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LEAN Manufacturing

Introduction

Lean manufacturing is a manufacturing philosophy, which shortens the time line between the customer order and the product shipment by eliminating waste. The main benefits of this are lower production costs; increased output and shorter production lead times.

Usual Manufacturing Process

LEAN Manufacturing Process

Principles and Objectives of LEAN Manufacturing

1.  Recognizing and Eliminating Waste - Re-processing defects products and excess use of raw material inputs are examples of potential waste in the manufacturing cycle. The first step is to recognize what does and does not create value from the customer's perspective. Any material, process or feature, which is not required for creating value from the customer's perspective, is waste and should be eliminated.
Example: Transporting materials between workstations are waste because it can potentially be eliminated.

2.  Inventory levels - Minimize inventory levels at all stages of production, particularly works-in-progress (WIP). Lower inventories also mean reduced working capital.

3.  Utilization of Equipment and Floor - Use Equipment and Manufacturing floor more efficiently by eliminating bottlenecks and maximizing the rate of production.

4.  Cycle Times - Reduce Manufacturing lead and production cycle times by reducing waiting times between processing stages, as well as process preparation times and product/model conversion times.

5.  Labor productivity - Improve Labor productivity, both by reducing the idle time of workers and ensuring that when workers are working, they are using their effort as productively as possible (including not doing unnecessary tasks or unnecessary motions).

6.  Standard Work Guidelines - Lean requires very detailed production guidelines, called Standard Work, it should clearly state the content, sequence, timing and outcome of all actions by workers. This eliminates variation in the way that workers perform their tasks.

7.  Speed of Production - Speed of production is crucial for sales and profit. Major practices to increase speed include:
    a) "Just In Time" logistics
    b) One-piece flow
    c) U-shaped work cells
    d) Zero changeovers
    e) Multitasking
    f) Customer based manufacturing orders

8.  Flexibility - Flexibility of process is more crucial than that of the product in a Lean manufacturing process. Lean practices increase work cell flexibility by:
    a) Multitasking
    b) Cross-Training Employees
    c) Floor Managers assist in Production

9.  Continuous flow - Lean usually aims for the implementation of a continuous production flow, when this is successfully implemented, the production cycle time can be reduced by as much as 90%. Continuous flow refers to producing one product at a time within the cell.

10.  Pull-production - Also called Just-in-Time (JIT), Pull-production aims to produce only what is needed, when it is needed. Production is pulled by the downstream workstation so that each workstation should only produce what is requested by the next workstation.

11.  Quality at Source - Defects are eliminated at the source level, rather than inspecting the product at the last state, it is inspected for defects at every state by the corresponding worker.

12.  Continuous improvement - Lean requires striving for perfection by continually removing layers of waste, as they are uncovered. This in turn requires a high level of worker involvement in the continuous improvement process.

How RSI assists its client implement LEAN Manufacturing?

Presently, RSI is providing services to client that want to implement Lean Manufacturing. One of them is a manufacturer of steel equipment. RSI has been its implementation partner since Jan 2005 and has performed the following roles:

a)   Understanding their current manufacturing process
b)   Analyzing their Key Performance Indicators in that process (KPIs)
c)   Presented a Project plan in correspondence with JD Edwards OneWorld 8.11 to implement Lean Manufacturing (a.k.a: Demand-Flow manufacturing)
d)   Implementation initiated

Some of the benefits foreseen with implementing lean manufacturing as mentioned above are:

a)   On-Time delivery
b)   Improved response
c)   Reduced inventory
d)   Improved workflow
e)   Achievement of flexibility
f)   Delegation of accountability
g)   Better use of skilled labor, equipment and space
h)   Information Flow
i)   Simplified Scheduling
j)   Less Variation, "More" Predictability
k)   Forecasts Become More Accurate
l)   Quicker Market Response
m)   Problems Are Visible
n)   Product Team Organization - Eliminates Departmental Conflicts

LEAN Philosophy

The LEAN philosophy employs five basic principles of LEAN thinking:

(1)   Specify value from the perspective of the end customer
(2)   Identify the value stream for each product
(3)   Create continuous flow of the product
(4)   Let the customer "pull" the product and
(5)   Strive for perfection

RSI is working on utilizing Lean in Service, Accounting, Office and making your whole organization using lean philosophy and its benefits, as it is main focus is on eliminating waste of Time/material/effort)

What kind of companies benefit most from LEAN?

Lean is most widely used in industries that are assembly-oriented or have high amount of repetitive human processes.

These are typically industries for which productivity is highly influenced by the efficiency and attention to detail of the people who are working manually with tools or operating equipment. For these kinds of companies, improved systems can eliminate significant levels of waste or inefficiency.

Examples of this include wood processing, garment manufacturing, automobile assembly, electronics assembly and equipment manufacturing.

Lean Manufacturing is also appropriate in industries for which it is a strategic priority to shorten the production cycle time to the absolute minimum as a source of competitive advantage for the company.

For more information please contact us at info@rsinfocon.com