Lean Operations

Lec- 17
 What is lean?

• Term ‘Lean’ was coined by Womack et al., 1991 in the

‘Machine That Changed the World’; previously the general
approach was known as ‘Just-in-Time Manufacturing’, the
philosophies and techniques are based upon the Toyota
Production System.

• ‘The key principle of lean synchronization is relatively

straightforward to understand, it means moving towards the
elimination of all waste in order to develop an operation
that is faster, more dependable, produces higher quality
products and services and, above all, operates at low cost’.
 Origins
•Lean Manufacturing is sometimes called the
Toyota Production System (TPS)

•Toyota Motor Company’s Shigeo Shingo and Taiichui Ohno

are given credit for its approach and innovations.

•Arose in Toyota, Japan after WWII Toyota was nearly

bankrupt Taiichi Ohno (1912 -1990)

•Low levels of demand for cars

•The Japanese could not afford the expensive mass

production facilities of the type used in the USA
Shigeo Shingo
•Instead focused on reducing waste and low cost automation 1909-1990

•Replacing complexity with simplicity

Lean Synchronization
Capacity utilization
 Lean Principals
• Specify the value desired by the customer

• Identify the value stream for each product or service providing

that value and challenge all of the wasted steps

• Make the product or service flow continuously

• Produce only as per the customer demand

• Manage toward perfection so that the number of steps and the

amount of time and information needed to serve the customer
continually falls
 Seven types of waste: ‘Muda’
• Overproduction – most serious waste because it discourages the smooth flow of material
and inhibits productivity and quality.

• Waiting – wastes time and money.

• Transport – unnecessary movement of work.

• Inappropriate/Over processing – use of complex processes rather than simple ones. Over
complexity encourages over production to try and recover the investment in over complex
machines. Adding more value to a service/product than customers want or will pay for

• Unnecessary inventory – increases lead-times and costs.

• Unnecessary motion – relates to poor ergonomics where operators have to stretch, strain
etc. This makes them tired.

• Defects – physical waste. Regarded as an opportunity to improve. Defects are caused by

poor processes.
Lean Goals
 Takt Time
• Takt time concept aims to match the pace of production with customer
demand.

• Takt time can be determined with the formula:

Where:
• T = Takt time, e.g. [work time between two consecutive units]
• Ta = Net time available to work, e.g. [work time per period]
• Td = Demand (customer demand) e.g. [units required per period]
 Four Fundamental Areas of Lean Manufacturing

• Product design
 Design for manufacture/assembly/automation
 Flat product structure/standard parts/modular design
 Design to suit cellular manufacturing
• Process design
 Set-up / lot size reduction
 Cellular manufacturing
 Concentrate on low throughput times
 Continuous quality improvement
• Human Resources
 Whole person concept, hiring people, with continual training/study
 Workers multi-skilled to take on many tasks/job rotation
• Organization
 Visible team performance measurement
 Communication / information sharing
 Joint commitment
 Lean Techniques
1. Manufacturing techniques
2. Production and material control
3. Inter-company Lean
4. Organization for change
 1. Manufacturing techniques

• Gemba Kanri (Workplace Management)

• Cellular manufacturing
• Set-up time reduction
• Overall Equipment Effectiveness
• Andon
• Jidoka
• Smallest machine concept
• Fool proofing (Pokayoke)
 Gemba Kanri (Workplace Management)

• System by which standards for running the day-to-

day business are established, maintained controlled
and improved

• Became popular in 1990s, based upon established

techniques

• Manages resources: people, machines and material

 Gemba Kanri Methods
• 5Ss

• Standard operations

• Skill control, including the assessment of individuals capabilities, the

identification of job requirements, the development of a comparison matrix and
the identification of training needs;

• Kaizen is a cost cutting approach that continuously makes small improvements

to processes

• Visual management, the provision of notice boards for control information,

stock, materials movement, health and safety and work methods

• Measuring and controlling output

5S
 Standard Operations

• A repeatable method for performing a task

• The most effective and efficient way of doing the task
• Way of working that is universally accepted
• Way of ensuring that operations are safe
• Ensuring that quality, cost and delivery targets are met.

But .. Having standard operations doesn’t necessarily

mean that people will follow them – this is why
culture, communication and monitoring are important.
Kaizen
 Visual management

• The provision of notice boards for control

information, stock, materials movement,
health and safety and work methods
 Cellular manufacturing

• See Lecture 3!
 Set-up time reduction

• Single minute exchange of dies (SMED) - all

changeovers less than 10 mins.

1. Separate internal set-up from external set-up. Internal set-up

must have machine turned off.
2. Convert as many tasks as possible from being internal to
external
3. Eliminate adjustment processes within set-up
4. Abolish set-up where feasible
 Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE)
• Open time – total time an operator available to work on a
machine e.g. 8 hours per day
• Operator pause – coffee breaks, chatting, toilet breaks etc.
• Machine breakdowns
• Unplanned interruptions e.g. having to make modifications
• Machine set-up
• Low performance – throughput less than design.
• Scrap products
 Andon

A board which shows if any operator on the line has

difficulties
• Red - machine trouble
• White - end of a production run
• Blue - defective unit
• Yellow - set-up required
• Line-stop - all operators can stop the line to ensure
compliance with standards
• Flexible workers help each other when problems arise
 Jidoka
• “Make equipment or operation stop whenever an
abnormal or defective condition arises”
• It prevents overproduction because the equipment is
stopped when the required amount has been produced.
• Control of abnormality becomes easy – improvement
activities can be focused upon the stopped equipment
and the person who stopped it.
• “Intelligent automation” or “Automation with a human
touch”
• “Autonomous” + “Automation” = “Autonomation”
 Smallest machine concept

• Using several small machines rather than one

large one
• Allows simultaneous processing
• More robust
• More flexible
Smallest machine (Cont.)
Fool proofing (Pokayoke)
 2. Production and material control

• Pull scheduling
• Line balancing
• Schedule balance and smoothing (Heijunka)
• Material Requirements Planning
 Pull Systems
• Work centers only authorized to produce when it has been
signaled that there is a need from a user / downstream
department

• No resources kept busy just to increase utilization

• Requires:
 Small lot-sizes
 Low inventory
 Fast throughput
 Guaranteed quality
 Pull Systems (Cont.)

• Pull Systems
 Implementations vary
 Visual / audio signal
 One / two card Kanban

• Kanban
 Japanese word for card
 One card
 Two card
Ex: Two Card kanban
 Leveling of production
• The final assembly process determines demand for other items

• Toyota has mixed product lines. The production per day

matches the monthly schedule in terms of volume and mix

• The cycle time for each specification is calculated. The

production schedule uses a sequence that produces balanced
production

• The production system can operate in a steady state which

requires less capacity and manpower
 Material Resource Planning (MRP)

• Stable Master Production Schedule

• Flat bills of materials
• Weekly MRP quantities with “call off” , a
common approach
• Backflushing
 3. Inter Company Lean

Lean Purchasing
• Lean purchasing requires predictable (usually synchronized)
demand
• Single sourcing
• Supplier quality certification
• Point of use delivery
• Family of parts sourcing
• Frequent deliveries of small quantities
• Propagate Lean down supply chain, suppliers need flexibility
• Suppliers part of the process vs. adversarial relationships
 Lean Purchasing (Cont.)

• Controls and reduces inventory

• Reduces space
• Reduces material handling
• Reduces waste
• Reduces obsolescence
 4. Organization for Change

• Multi-skilled team working

• Quality Circles, Total Quality Management
• Philosophy of joint commitment
• Visible performance measurement
– Statistical process control (SPC)
– Team targets / performance measurement
• Enforced problem solving
• Continuous improvement
 Implementation of Lean
Method:
1. Lower inventory levels
2. Identify problems
3. Eliminate problems
4. Improve use of resources
 Inventory
 People
 Capital
 Space

5. Go back to step 1
 Lean Limitations
• Generally stable regular demand, but many tools and
principles can be used more widely.

• Works best with medium to high volume, but can achieve

improvements across a wide range of contexts.

• Requires cultural change, by far the most difficult barrier to

overcome.

• Implementation costs – can be high, but usually offset by

inventory and cost reductions.