Lean Manufacturing Concepts

Source of Passive Income

2020-05-01T03:29:00.001+05:30

I am Satyendra Sinha ,a blogger on lean manufacturing and its tools and uses

New Project

2020-02-27T06:31:00.001+05:30

I am Satyendra Sinha ,a blogger on lean manufacturing and its tools and uses

Seven Tools of Quality

2020-01-19T15:19:00.001+05:30

Lean Principle for Cost Reduction

2020-01-13T04:28:00.001+05:30

Traditional thinking dictates that you set your selling price by calculating your cost and adding on a margin for profit

In today’s competitive market the customer sets the price and you don’t have the luxury of adding a profit margin

The only way to remain profitable and grow your business is to eliminate waste from your value stream, thereby reducing costs—cost reduction principle

Eliminating waste is important because customers not only set the price, but they also demand price reductions

PDCA-Deming PDCA cycle

2020-01-08T22:56:00.002+05:30

PDCA, Plan-Do-Check-Act cycle is an essential part of the lean manufacturing for continuous improvement of people and processes.

First, proposed by Walter Shewhart and later developed by William Deming, PDCA cycle is a simple four-stage method that enables teams to avoid recurring mistakes and improve processes.

Plan – Identify the problem, collect relevant data, and understand the problem's root cause, develop hypotheses about what the issues may be, and decide which one to test.

Do – Develop and implement a solution; decide upon a measurement to gauge its effectiveness, test the potential solution, and measure the results.

Check – Confirm the results through before-and-after data comparison. Study the result, measure effectiveness, and decide whether the hypothesis is supported or not.

Act – Document the results, inform others about process changes, and make recommendations for the future PDCA cycles. If the solution was successful, implement it. If not, tackle the next problem and repeat the PDCA cycle again..

SMED (Single-Minute Exchange of Dies)

2020-01-08T02:12:00.001+05:30

WHAT IS SMED?

SMED (Single-Minute Exchange of Dies) is a system for dramatically reducing the time it takes to complete equipment changeovers. The essence of the SMED system is to convert as many changeover steps as possible to “external” (performed while the equipment is running), and to simplify and streamline the remaining steps. The name Single-Minute Exchange of Dies comes from the goal of reducing changeover times to the “single” digits (i.e. less than 10 minutes).

BASICS OF SMED

SMED was developed by Shigeo Shingo, a Japanese industrial engineer who was extraordinarily successful in helping companies dramatically reduce their changeover times. His pioneering work led to documented reductions in changeover times averaging 94% (e.g. from 90 minutes to less than 5 minutes) across a wide range of companies.

In SMED, changeovers are made up of steps that are termed “elements”. There are two types of elements:

· Internal Elements (elements that must be completed while the equipment is stopped)

· External Elements (elements that can be completed while the equipment is running)

The SMED process focuses on making as many elements as possible external, and simplifying and streamlining all elements.

The SMED system has three major phases as shown above. These phases are performed in sequence and the entire sequence can be iterated (repeated).

SMED is typically broken down into three stages. Each stage has specific tasks and objectives and all are inter-related and work together. Those stages are outlined below.

Stage 1 – Separate internal and external setup

Certain tasks can clearly be done before machines are stopped for changeover. These include lining up the right people, preparing parts and tools, making repairs, and bringing the parts and tools closer to the equipment. There are three practical techniques to doing this:

· Develop and implement changeover checklists.

· Perform function checks on parts and tools.

· Reduce transportation or tools, parts, and materials.

By separating these tasks and performing them as external setup can cut changeover time by as much as 30% to 50%.

Stage 2 – Convert internal setup to external setup

· Look at the true functions and purposes of each operation in your current internal setup

· Find ways to convert these internal setups to external setup.

The key to successful implementation of Stage 2 is to look at the function as if you are new to it. Three practical techniques help shift internal setup tasks to external setup. Those techniques are:

· Prepare operating conditions in advance

· Standardize functions

· Use intermediary jigs

Stage 3 – Streamline internal and external elements

In this third and final stage, all of the remaining internal and external setup operations are improved. This can be done by looking closely at each operations function and purpose one more time. More specifically, Stage 3 improvements can be divided into external and internal setup improvements. Four basic approaches to accomplishing this are through:

External Setup

· Maintain a visual organized workplace

Internal Setup

· Implement parallel operations

· Eliminate the need for adjustments

· Use functional clamps

· Mechanize functions

SMED provides many benefits for companies and those working within the company. More specifically, the advantages of SMED along with quicker and more efficient setup times are improved flexibility, quicker delivery, better quality and higher productivity. Through these benefits you will also see simpler setups and safer changeovers, less inventory and more standardized processes.

SMED advantages

Reduction of the number of required tools
Reducing the required inventory
Reducing lead times
Improved ability to produce small batches
Quicker response time to customer wishes
Increase capacity
Increase quality
Increase flexibility
Reduce costs and grow profits

KanBan

2020-01-07T12:04:00.001+05:30

In Japanese, the word "Kan" means "visual" and "ban" means "card," so Kanban refers to visual cards

Kanban (看板) (signboard or billboard in Japanese) is a scheduling system for lean manufacturing and just-in-time manufacturing (JIT). Taiichi Ohno, an industrial engineer at Toyota, developed Kanban to improve manufacturing efficiency.

The simplest Kanban board start with three columns – “Requested”, “In Progress” and “Done”.

Poka -Yoke

2020-01-06T16:27:00.000+05:30

What is Poka-Yoke?

Poka yoke (pronounced “poh-kah yoh-kay”) comes from two Japanese words – “yokeru” which means “to avoid”, and “poka” which means “inadvertent errors.” The main objective of poke yoke is to achieve zero defects. Poka Yoke means ‘mistake-proofing’ or more literally – avoiding (yokeru) inadvertent errors (poka). Poka Yoke is any mechanism in a Lean manufacturing process that helps to avoid mistakes.

Examples of Poka Yoke Application

Other examples can be found in the child-proof electric sockets or the washing machine that does not start if the door is not closed properly in order to prevent flooding. These types of automation don’t allow mistakes or incorrect operation from the start.

Why is Poka Yoke important?
The value of using Poka Yokes is that they help people and processes work right the first time, which makes mistakes impossible to happen. These techniques can significantly improve quality and reliability of products and processes by eliminating defects. This approach to production fits perfectly the culture of continuous improvement, which is also part of the Lean management arsenal.

When and how to use it?
Poka Yoke technique could be used whenever a mistake could occur or something could be done wrong – meaning everywhere. It can be successfully applied to any type of process in manufacturing or services industry, preventing all kinds of errors:

• Processing error: Process operation missed or not performed per the standard operating procedure.
• Setup error: Using the wrong tooling or setting machine adjustments incorrectly.
• Missing part: Not all parts included in the assembly, welding, or other processes.
• Improper part/item: Wrong part used in the process.
• Operations error: Carrying out an operation incorrectly.
•Measurement error: Errors in machine adjustment, test measurement or dimensions of

VSM -Value Stream Mapping

2020-01-01T00:15:00.000+05:30

Value Stream Mapping

What is Value Stream Mapping?

A map describing the flow of information and materials from supplier to customer end .It shows the current state and desired future state of processes and highlighting the gap and opportunities for improvement.

How does Value Stream Mapping help?

Exposes waste in the current processes and provides a roadmap for improvement through the future state.

What is (VSM), Benefits,

Process and Value

To understand value stream mapping, we need to first understand what a “value stream” is. Simply put, a value stream is a series of steps that occur to provide the product or service that their customers want or need.Value stream mapping (VSM) provides us with a structured visualization of the key steps and corresponding data needed to understand and intelligently make improvements that optimize the entire process, not just one section at the expense of another.

“Value stream mapping is a lean manufacturing or lean enterprise technique used to document, analyze and improve the flow of information or materials required to produce a product or service for a customer.”

Value stream maps can be created for every individual product and service for every type of business.The VSM enables the team and leadership to see where the actual value is being added in the process, allowing them to improve on the overall efficiency associated with the delivery of a product or feature request.

Terminology and symbols and what they mean

To start, each value stream map typically has three key sections.. These sections show Information Flow, Product Flow, and a Time Ladder or Lead Time Ladder.

Sections:

Information Flow

This section shows the communication of process-related information and the transmission of data.

Product Flow

This section maps the steps of the development lifecycle from concept to delivery.

Time Ladder

The Time Ladder provides a somewhat simplistic visual representation of the value stream timeline.

Cycle time (C/T)

Is the frequency of units/features produced or the average time between the completed production of one unit/feature to the completed production of the next.

Setup Time (S/T)

Is the amount of time needed to prepare for a given step.

Uptime (%)

Gives you an idea of the percentage of the total time that the processes or systems are actually active.

Lead Time

Is the measurement of the average amount of time needed for one feature request to make it through the entire development cycle concept to delivery, or from the beginning to ending fence post.

Takt Time

Is a term that is commonly used with value stream mapping. It refers to the rate at which you need to produce your products in order to meet customer demand.

How will value stream mapping help?

The VSM is also the most efficient way to record the current state of things. When making changes to the development cycle, creating a baseline, or Current State VSM for future comparison is the best way to go. This enables easy before-and-after comparisons of the performance data to determine if the changes made had the intended impact.

Who benefits from value stream mapping?

The real benefit to VSM is realized by the customer. The customer will experience a better-quality product, it will be delivered faster, and it will better meet their needs and expectations.

JIT-Just-in-time

2019-12-31T03:54:00.001+05:30

Just-In-Time (JIT)

What is Just-In-Time?

Pull parts through production based on customer demand instead of pushing parts through production based on projected demand.

How does Just-In-Time help?

Highly effective in reducing inventory levels

Improves cash flow and reduces space requirements.

OEE (Overall Equipment Effectiveness)

2019-12-29T15:19:00.001+05:30

OEE is measure of equipment effectiveness.OEE is the single best metric for identifying losses, benchmarking progress, and improving the productivity of manufacturing equipment (i.e., eliminating waste).

The preferred OEE calculation is based on the three

OEE Factors: Availability, Performance, and Quality.

OEE is calculated by multiplying the three OEE factors: Availability, Performance, and Quality.

Availability is calculated as the ratio of Run Time to Planned Production Time:

Availability = Run Time / Planned Production Time

Performance is the ratio of Net Run Time to Run Time. It is calculated as:

Performance = (Ideal Cycle Time × Total Count) / Run Time

Quality is calculated as:

Quality = Good Count / Total Count

Kaizen-Continuous Improvements

2019-12-29T01:38:00.001+05:30

Kaizen

From the Japanese words “kai-” which means “change” and “-zen” which means “good” The popular meaning from Toyota is “continuous improvement” or “small incremental improvements” of all areas of a company, not just manufacturing like Cost ,Quality , Productivity , Safety , Morale

KAIZEN EVENTS

A typical Kaizen event goes something like this:

1. Set goals and provide any necessary background.

2. Review the current state and develop a plan for improvements.

3. Implement improvements.

4. Review and fix what doesn’t work.

5. Report results and determine any follow-up items.

This type of cycle is frequently referred to as PDCA (Plan, Do, Check, and Act). PDCA brings a scientific approach to making improvements:

Plan (develop a hypothesis)
Do (run experiment)
Check (evaluate results)
Act (refine your experiment; then start a new cycle)

5S System - A place for everything & safe working place

2019-12-28T17:18:00.002+05:30

5S BASIC

3M-Muri,Mura and Muda (Lean Wastes)

2019-12-27T00:56:00.001+05:30

Lean Manufacturing Wastes

Just what are Muda, Mura and Muri? The 3Ms of waste in Lean Manufacturing.

When people think of waste in manufacturing they usually only think about all of the scrap material that gets thrown away or if your lucky recycled, they often forget about all of the other actions that waste our time, our resources and our MONEY..
When someone who has had some contact with Lean Manufacturing talks about waste they are often talking about Muda, or the seven wastes (or 8+ wastes depending on your definitions), but they often forget the other wastes defined within the Toyota Production System; Mura and Muri.

The 3 Ms of Lean

When Japanese companies talk about waste they usually talk about the three Ms; Mura, Muri and Muda. While most people who have had contact with lean manufacturing will have been made aware of the 7 wastes and Muda they often have not been introduced to Muri and Mura at all. Yet these wastes are often far more important to tackle than Muda and often are the underlying causes of the Muda that you observe within your processes.

While Muda is the non-value adding actions within your processes; Muri is to overburden or be unreasonable while Mura is unevenness. I will discuss these terms below.

Muda, The Seven Wastes

Muda is any activity or process that does not add value; a physical waste of your time, resources and ultimately your money. These wastes were categorized by Taiichi Ohno within the Toyota production system, they are;

Transport; the movement of product between operations, and locations.
Inventory; the work in progress (WIP) and stocks of finished goods and raw materials that a company holds.
Motion; the physical movement of a person or machine whilst conducting an operation.
Waiting; the act of waiting for a machine to finish, for product to arrive, or any other cause.
Overproduction; Over producing product beyond what the customer has ordered.
Over-processing; conducting operations beyond those that customer requires.
Defects; product rejects and rework within your processes.

To this list of the original seven wastes most people also add the following;

Talent; failing to utilize the skills and knowledge of all of your employees
Resources; failing to turn off lights and unused machines
By-Products; not making use of by-products of your process

Many “lean” initiatives fail to see past the elimination of Muda and believe that the point of Lean is to just eliminate waste. This leads to implementations that initially appear to save money but quickly fall apart and revert as problems such as customer demand fluctuations and supplier problems occur. They have failed to tackle the other forms of waste identified by Toyota;

Mura the Waste of Unevenness

Hockey Stick Effect

Mura is the waste of unevenness or inconsistency, but what does this mean and how does it affect us?

Mura creates many of the seven wastes that we observe, Mura drives Muda! By failing to smooth our demand we put unfair demands on our processes and people and cause the creation of inventory and other wastes.
One obvious example is production processes where the manager is measured on monthly output, the department rushes like mad in the final week of the month to meet targets, using up components and producing parts not actually required. The first week of the month is then slow due to component shortages and no focus on meeting targets. This gives us the hockey stick graph of production as we see here on the right, far better to smooth out production and work at the demand of the customer.

Muri the waste of Overburden

Some causes of Muri

Muri is to cause overburden, by this we mean to give unnecessary stress to our employees and our processes. This is caused by Mura and a host of other failures in our system such as lack of training, unclear or no defined ways of working, the wrong tools, and ill thought out measures of performance.
Again Mura causes Muda, the seven wastes are symptoms of our failure to tackle Mura and Muri within our processes not the root cause!

Remove Muda, Mura and Muri

Lean Manufacturing is about the removal of waste; but not just Muda (non-value adding steps), it is about removing Mura and Muri too. In fact by concentrating on solving Mura and Muri you prevent the creation of Muda.
By working on Just in Time (JIT) principles with Heijunka, Kanban and other techniques you enable production smoothing and flow; removing the causes of Mura, unevenness. The other lean tools such as 5S and TPM help you to remove other causes of overburden removing Muri, overburden.

You should first concentrate on ensuring that your Mura is removed and creating a level predictable flow; this in turn highlights the Muri (unreasonableness) within your system which can then be eliminated. By following this route you will often eliminate the vast majority of Muda that is present within your system.

Muda, Mura and Muri can be eliminated or signifcantly reduced if you implement the various lean tools and principles. But don’t just rush in to try and highlight and remove the muda in the hope of making a quick impression on your boss; it will be a short lived success as without tackling the other Ms Mura and Muri you will find the other wastes of Muda returning to haunt you.

Points to Remember:

Lean Manufacturing Concepts -Production Management & Technology

2019-12-23T20:59:00.002+05:30

Lean Manufacturing Concepts -Production Management & Technology

Production Management　???

１. Purpose

The purpose of production management is keeping delivery date and

Utilizing human resources, product equipment, and money efficiently.

And realize effective production activity.

２. Responsibility

a. Keeping delivery date

You have to keep delivery date in any case.

If the delivery delayed, you would lose customer’s trust.

b. Average working volume

As you know, company cannot have extra workers to make profit...

You need to consider averaging work volume

to utilizing human resources effectively and keeping constant number of workers.

c. Inventory control

As you know, the expense accompanies production activity.

Like material cost, personnel cost, Utility cost, etc.

These are remain debt until you get money from customer after the product delivery. Over Stock make cash flow worse and become heavy burden of company management.

★Key-word…JUST-IN-TIME

３. Tool

a. Gantt Chart

Gantt Chart covers all production plan and you can find that when do you planning production and What Product is planned production in the future, at one glance.

And all projects on the chart ordered clearly.

You can make management point clear by describing design process on the chart,

Manufacturing process (assembly etc.), Testing process on the Gantt Chart.

And if you distribute Gantt Chart to the related department,

all the related department recognize your plan and due date.

b. Scheduling system(Production Planning System)

Scheduling system is one of the most important systems in all the production management system.

This become origin for all. If you input the date that you described on your Gantt Chart, the day registered becomes official date of the factory.

Everybody at the factory can confirm the registered schedule and share the

information of production schedule. And you can calculate weekly, monthly working volume automatically.

c. Work volume planning system(Production Planning System)

This is the system which can calculate work volume automatically

based on the date of registered in the scheduling system.

By using this system, you can grasp future work volume and

how many workers would be required in the future.

d. Inventory control system

When the assembly parts are warehoused, if the tag is sticked to the parts,

you can grasp the location of the parts anytime. The date of stocked in the warehouse is described on the tags.

The important thing is to grasping how much time have past from parts arrival.

The old parts cause problem of quality and over stock.

４. Daily operation

a. Planning schedule of production

At first, you confirm the overall schedule of each project,

and understand the key point like, Delivery date, Product work volume, etc.　

And you plan the production schedule.

At second, you describe the production schedule on your Gantt Chart (so, you can find over lapping), and you decide the schedule.

Make sure you input it to the Production Planning system.

b. Progress management

You have to check the progress of production process.

You confirm the progress is good or not every time.

The best way of confirming is progress meeting.

You assemble people of Design Dept., Manufacturing Dept., Quality Assurance Dept., Procurement Dept., and discuss about the progress and problems in the meeting.

c. Parts management

There are two kind of management, one is parts gathering management,

the other is inventory control.

Gathering management is management approach for how to gather the assembly parts. You have to gather the assembly parts until the beginning day of assembly.

Some of the parts take 4 to 6 months to procure from PO released.

You have to try controlling upper process to ensure the procurement period as much as possible.

Inventory control is the management approach for grasping inventory volume in the factory, and how to control it.

If some parts are kept in warehouse over 1 year, you have to act and solve the problem.

d. Logistic control

Based on the production schedule, you need to grasp volume of dispatching and the timing of dispatch.

Then, you should contact with Logistic Company to share the dispatch

information and control it with no problem.

５. conclusion

Production management Dept.is responsible for all the process of production

from design process to delivery. You need to consider production schedule carefully,

and keep the planned production process and delivery date.

On the other hand, you should use factory resources effectively and try to production

with minimum cost.

Satyendra Sinha

Lean Manufacturing Concepts

Source of Passive Income

New Project

Seven Tools of Quality

Lean Principle for Cost Reduction

PDCA-Deming PDCA cycle

First, proposed by Walter Shewhart and later developed by William Deming, PDCA cycle is a simple four-stage method that enables teams to avoid recurring mistakes and improve processes.

SMED (Single-Minute Exchange of Dies)

KanBan

Kanban (看板) (signboard or billboard in Japanese) is a scheduling system for lean manufacturing and just-in-time manufacturing (JIT). Taiichi Ohno, an industrial engineer at Toyota, developed Kanban to improve manufacturing efficiency.

Poka -Yoke

VSM -Value Stream Mapping

Value Stream Mapping

JIT-Just-in-time

Just-In-Time (JIT)

What is Just-In-Time?

How does Just-In-Time help?

OEE (Overall Equipment Effectiveness)

OEE is measure of equipment effectiveness.OEE is the single best metric for identifying losses, benchmarking progress, and improving the productivity of manufacturing equipment (i.e., eliminating waste).

Kaizen-Continuous Improvements

Kaizen

KAIZEN EVENTS

5S System - A place for everything & safe working place

3M-Muri,Mura and Muda (Lean Wastes)

Lean Manufacturing Wastes

Just what are Muda, Mura and Muri? The 3Ms of waste in Lean Manufacturing.

Lean Manufacturing Concepts -Production Management & Technology

Lean Manufacturing Concepts -Production Management & Technology

Production Management ???

Production Management　???