Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Yazmin T. Montana
Regional Cybersecurity and Technology Executive Officer
24 de noviembre de 2021
All of the unique Toyota tools such as the 4 step rapid set up are engineering intensive, and
they only yield a higher return on investment in a repetitive manufacturing environment.
Western manufacturers generally produce both new production and spare parts, id est both
repetitive and non-repetitive manufacturing.
By applying a Pareto distribution to big data strategies, theres is the risk of overlooking and
sending to "black data" the 20% of the information that is considered in the first assessment
as less impactful for the larger volume of production.
Lean Six Sigma uses Pareto analysis to find a repetitive 20% of part numbers that delivered
80% of revenue. If we make 80% of revenue production highly efficient, we are making giant
strides, and we wrongly reasoned we won't bother with the 80% of part numbers that deliver
20% of the revenue.
Lean Six Sigma strategies applied without a thorough re-evaluation of dogmatic practices
applied to Big Data, inadvertently could turn most of the data into "hidden data" by not
looking at it.
Another limitation of conventional Lean Six Sigma is the strategy used by Black Belts to
choose improvement projects, which is by looking at value stream maps at department level
and have Sigma Belts work on removing local sources of waste
Instead, in the new wave of cloud computing and Big Data, we can mage a global evaluation
of corporate performance using tools such as multi processor PCs, advanced analytic tools,
Machine Learning and even complete Artificial Intelligence deployments in order to identify
the weaker links of the value stream.
An important step in computation of data generated in the manufacturing floor consist in the
elimination of outliers that are generally related to the method of data collection rather than
the system itself.
For example: A machine has with an approximated 3 hour set up time has suddenly reported
200 hours of set up time in the data report. According to observations on the manufacturing
floor, the operator forgot to clock out as soon as the set up was complete.
The most effective tool to remove outliers is the interquartile range (IQR) which can be
automated by calculating the IQR using Excel, Minitab and specially formulated algorithms
to process specific types of data.
Manufacturing is one of the most important pedagogical tools to explain the power of AI
because you can physically see the productivity improvements after its implementation.
Machine learning tools such as neural networks can be computed with already-existent
databases in Excel spreadsheets (I wrote an example of this on my last blog entry **Spanish)
which facilitates these work strategies for any leader interested in implementing high level
analysis without creating a entirely new database, for example by taking all the information
stored in 5 year old Excel spreadsheets and moving them to a SQL database.
IT decisions like changing to an entirely new language of data storing can be chaotic and
expensive for all the parts involved and since it is a priority to prevent a decrease in
productivity in all parts of the system, this should be avoided.
It is more expensive for organizations to try small automation projects instead of assessing
4.0 readiness for the entire productive system.
Leaders that seek to push their organizations into state of the art technologies, often support
small automation projects that produce results in cell manufacturing processes, focusing on
reducing headcount or steps in product assembly.
These initiatives although productive, lead to higher expenses for the organization in the long
term.
Leaders take extra time to evaluate, run and upkeep projects that have the characteristics of
experimentation rather than legitimate and sustainable improvement. Resources invested in
small projects often can not be populated if there is not a pre-existent long term strategy to
ensure that all of the many small projects that leaders take on, can be aligned into the
eventual macro automation of the entire system.
That is, data literacy for all members of the organization.
It is preferable for leaders to take a slower pace for planning of their projects and ensure there
is a robust strategy for the system at large, before implementing small and complex
automated processes.
High-level analytics and automation initiatives go hand in hand with culture change within
organizations, and this is the Lean part of Lean Six Sigma. Associates must grow in the
conviction that data will make their jobs easier and provide them with new opportunities to
become expert problem solvers.
Slide from my conference The link in between Lean Six Sigma and Machine Learning, 2020
Toyota Production System teaches us of the importance of making every team member an
active member of continuous improvement and this idea must prevail even if our factory shop
floor is mostly robots and computers. Automation and AI are aids in the perfecting of
manufacturing processes which eventually impacts your end customer. With this concept in
mind, AI and automation can thrive in the humanistic perspective of your organization.