Paper Review Report

(Assignment 1 )

Paper Considered -Lean Adoption in Small Manufacturing Shops: Attributes and Challenges

BY

Dr. Manocher DjassemiThe Journal of Technology, Management, and Applied Engineering (JITMAE)

Volume 30, Number 1 January – March 2014

Submitted by

Nedunuri Sarat Chandra

Student Id No: 104334656

Date of Submission: 3rd June 2015

ABSTRACT:

We all are aware that lean principles application in large manufacturing plants is wide and being improved by various consistent lean practices. The objective of this paper is to present what all are the potential barriers to be faced while implementing these lean practices in small manufacturing shops (SMS). Initially the variation in the application of lean system in large and small manufacturing plants were listed out and subsequently the possible solutions were stated in for implanting these system in SMS in comparison with similar efforts in large manufacturing plants. A three phase implementation strategy namely training of the diverse team of employees by external consultants, finding out the possible improvement opportunities and implementation of lean practices was followed. A SMS was considered for the real time application of these stated three phase strategy and found out the various backdrops of where the non-value added time is being wasted excessively and resolving the same, processes that might help for the lowest cost with best quality make. All the managerial aspects that are to be taken into consideration for the successful implementation of the lean practices in spite of various barriers were discussed. The training provided by the external consultants to the teams for operation of the kaizen events with the available environment in SMS lead to found out the six pilot projects that are to be considered for the process improvements in the SMSs. Ultimately it was found out that the systematic approach of lean practices in small manufacturing shops despite of the challenges can result in an eliminating waste or non-value added activities and improving production cost, quality and delivery even in the SMS.

Methods Used: Implementation of lean practices in Small manufacturing plants comprising with employee number less than 100, limited resources and production deadlines have to be done in a systematic planned way keeping in consideration of the stated backdrops. The three phase implementation strategy was done in a sequential way initially the strategy was generally stated and later on the real time application on a SMS was done. The shop that was considered machine shop that serves large customers in the aerospace and semiconductor industries with prototypes and low to mid volume parts. This particular company has 50 employees which is idle for the lean adoption being a small firm.

Phase 1 Training: This training involves a brief classroom teaching to the employees by the outside certified consultants on lean implication practices in such a way to achieve tangible levels of improvement. This includes a 5 week intensive training comprising of 2 hours of training, 4 days a week for every employee. For this employees have to be divided into six teams for the training. Spending on these outside consultants is a wise idea as SMS cannot afford for an internal consulting team for small number of employees moreover the money spend on this training can be compensated by the fruitful results after the lean process implication. Earlier in the classes the objective of lean principles and in what way that helps on the process improvement with the available resources were explained to the employees followed by the lean tools prioritization matrix, value stream mapping, caused and effect and the 5- why analysis.

Improvement in Teams: The teams should be divided in a mixed way such that every employee comes to interaction with the other operation employee and get to know a basic information of operations which are of not in his knowledge. The team composition was made keeping in consideration about the maximizing diversity and this was achieved by decomposition/ re composition matrix such that every team comprises of members from each different operation. Other considerations are like each team should not concentrate on only one particular operation and care should be taken that no particular team causes any internal disturbance in the manufacturing. To ensure the unitedness care should be taken that every member of the company have to attend all training sessions and consequentially every member should be in each team. The teams were then assigned for their respective job roles for a 10 week period of time for collecting the data and process observations by the guidelines taken in the training sessions a detailed study of the 10 week report of the employees pertains for the pilot projects and managerial aspects to be considered for this SMS for the process improvement.

Phase 2 Kaizen events: The teams after training will be working on sorting out the issues in the production in various aspects and work on the process improvements along with the lowering of the cost. The exposure that teams gained through the lean principles now they put that into the real time practice and their diversified teams comprising of members from different operational areas in the shop provides them an opportunity to gain the knowledge from others. This improves the working environment effectively as for an example every team may consist a manager, machinist and technicians which leads them to gain knowledge from one another for the effective process improvement.

The figure below shows the strategy or the pictorial representation of the methodology being implemented in a SMS.

Phase 3 Implementation:

After the six teams have sorted out the improvement projects that are to be undertaken a systematic approach plan for their implementation will be prepared

and submitted to the management’s approval. The teams were trained in a way that their plan comprises of identification of the problem with the root cause of that particular problem, resolution to that particular problem with a systematic strategy for its execution. A detailed study measures will be stated in the form of pilot projects for the efficient results. The projects found out by the team members may be similar at some aspects as they may have the same root cause this may be due to the overlap in the initial phase. However the identified projects may have coherence despite of the process they worked form the starting due to the linkage between the processes in the shop. The consultant service advice or guide by showing the path to the team members but the real implementation was done by the diversified team members only.

Pilot Projects: The pilot projects identified in this particular machine shop causing the waste or reducing the efficiency of the production are as below:

1) Non value added time due to surface finish: It was found that a considerable amount of non-value added time is being spend on the parts surface quality for surface finishing, cleaning and deburring. The resolution for the same is the working members having no knowledge on the parts priority.

2) Machine Maintenance: This is another non-value added time being spend for the clamping of machine tools on the machine. The negative aspect while this work is taking place is that the machine will not be in work which ultimately leads to the break in the production time. The non-availability of the machines for any purpose costs a lot to the management so the possible resolution given by the team members for the same is that the machinists are to be trained in such a way of doing the setup externally by providing the suitable holders and supports. This approach of providing the external setup will not lead to any interruption in the operation of machine which ultimately does not affect the production.

3) Engineering Contract issues: In many of the small manufacturing shops the engineering is provided by a customer contract. There will be mutual understanding for the payment depending upon the project. It was identified that the customer contract was spending 40% more labor time than that was agreed in the contract. This will ultimately increase the project cost which is a waste of cost to the management. The resolution for the same is given by comparing the standards of the contracts with the previous allocated

contracts and by improving the accounting of the contracts for avoiding the stated mistakes.

4) Cutting Tools Placement: In the machine shops cutting tools are mandatory for each operation a non-proper placement of these tools will lead to non-value added search time of these tools. Moreover the efficiency of these cutting tools are also to be ensured on daily basis as replacement time for each of the non-proper tools also is again a waste of time. So the implementation of 5S (sort, straighten, shine, standard and sustain) is to be done as proper storage of these tools is essential for saving the operation time without any delay and employees should strictly follow the replacement of the tools in the storage after their usage.

5) Fixtures Identification: In this particular shop it was noted that a considerable amount of time is being wasted for searching of the fixtures in the storage. These fixtures are used for holding purpose in complex machine operations. The resolution provided for the same is to set a new fixture storage place with visual management system which will fix the wastage of time in these fixtures.

6) Efficient strategy for the working of Quality and assurance department: Many state that Q&A department work as non-value added time being spent but this will not be true in most of the cases as an error in any product supplied to the customer will considerably affect the business relationship between the customer and the shop. In this particular machine shop it was noted that enormous amount of the time is being wasted in the Q&A department which stops the products supply to the customer. Moreover customer’s requirement is that a certified product only will be accepted by them so an efficient working process for quality and assurance of the parts is mandatory. The teams identified that the main reason for the delay in this department is due to the over workload on these particular employees and communication gap between the other departments with the Q&A department. The resolution was stated based on the study of the total overtime spend on Q&A tasks and on time delivery rate. The other departments were trained with the basic quality assurance tasks that can be done during their particular operation only which consequently reduces the part workload on the Q&A department. An efficient interaction of the Q&A and other processing departments is to be done for scheduling the tasks with higher accuracy.

The below table shows the improved performance for the Q&A department after implementing the countermeasures for the problems

Discussions and Conclusions: The author tried to explain the lean adoption strategy in small manufacturing shops in a very efficient way with a systematic approach. The great advantage of this study of the real time application of the theoretical approach on a SMS and sorting out the problems with respective countermeasures in resolving the same. It was significantly proved in this study that adoption of these principles improved the overall production efficiency with minimizing the losses and cost. Apart from the sorting out of the issues with the resolution managerial aspects like training, dissemination, tracking the waste, lean level scheduling are briefly stated that are to be considered by the management. Author specified that adoption of lean principles in SMS with less employees and limited resources is tough as this will reduce the production levels but no in detail countermeasure for facing this issue is not illustrated. Moreover the pilot projects that are stated can be identified by the value stream mapping also so a detailed study of the lean principles and direct implantation of a particular principle is not done a generalized approach was done in most of the cases which is a backdrop. It was stated that investment for the training can be compensated by the results obtained after implication of lean practices but no proper financial figures were stated that proofs the above statement. However a detailed study with linkage of each lean tools like 5S, visual management system, standardization, and statistical process control with real problems encountered in the selected machine shop was not done which should be next approach of this particular paper. Incorporating the above statement in a detailed way would be very helpful for the management of the SMS.

If I had been leading the research: The papers main objective was to adoption of the lean principles in small manufacturing shops SMS. The possible suggestions that I could recommend for this paper are still more a clear picture should be

provided, how exactly we can manage the productivity levels not going down while consequently the lean adoption training and implementation was going on. The exact implication of kaizen or lean tools like 5S, visual management system, standardization, statistical process control and more with a linkage of the problems that are being encountered in a SMS. Another main important criteria is that the training costs are to be kept in mind and incorporating these lean tools all of a sudden is not that easy so consequently I would recommend a backup team to take care there are no loses with the present production levels.

My Recommendations for the Pilot Projects apart from the stated things are like every employee should be aware about the project deadlines and priority work orders including which provides the SMS more money profits. Even though in a small members of 50 there would always be some efficient and smart employees care should be taken by the manager that these employees are given majorly the priority orders which enables the quick completion of the job. Deploying an external consultant agency for training is an economical idea but what would be the situation if there was any dispute in implementing lean practices after the agency leaves this would again create an issue of stopping the work, so probably I would believe that even though it is a small shop there should be at least one efficient employee who has good knowledge in lean practices moreover hi spay would never be a loss he can be helpful for supervision of the work and get know where exactly a problem is being occurred. Employees should also be trained for an optimistic approach while completing the jobs with the limited available resources in SMS. Apart from the above stated rest of the approaches for lean adoption in a SMS that were stated in this paper are really appreciable as SMS also play a very significant role in the manufacturing sector efficient working environment for this SMS is highly recommended.