LEAN MANUFACTURING

ASSIGNMENT- II

-BY
Rabiba Zia
BFT/16/267
Question 1: Application of lean in Merchandising.
Answer 1:
Question 2: How the use of lean tools help in increasing the output in the
respective industry?
Answer 2: Kanban Practices’ Improvement through Super Market concept and Label Procedure in
Shahi Exports Pvt Ltd, Bangalore.

Lean manufacturing philosophy which shortens the time line between the customer’s orders and the
shipment by eliminating the waste. Lean production is aimed at the elimination of waste in every area of
production including customer relations, product design, supplier networks and factory management.
Lean means creating more value for customers with fewer resources. A Lean organization understands
customer value and focuses its key processes to continuously increase it. Its goal is to incorporate less
human efforts, less inventory, less time to develop products and less space to become highly responsive
to customer demand while producing superior quality products in the most efficient and economical
manner possible.

Kanban
In recent years, Kanban has become an essential tool for sustaining the Lean Manufacturing. To improve
the operation condition and business many companies are adapting to Kanban system. And many
companies have successfully implemented Kanban with the help of their Lean teams.

The essence of the Kanban concept is that a supplier, the warehouse or manufacturing should only
deliver components as and when they are needed, so that there is no excess Inventory. Within this
system, workstations located along production lines only produce/deliver desired components when
they receive a card and an empty container, indicating that more parts will be needed in production. In
case of line interruptions, each workstation will only produce enough components to fill the container
and then stop. In addition, Kanban limits the amount of inventory in the process by acting as an
authorization to produce more Inventories. Since Kanban is a chain process in which orders flow from
one process to another, the production or delivery of components are pulled to the production line, in
contrast to the traditional forecast oriented method where parts are pushed to the line.

Kanban in Shahi

As a garment manufacturer and exporter, Shahi Exports has its unique production condition. The Kanban
design had been done but projected results is not achieved. There are lots of problems that have come
up and challenge this Kanban, and push it to further its development. The process would be more like a
forward iteration developing: reveal problem, redesign Kanban, and over and over again to reach
continuous improvement.

Kanban cards

Kanban card is a color paper which goes together through production line from cutting supermarket till
packing the garments to cartons. There are three kinds of color Kanban cards which represents different
flow of information from one process to the other. Kanban cards travel with the production item and
identify the style number, Line number, Kanban number, color and quantity issued. Kanban cards serve
as both a transaction and communication device. Types of Kanban Cards used in Shahi Exp. Pvt. Ltd:

1) Blue Kanban is displayed when bit parts are available in the cutting.
 2) White Kanban is displayed on cutting table and EOL which indicates packing list is adhered.
3) Pink Kanban is displayed on cutting table and EOL which indicates when packing list is not
adhered.
4) Yellow Kanban is displayed on warehouse which indicates there is garment wash after sewing.
Kanban using cards signal often follow the routines below:

 A card is displayed on the Kanban dashboard which means availability of bits in the supermarket
 The batch/ line signals to the dashboard which indicates requirement of bits in cutting table
 The bits are moved from supermarket to cutting table along with the blue Kanban card
 The cutting of bits takes place according to micro-cut plan and white Kanban card is then
displayed on the Kanban post of cutting table, to await to load back to the production line.
 When the white Kanban card returns to the Kanban post at the end of the production line that
has been set up to provide a visual signal for operation of the line.
 The Kanban card is displayed till the finishing of the garment along with the packing of garments
in the cartons.
 The sticker attached to Kanban card is stick to Kanban input book after accepting that cartons in
CTPAT area.

Kanban Dashboard

The Kanban dashboard is located outside cutting supermarket on the production floor. It guesses
the status of the available bits for cutting. The blue Kanban cards are displayed on the dashboard
which has the information of that particular style. The Kanban dashboard uses column to show line
number and on system. The indicator of and on will blink when particular line will require bits, the
supermarket in charge instantly transferred bits to the cutting table.

The responsible persons are supermarket in charge, cutting manager and supervisor and batch
supervisor.

Work Flow:

 The supermarket in-charge display the blue Kanban cards by writing style number, quantity,
color, Kanban number and mark the micro-cut plan with the highlighter.
 Cutting Manager review the dashboard of the available bits and monitor the cutting table.
 When there is availability of bits on the cutting table press the switch off and on and
dashboard light blinks to instruct the in charge of issuing the bits to cutting section.

Kanban Loading and Input Book

Kanban loading and Input Book is an assistant tool for Kanban card which keeps the record of loading
Kanban to the batch and completion of that Kanban. The feeding helper which maintains the record of
those two books and it is the responsibility of his/her to watch daily loading and completion of Kanban.
By observing the two books anyone can find the loaded quantity, WIP of the line, which Kanban is taking
much time to operate.

Supermarket
A manufacturing supermarket (or market location) is, for a factory process, what a retail
supermarket is for the customer. The customers draw products from the 'shelves' as needed and
this can be detected by the supplier who then initiates a replenishment of that item. It was the
observation that this 'way of working' could be transferred from retail to manufacturing that is
one of the cornerstones of the Toyota Production System (TPS).

Supermarket in Shahi
The main objective of the Supermarket here is to home deliver the bits to cutting table for
achieving Just in Time Production (JIT). To maintain WIP, accountability and to lessen the time
consumption are also important objectives.

 Process flow of supermarket

Therefore, the Indian garment industries try to increase productivity at lower cost and to produce with
best product and service quality. The effective usage of Kanban tool is improving the practices that can
help us to struggle with existing garment industry. Even though, the complete success of the application
of Kanban in the extensive run depends on close understanding between the management and shop
floor executives. Effective management information systems are required for installing proper
organizational values and continuous improvement programs. If these management principles are fully
integrated with shop floor principles, then Kanban system can be applied efficiently to attain the
maximum output. The benefits of the outcomes are to get staff in Shahi Exports some fresh thinking
which is different from the way they always think. From this point of view, all the outcomes are
acceptable and useful.

The first necessary condition for a sustainable Kanban practices implementation is stability. It provides a
tool that works i.e. it remains valid and keeps the plant pumping out the right products with minimum
effort and requisite quality, on time, to meet delivery schedules despite tight schedule, absenteeism,
overtime.

On the other side of the coin, all the outcomes needs to be improved and updated together with the
Kanban implementing process. This leads to the following discussion about the future research.