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Lean Learning Academy: An innovative framework for lean manufacturing

training

Conference Paper · October 2013

DOI: 10.1109/CISPEE.2013.6701958

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 LEAN LEARNING ACADEMY: an innovative
framework for Lean Manufacturing training
1 2
Carlos V. Carvalho , Manuel P. Lopes , António G.
Ramos2, Paulo Ávila2, João Bastos3, Luís Fonseca3 and
Ignace Martens4
Abstract— Worldwide competitiveness poses enormous
challenges on managers, demanding a continuous quest to
increase rationality in the use of resources. As a management
philosophy, Lean Manufacturing focuses on the elimination of
activities that do not create any type of value and therefore are
considered waste. For companies to successfully implement the
Lean Manufacturing philosophy it is crucial that the human
resources of the organization have the necessary training, for
which proper tools are required. At the same time, higher
education institutions need innovative tools to increase the
attractiveness of engineering curricula and develop a higher level
of knowledge among students, improving their employability.
This paper describes how Lean Learning Academy, an
international collaboration project between five EU universities
and five companies, from SME to Multinational/Global
companies, developed and applied an innovative training
programme for Engineers on Lean Manufacturing, a successful
alternative to the traditional teaching methods in engineering
courses.
Keywords— Lean manufacturing, engineering, training,
lifelong learning
I. INTRODUCTION
An important way for companies to stay competitive is to
focus on production efficiency and cost reduction [1]. That is
what Lean Manufacturing is aiming at [2]: to maximize
customer value while minimizing waste. In [3], Womack and
Jones indicate the five lean principles:
• Specify the value desired by the customer.
• Identify the value stream for each product.
• Make the product flow continuously through the
remaining value-added steps.
• Introduce pull between all steps where continuous flow
is possible.
• Manage towards optimal processes so that the number
of steps and the amount of time and information
needed to serve the customer continually falls.
The greatest benefit from Lean Manufacturing is gained by
considering all its elements (i.e. principles, tools, and mindset)
together as a system, and by practicing them every day in a
1
GILT-ISEP, Porto, Portugal, cmc@isep.ipp.pt
2
CIDEM-ISEP, Porto, Portugal, {mpl,agr,psa}@isep.ipp.pt
3
ISEP, Porto, Portugal,{jab,lmf}@isep.ipp.pt
4
Katholieke Hogeschool Sint-Lieven, Technologiecampus,
Belgium, ignace.martens@kahosl.be
consistent manner. As such, companies should be able to train
their managers and employees continuously in Lean
Manufacturing principles, tools, and mindset. However, it is
usually difficult to take the staff out of their normal daily
activities for training without impacting the production cycle.
Therefore new training models are required.
At the same time, higher education institutions are looking
for ways to better develop their students’ skills so that they can
perform successfully in their professional life. More
specifically, lecturers are looking for teaching and learning
methods that raise students’ interest, motivate them, improve
their understanding of complex matters and allow them to
study anytime and anywhere using course materials published
on the web [4][5].
Approaches based on the notion of experiential learning,
introduced by Kolb [6], propose that concrete experiences
provide the basis for observation, reflection and abstract
conceptualization. Other educational theorists, like Bruner [7]
and Silverman [8] also mention the importance of acting,
experimenting and experiencing.
Knowledge acquisition becomes especially meaningful
when theoretical concepts are applied in real or quasi-real
contexts to consolidate learning. This is especially relevant
when we consider the specificities of an engineer professional:
an engineer is a professional practitioner, concerned with
applying scientific knowledge and ingenuity to develop
solutions for technical problems. Engineers design materials,
structures, machines and systems while considering the
limitations imposed by practicality, safety and cost [9]. The
work of engineers links scientific discoveries and their
subsequent applications to human needs through new
technological solutions. The responsibilities of the engineer
include defining problems, analysing criteria, finding and
analysing solutions, and making decisions. They weigh
different design options and choose the solution that best
matches the requirements, identifying, understanding, and
interpreting the constraints (time, cost, technology, resources,
etc...) in order to produce a successful result with an efficient
approach. Engineering analysis always involves the application
of scientific analytical principles and processes [10].
By combining these innovative approaches with the
teaching and learning of professional Lean skills, it is thus
possible to ease engineering students into their professional
life. Given the need for training Lean Manufacturing principles
in companies on one hand, and to improve engineering
students’ employability in professional life on the other, an
innovative training program on Lean Manufacturing was
developed. This program combines web-based contents with
active learning procedures based on simulation games.
The paper is organized as follows. In section II, we
elaborate on the project features that lead to this initiative. In
section III we touch upon the innovative didactical concept of
the training program and its effective use for education and
training. Section IV concludes the paper by presenting some
critical success factors to consider when using simulation
games in higher education.
II. LEAN LEARNING ACADEMY
The design and development of the training program started
in the framework of an Erasmus-LLP project (that started in
October 2009 and ended in September 2011): Lean Learning
Academy. For that project, cooperation was set up between
Lean experts of universities and companies in five different
countries (Belgium, Poland, Sweden, Romania and Portugal).
The aims of this cooperation [11] was to analyse the Lean
training issues, previously mentioned, and develop a state-of-
the-art training program consisting of a Lean production
simulation game that is alternated with 16 on-line course
modules [12] on different Lean topics: Safety, Continuous
Improvement, Standardized Work, Total Productive
Maintenance (TPM), Value Stream Mapping (VSM), Visual
Management, 5S, and Single Minute Exchange of Die
(SMED), are only a few examples.
The modular approach also allows composing different
variants of learning sessions, from one-topic lessons to a
complete Lean program of one week or even more.
But more than simply teaching Lean principles and tools,
the training program also aimed at developing a Lean mindset.
This means there was a lot of attention to and feedback on the
Lean behaviour of the participants.
In order to enhance the output quality, the authenticity of
incorporated cases and the relevance of all material included,
other external experts were involved in the project. Indeed,
company partners contributed to the project by providing their
expertise and real-life cases; the academic partners used this
expertise to develop the training program. The industrial
partners safeguard the professionalism and the technological
relevance of the course contents while the academic partners
guaranty their didactical quality and pedagogical relevance.
The output quality was continuously monitored by experienced
people:
• Resonance groups: all five academic partners
composed their own resonance group consisting of at
least ten people from higher education institutions and
companies. This resonance group gave feedback on
materials developed by the academic partners.
• External evaluator: an independent external evaluator
monitored the project output quality.
A. Training methodology
The Lean learning contents consist of elements in three
major areas: operating system, mindset and behaviour and
managerial issues:
• The operating system is the ‘tool kit’, or a collection of
tools and techniques that is used to run a
manufacturing system under optimal conditions. Safety
assurance, problem solving, quality assurance, visual
management, variability minimization, process
improvement, process measurements, total productive
maintenance and standardized work are only a few
examples.
• The mindset and behaviour components focus on Lean
behaviour. Besides the Lean leadership behaviour,
which is definitely a task for management, each
employee needs to understand and get acquainted with
the Lean Manufacturing mindset. By doing so, every
employee is directly involved in the continuous
improvement efforts of their direct work environment
and the business process.
Lean behaviour is trained during the theoretical lessons by
introducing a number of mutual agreements between coach and
participants to keep the classroom clean and tidy and by paying
attention to a few other Lean rules. Here are some examples for
clarification:
• When entering and leaving the classroom, every
participant has to put a strip with his/her name in the
right column (in/out) on a magnetic board outside the
classroom.
• Every participant must be on time for the sessions.
• When leaving his/her place, a participant must put his
chair right under the table and leave materials on a
clearly identified position on the table.
• The dress code for the classroom is as follows: safety
jacket, safety shoes, no helmet, no safety glasses, no
earplugs, and no gloves.
Each time a participant violates a rule, the coach will give
him a yellow note (a yellow post-it) with the violated rule
written on it. These yellow notes are an input for the team
reflection meetings in order to come up with improvement
actions. They stimulate a Lean attitude of continuous attention
and discipline.
The managerial subjects are more intensely focused
towards leaders with a broader responsibility in the
manufacturing facility such as superintendents, production
leaders, quality, and logistic managers. Lean leadership is a
core element in which they have to show exemplary behaviour
towards the other employees. Specific management tools like
policy deployment, confirmation process, time and date
management, coaching and assessment are also part of it.
At each university, a production simulation room was
created to set up the Lean production game where a box with
five ball pens is assembled. The Lean production simulation
game enables the application of Lean concepts to a small
scaled production line. The goal of the game is using Lean
tools to act on the production system to increase the amount of
pens produced and packed at the lowest cost. In [13], a detailed
description of the School of Engineering-Polytechnic Institute
of Porto simulation game can be found.
The 1st simulation serves as a reference for the following
game stages and supplies the correct environment for students
to identify waste and select the appropriate Lean tool to
eliminate or drastically reduce it. Typically, only 40% of the
planned production output is achieved, the work-in-process
(WIP) is huge, and the quality rejection rate is 3%. The waste Figure 1. Experiential learning
identified by the students has a high correlation with the waste
referred to in the Lean literature, creating the conditions for practical experience leads to reflexion on what has been seen,
presenting and experiencing the different Lean tools. For experimented and recorded. This reflexion leads to learning
example: and to the curiosity to experiment further.
• there is no load balancing in the different workstations The training program is based on iterative rounds of the
- opportunity for the Line Balancing tool; Lean production game that alternates with short courses on
• the use of a manual machine creates a production Lean topics. The possibility of experiencing each tool
bottleneck - opportunity for the Single-Minute individually helps to increase the knowledge and skills levels
Exchange of Die (SMED) tool; regarding its main technical implementation aspects and scope.
As previously mentioned, due to its modular structure, this
• all workstations have significant idle time - training program can be configured to address different
opportunity for the big question “so much idle time learning needs (Lean tools), and different time durations.
and so little production?” and the use of Value Stream
Mapping (VSM) tool;
• the existing nonconformities like the wrong pen spring
positioning allows the introduction of the Poka Yoke
tool;
• lack of organization in the workplace serves as a
starting point for implementing the 5S tool;
• excessive movement of the carrier allows the
introduction of the topic layout and application of tools
such as the Spaghetti Diagram;
• the work in process, the idle time and the shortages of
materials at the workstations allows the introduction of
flow management tools such as Kanban.
During the entire course, participants are part of a team of
seven to nine people. Each team has its own fully equipped
team corner with visualizations, performance measurements,
team management tools, follow-up instruments and
communications. The team dynamics and team member
interactions are an important part of the Lean learning process.
Lean thinking must be also applied to the game
development and continuous improvement is required.
Trainees should report on their learning experience afterwards
which implies new directions in the storyboard of the game.

III. INNOVATIVE DIDACTICAL CONCEPT

The theoretical support to the pedagogical methodology is
based on the experiential learning theory, as stated in the
introduction. The main concept, depicted in Figure 1, is that the

Figure 2. The innovative learning cycle

 The learning cycle starts with the bottom rectangle as
represented in Figure 2:
1. The Lean learning program starts with a first round of
the Lean production game.
2. After that round, team members compute and
measure lean key performance indicators (KPI’s).
3. Looking at the indicators, team members formulate
problems and/or make suggestions for improvement.
4. To assist the team in fully understanding the problem
and providing the team with an appropriate improvement tool,
the coach teaches the related course module.
5. Afterwards, the team members use this knowledge to
find the most appropriate improvement actions.
6. As soon as the whole team agrees on the actions to be
taken, they implement them in the Lean production game by
changing the game setup. Then, the team is ready to play a next
round and a next learning cycle begins.
IV. CONCLUSIONS
In this paper, we elaborated on an innovative training
program on Lean Manufacturing. This program was developed
to satisfy the need for training Lean Manufacturing principles
in companies on the one hand and to improve engineering
students’ employability in professional life on the other.
Positive experiences with a former lean production game in
an educational setting, confirmed by this innovative training
program showed that this methodology actively challenges its
participants [14]. We now know that this makes a curriculum
more attractive, motivates students, enhances learning yields
and results in higher employability.
However, the use of simulation for these purposes should
consider some critical success factors:
• A good simulation game confronts students with the
results of their actions and the huge impact of certain
improvement actions on KPI’s. This way, many years
afterwards, participants still recall some parts of the
game;
• The game should advance with swiftness to prevent
students getting bored. Learning experiences must be
clearly embedded in the game and intermittently follow
each other;
• Student’s feedback about their learning experience
afterwards is essential. It allows correcting or improving
game aspects accordingly. Preparing for new directions
in the storyboard of the game depends on decisions
students may make during the game;
• Not only developing, but also preparing and coaching a
simulation game is very demanding. This is not a single
person work, but a team’s work. Students can be called
upon to help prepare the simulation as a different
learning approach.
In one of the participating institutions, the School of
Engineering, Polytechnic Institute of Porto, the program of the
Master in Mechanical Engineering – Industrial Management
course was reviewed to include the set of tools developed by
the LLA project.
The Master in Mechanical Engineering – Industrial
Management course, has more than 100 students, runs during
off-work hours, and the typical student is a bachelor graduated
engineer, already working for a company.
The feedback received from students is very positive and
we can see a growing interest in this subject. One of the areas
where this effect is clearly visible is the master thesis projects.
The number of students who want to do their master thesis
project on Lean Manufacturing is increasing, and, in 2012,
accounted for more than 50% of the total.
This number is even more impressive if we take into
account that more than 80% of the Lean Manufacturing master
thesis projects are case studies on real life problems, where the
need and experience of companies and the academic
knowledge come together to achieve a broader range of true
improvements.
The future work involves a formal evaluation of the
training program efficiency, as a teaching tool, when used
independently or as a complement to traditional classes, using
control groups.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This training programme was initially developed in the
framework of the Erasmus-LLP project ‘Lean Learning
Academies’, ref: 503663-LLP-1-2009-1-BE-ERASMUS-
ECUE.
Concepts of the simulation game approach relate to aspects
of the European network SEGAN – Serious Games Network,
funded by the LLP-KA3 programme, ref: 519332-LLP-1-2011-
1-PT-KA3-KA3NW.
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