Lean is the ultimate system for manufacturers, focusing on Timeliness, Quality and Cost Effectiveness. They can survive and thrive only through Continuous Improvement Programmes.
The other key issue in Lean thinking is the focus on value-adding activities, and eliminating any additional costs that do not add any value to the product. This means transforming the factory’s environment and work practices to Zero Waste by focussing on the product, not the process.
In business cost, selling price and profit are three important parameters. Since profit and the buyer selling price cannot be changed, cost is the only variable that can be increased or decreased. How can the factory control the manufacturing cost in the absence of standards? Therefore, these days buyers, looking to march ahead, are requesting the factories to transform their manufacturing facility to ‘Lean Structure’.
Key principles of Lean manufacturing are: focus on product value; elimination of waste; continuous improvement and standardization; driven by customer need; and culture of change.
Some of the commonly used Lean tools are:
• Value Stream Mapping : VSM serves as a starting point to help management, engineers, production associates, schedulers, suppliers and customers recognize waste and identify its causes. It involves physically mapping the factory’s “current state” while also focusing on where the factory wants to be, or its “future state”. The goal is to create a blueprint upon which future process and lead-time shortening strategies can be built.
• Kaizen for the Shop Floor : In Japanese, Kaizen means the Zen of taking something apart in order to make it better. As a workplace quality strategy, Kaizen has become synonymous with the concept of continuous improvement. It comprises of tools and methodology to be followed to ensure that desired improvements are attained and subsequent changes sustained.
• One-Point Flow : One-Point Flow refers to the continuous connection of a factory’s complete processes from dock-to-dock for optimum results. Unnecessary processes – excessive handling and manipulation – add to costs and increased lead times, resulting in overproduction and inefficient use of workers and space. Lesser the processes a factory has the less waste it will incur and the easier it will be to balance factory flow.
• Modular Manufacturing and One-Piece Flow : One-Piece Flow refers to producing one unit at a time as opposed to large lots and is attained through Modular Manufacturing where workers and equipments are arranged in U-shaped assembly cells instead of traditional production lines.
• Visual Control & Point-of-Use Systems : In order to respond quickly to marketplace demands with flexible production set-ups and zero defect standards, managers and workers alike must be able to realize at a glance what is going on in their factories. Visual control systems bring total alignment to common objectives and will help everyone in the factory to become involved in monitoring – and actively supporting – corporate objectives throughout the manufacturing process.
• 5S Workplace Organization for Workers : The benefits of Lean Manufacturing cannot be fully realized in a workplace that is cluttered, disorganized or dirty. 5S is a target list of activities promoting organization and efficiency in the workplace and stands for Sorting, Straightening, Shining, Standardizing and Sustaining.
• Poka Yoke (error proofing) : An improvement strategy that is targeted at eliminating defects, errors, and equipment abnormalities in production processes before they occur.
• Standardization : It is the process of defining the best way to get a job done in the amount of time available while ensuring the job is done right the first time, every time. It is a precise description of each work activity specifying cycle time, takt time, the work sequence of specific tasks and the minimum inventory of parts in hand needed to conduct the activity. (Contributed by Charles Dagher, CEO, Dagher Consulting Group.)
