By Vadim Kotelnikov, Founder, Ten3 BUSINESS e-COACH - Innovation Unlimited, 1000ventures.com
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"A good solution can be successfully applied to almost any problem." – Big Al's Law |
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lean production, lean manufacturing, Kaizen, lean production, lean manufacturing, Kaizen, lean production, lean manufacturing, Kaizen, lean production, lean manufacturing, Kaizen
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Traditional Manufacturing
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Lean Manufacturing
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Scheduling
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Forecast - push
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Customer Order - pull
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Production
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Stock
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Customer Order
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Lead Time
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Long
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Short
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Batch Size
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Large - Batch & Queue
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Small - Continuous Flow
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Inspection
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Sampling - by inspectors
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100% - at source by workers
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Layout
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Functional
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Product Flow
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Empowerment
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Low
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High
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Inventory Turns
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Low - <7 turns
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High - 10+
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Flexibility
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Low
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High
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COGS
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High and Rising
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Lower and Decreasing |
Lean is about doing more with less: less time, inventory, space, labor, and money. "Lean manufacturing", a shorthand for a commitment to eliminating waste, simplifying procedures and speeding up production. Lean Manufacturing (also known as the Toyota Production System) is, in its most basic form, the systematic elimination of waste – overproduction, waiting, transportation, inventory, motion, over-processing, defective units – and the implementation of the concepts of continuous flow and customer pull. Five areas drive lean manufacturing/production:
Just as mass production is recognized as the production system of the 20th century, lean production is viewed as the production system of the 21st century. Kaizen and Lean Manufacturing Kaizen is the heart of the Toyota Production System. Toyota states: "...based on the concept of continuous improvement, or Kaizen, every Toyota team member is empowered with the ability to improve their work environment. This includes everything from quality and safety to the environment and productivity. Improvements and suggestions by team members are the cornerstone of Toyota's success."... More
Quick and Easy Kaizen helps eliminate or reduce wastes, promotes personal growth of employees and the company, provides guidance for employees, and serves as a barometer of leadership. Each kaizen may be small, but the cumulative effect is tremendous. The quick and easy kaizen process works as follows:
Case in Point Canon Eliminating 9 Wastes The objectives of Canon Production System (CPS) are to manufacture better quality products at lower cost and deliver them faster.
Canon invited all their employees to suggest
ideas for improvement and developed 6 Guidelines for the Suggestion System
to make it most effective. The company developed also a list of
9 wastes
to help their employees become problem-conscious, move from operational
improvement to systems improvement, and recognize the need for
self-development...
More Five Ss at Canon Canon has an ongoing workplace improvement program called the Five Ss. The Five Ss refer to the five dimensions of of workplace optimization: Seiri (Sort), Seiton (Set in order), Seiso (Shine), Seiketsu (Standardize), and Shitsuke (Sustain)... More
Basic Elements of Lean Manufacturing The basic elements are waste elimination, continuous one piece workflow, and customer pull. When these elements are focused in the areas of cost, quality and delivery, this forms the basis for a lean production system. The lean production concept was to a large extent inspired by the Kaizen - the Japanese strategy of continuous improvement. Employee empowerment and promotion among them of a way of thinking oriented at improving processes, imitation of customer relationships, fast product development and manufacturing, and collaboration with suppliers are the key strategies of leading lean companies.
Benefits of Lean Production Establishment and mastering of a lean production system would allow you to achieve the following benefits:
However, by continually focusing on waste reduction, there are truly no end to the benefits that can be achieved. The Five Elements of Enabling a Lean Approach
Characteristics
Applications Lean techniques are applicable not only in manufacturing, but also in service-oriented industry and service environment. Every system contains waste, i.e. something that does not provide value to your customer. Whether you are producing a product, processing a material, or providing a service, there are elements which are considered 'waste'. The techniques for analyzing systems, identifying and reducing waste, and focusing on the customer are applicable in any system, and in any industry. Lean thinking may also be applied for getting rid of bureaucracy in your home office. To run your home office more effectively and faster you may need just as little as 10% of its current staff. Only executives who have a direct involvement with finding, keeping, or growing customers as well as key support staff - accountants, tax, legal and human resources people - should stay. Others can be rehabilitated by sending to an operating unit. Three Stages of the Suggestion System 1. Encouragement. In the first stage, management should make every effort to help the workers provide suggestions, no matter how primitive, for the betterment of the worker's job and the workshop. This will help the workers look at the way they are doing their jobs... More Case in Point 14 TQM Slogans at Pentel
Pentel is a Japanese firm manufacturing stationary
products. The following is a list of 14 Pentel's slogans for
explaining Total Quality Management (TQM) and
Quick and Easy Kaizen philosophy to its employees.
8 Best Practices of Successful Companies
Case in Point IBM IBM regularly compare part counts, bills of materials, standard versus custom part usage, and estimated processing costs by tearing down competitor products as soon as the latter are available. "Through such tear-downs during the heyday of the dot matrix printer, IBM learned that the printer made by the Epson, its initial supplier, was exceedingly complicated with more than 150 parts. IBM launched a team with a simplification goal and knocked the part count down to 62, cutting assembly from thirty minutes to only three."1 TPS-Lean Six Sigma TPS-Lean Six Sigma is like a ‘turbo-charged’ Lean Six Sigma program. TPS-Lean Six Sigma is a revolutionary, holistic concept. It actively has human capital embedded in Lean Six Sigma in a manner that not only stimulates commitment, integrity, work-life balance, passion, enjoyment at work and employee engagement but also stimulates individual and team learning in order to develop a motivated workforce and sustainable performance improvement and quality enhancement for the organization... More Focusing on Main Principles As The Key To Success "In the U.S., becoming Lean appears to have gone down a path of implementing tools such as “one piece flow”, “value stream mapping”, “standardized work”, or “kaizen events”, but results have not always followed. Toyota, by way of contrast, has stayed focused on its principles and a disciplined emphasis on process improvement to obtain results such as “making a profit”, “reducing lead-time”, “improving productivity”, “achieving built in quality”, as well as “respecting human dignity of employees” etc. The difference may sound trivial, but it is actually significant. In fact, it is likely the main reason why Toyota has continued to see success on so many dimensions, where others struggle." (Art Smalley4)
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