIZEN Nobody can dispute the value of improvement These improvements will lead to

improvements in quality and productivity Quality = anything that can be improved

Products and services, The way people work, way machines are used

Who started it all?

July 1950, Deming 8-day seminar on statistical quality control

July 1954 J.M. Juran seminar on quality-control management.

First time QC dealt with from the overall management perspective

SDSA PDSAPLAN

DO

STUDY

ACT

Kaizen Blitz Scope, boundaries, objectives Very short duration

Cotton Gin at Work

Eli Whitney introduced

interchangeable parts in large musket contract for U.S. Army

Interchangeable parts the true secret of Ford’s success

Made possible by advances in measurement and tool steel

Beginning of Standards Before standardized parts, need Screws 1860s Machine Tool industry: Silicon

Valley of its day All screws custom made by tool & die

shops according to what they thought best

William Sellers: 1864 “On a Uniform System of Screw Threads”

Sellers vs. Whitworth

3 cutters & 2 lathes vs. 1 cutter & 1 lathe Simple geometry vs. difficult Rounded top vs. straight: ease of manufacturing, ease of assembly

Not Just What you Know Machine tool makers didn’t want to be

commoditized like gun makers The standard people expect to win usually

does. Navy Board found it superior, asked Singer

Sewing Machine, Baldwin Locomotive which would win (already adopted).

Pennsylvania RR adopted (Sellers on the Board)

British tanks & trucks couldn’t be repaired in WWII because Britain adopted Whitworth

Frederick W. Taylor Frederick W. Taylor:

Father of “Scientific Management” Find ways to improve work

environment and work processes Quantify, measure & track

everything:Time required to haul wheelbarrow:

B p aL

051 0 004827127. . .distance hauled

Factory Life

“Schmidt”

Taylor’s Factory

Frank and Lillian Gilbreth Systematically study a work environment and

find the best way to achieve a particular task With Taylor, pioneered “industrial engineering”

-- time and motion studies “Cheaper by the Dozen”

Motion Capture Lights illuminate key motion joints For Computer Generation, convert

to 3D

Barry Zito

Chronocyclegraph light-1914

Bricklayer

Typesetter

Drill Press

Pencil Holder Color coded slots Groove for grabbing pencil

Ergonomic Seating

Ergonomic chairs

Andrew Carnegie Telegraph operator to RR division

superintendent Adopted latest technology, built first

steel plant laid out to optimize flow Focused on knowing, lowering unit

cost Raise prices with everyone else in

booms, slash prices in recession

Andrew CarnegieProduction: US England

1868 8,500 111,00019029,138,0001,862,000

Steel Prices: (per ton)1870 $1001890 $12

How? Continuous Process Improvement

The Richest Man in the World Found out strike organizers, fired before 1886 “Triumphant Democracy”, Forum magazine-

workers’ right to unionize 1889 “Gospel of Wealth:” rich need to help the

poor ($25m annual income) 1892 Homestead strike: 12 hour gunfight,

Pinkerton defeated (12 died), state militia called in, strike breakers hired

1901 sells out to J.P. Morgan: $480m Built 2,500 libraries. “The man who dies rich dies

disgraced.” 1919 dies, having given away 90%

Skibo Castle

Henry Ford

Continuous Process Improvement Advances in metal cutting allowed him to cut

pre-hardened steel, produce identical parts Standardized parts facilitated standardization

of jobs, moving assembly line Model T: 1908 $850

1920’s: $250

Ford’s Rouge Ford’s Rouge PlantPlant

Vertical Integration Owned forests, iron mines,

rubber plantation, coal mines, ships, railroad lines

Dock facilities, blast furnaces, foundries, rolling mills, stamping plants, an engine plant, glass manufacturing, a tire plant, its own power plant, and 90 miles of RR track

1927 Model A Production begins 15,000,000 cars in 15 years 120,000 employees in WWII

Details to the MaxIn his autobiographies “My Life and Work”

(1922), and “Today and Tomorrow” (1926), Ford gives great detail on innovations he and his company have made, including:

Glass making, Artificial leather Steering wheels out of Fordite heat treating -- saved $36m in 4 years (1922) Forging parts, wiremaking Riveting, bronze bushings, springs

Managing Workers “It is a reciprocal relation -- the

boss is the partner of his worker, the worker is partner of his boss. Both are indispensable.”

-- MLAW p. 117

Paying for Good Employees

“One frequently hears that wages have to be cut because of competition, but competition is never really met by lowering wages. The only way to get a low-cost product is to pay a high price for a high grade of human service and to see to it through management that you get that service.” T&T p. 43

Mindless Work“Repetitive Labour -- the doing of one thing over and over again and always in the same way -- is a terrifying prospect to a certain kind of mind. It is terrifying to me. I could not possibly do the same thing day in and day out, but to other minds, perhaps I might say to the majority of minds, repetitive operations hold no terrors. In fact, to some types of mind thought is absolutely appalling. To them the ideal job is one where their creative instinct need not be expressed.” MLAW p. 103

Mindless WorkWhen you come right down to it, most jobs are repetitive. A business man has a routine that he follows with great exactness; the work of a bank president is nearly all routine; the work of under officers and clerks in a bank is purely routine. Indeed, for most purposes and most people, it is necessary to establish something in the way of a routine and to make most motions purely repetitive -- otherwise the individual will not get enough done to be able to live off his own exertions. -- MLAW pp 103-4.

7 Types of Waste

Overproduction Stock on Hand - Inventory (Unnecessary) Transportation Making Defective Products Waste in Processes Waiting time Waste in motions

Removing Non-Value-Added Activities

Value-added time = time to complete those work activities that actually transform the product into what the customer wants. p.109

ProcessCycle =Efficiency

Value-Added Time_______________

Total Lead Time

P. 138 – Strapping Kaizen Why are the boxes coming apart?

Poke-Yoke Eliminate the potential for error Replace the process with one less

potential for error Facilitated: user has less potential

for error Detection: easier to spot Mitigation: minimize the effect

Non-slip screws

Milford, MA, MetroMedical Ctr

Milford Daily News, 5/31/08

Computer Poka-Yokes

Other Poka-Yokes ATMs that beep to take your card out Can’t get any cash until your card is out Indentations in surgery trays Lawn mowers stop running when you let

go of bar 3.5” disks only go in one way

Poka-Yokes Keys, wallet, phone in your shoe,

etc. Papers on your chair

Low Bridges & Ceilings Eliminate: raise the bridge Replace: warning signs Facilitated: add signs or sensors Detect: ? Mitigation – iron beam protects

bridge

P. 143 Fuel Gauges How would you fix it?