LEAN MANUFACTURING

Prepared by: Victor J./ Chamith R.

June 20th 2014

Source: https://www.managingamericans.com/BlogFeed/Leadership-Teambuilding/How-To-Use-Lean-Principles-To-Drive-Grow-Your-Business.htm

What is Lean Manufacturing ?

Is a manufacturing system and philosophy focused on optimizing processes and eliminating waste. This improves production flow and adds value for the customer.

How is this possible?

1. Identifying waste (The 8 wastes)2. Analyzing the process and finding root causes (Value

stream)3. Implementing improvements (Kaizen)

Source: http://www.automationworld.com/operations/it-supports-lean-thinking

Waste Reduction• Waste is identified as anything that doesn’t add

value to the final product or service offered.

• In lean manufacturing there are 8 types of waste:

Source: http://www.symbolbv.com/en/lean-manufacturing.html

The Right Approach…

• Active involvement of all areas affected by an outcome of a process (multi-disciplinary teams).

• Walk through the entire process from beginning to end, and understand everyone’s role in the process (getting the details from “the big picture”).

• Share constructive feedback on the current state or situation of the process.

• Ask for expert advice or guidance when needed (no need to “re-invent the wheel”).

• Lean techniques are about “making problems obvious” (visual management), so they can be solved accordingly.

Lean Manufacturin

g Project Stages

Team Formation

Registering

Data Collection

Data Analysis

Adjust target

Find Root Causes

Data Collection

Find vital root

causes

Generate Solutions

Implement Solutions

Monitor Implemented solutions

Project Closure

PDCA

PDCAPlanDo Check Act

Team Formation

• A brainstorming session is carried out to propose projects to work on.

• The project is chosen based on two parameters:

• Depending on the project, participants and roles are defined in this stage:

1. Number of members.2. Areas in the organization involved (functional &

support). 3. Facilitator or guidance team identified.4. Team Leader (process owner).5. Other support roles (i.e. time keeper, recorder, etc).

EffortImpac

tLittle Great

LittleLow hanging fruit. Should be done

when convenient.Low Priority. Leave it for last when all other

options are depleted.

GreatTop priority. It should be given

immediate action.Important long term objective. Needs a

champion to keep it active.

Team Formation (Cont)• The group reaches consensus through voting or by

using the Nominal Group Technique (NGT).

Registering• The chosen project by the team is formally

registered with Lean Manufacturing and obtain a Project No.

• The different steps of the project are outlined in a Gantt chart, and the scope and limitations highlighted in the plan.

• Learning process of the team members begins.

Data Collection

• This step represents the gathering of information to help making decisions.

• The project team develops an initial data collection plan based on:

- Goals (time for collecting the data)

- Operational definitions and procedures (constraints).

- Ensuring data consistency and stability

- Whenever is too costly or impractical to collect data, use data sampling instead.

- A template or data collection sheet is developed and used.

Data Collection• The team also has to consider the following:

- Identify what type of data to collect (discrete, i.e. pass/fail, or continuous, i.e. dimensional tolerances).

- Who will collect the data.- Depending on type of data, which method to follow.

Source: http://everythingmaths.co.za/grade-10-mathematical-literacy/12-data-handling/12-data-handling-04.cnxmlplus

Data Analysis

• This stage reveals important information about the problem under study.

• Depending on the amount of data collected, its complexity, and time available, different tools might be used: Histograms, pareto analysis, run charts, control charts, etc.

• The main output from this stage is “direction” on the study of the problem.

Source: www.greenbookblog.org

Data Analysis (Cont)

• Example of histogram showing time for looking for tools per setup, job and item number in the shop.

Adjust Target

• This step follows after having some data collected, a “first impression” of the current state of the problem, and a preliminary analysis.

• The idea in this stage is to identify where to focus on for a solution. For example: “Reducing the average time to find tools for a setup from 22 minutes to 10 minutes” (Look at next table of data).

• This defines the team’s “direction” to follow.

Adjust Target (Cont)

Find Root Causes

• Is the rational process of finding the origins of the problems at hand. The most common tools that can be used are:

- Five Whys. - Fishbone diagram

Find Root Causes (Cont.)

• Another tool for identifying root causes is a record of log sheet for tracking repeatability of events or outcomes from processes.

Data Collection

• Once the target was adjusted, the team collects more data in order to select the very few important roots (causes) of the problems.

• This second data collection attempt is aligned with the target previously defined, and “digs in” the knowledge the team previously had.

Select Vital Few Root Causes

• Based on the second data collection, the team narrows down on the very few important root causes.

• A good tool for this purpose is the Pareto chart/analysis, in which 20% of the causes are identified as the 80% of the “trouble makers”.

Generate Solutions

• The team meets again for another brainstorming session for generating solutions.

• All options are presented and the most “convenient” ones are chosen and developed through a “pilot” plan.

Implement Solutions

• This stage involves putting into practice the “pilot” plan previously developed.

• An implementation plan is developed for answering the typical questions: What?, When? Why?, Who? and How?.

• More data collection will be necessary once the changes have been implemented in order to show the “before” and “after” of the project.

Monitor Implemented Solutions

• This stage involves putting into practice the “pilot” plan previously developed.

• A follow up plan is defined in order to continue monitoring the process and the improvements made to it.

• More data collection will be necessary once the changes have been implemented in order to show the “before” and “after” state in the project.

• Once the team agrees that the objectives have been met, and the improvements are in place, ideas for sustaining these changes must be developed.

Project Closure

• This stage formally finalizes the project.

• Achievements are summarized and presented to the process owner or guidance team.

• Lessons learned from this experience are summarized among team members and documented, in order to not commit same mistakes in further projects.