lean manufacturing

In the revised and updated edition of Lean Thinking: Banish Waste and Create Wealth in Your Corporation, authors James P. Womack and Daniel T. Jones provide a thoughtful expansion upon their value-based business system based on the Toyota model. Along the way they update their action plan in light of new research and the increasing globalization of manufacturing, and they revisit some of their key case studies (most of which still derive, however, from the automotive, aerospace, and other manufacturing industries).
The core of the lean model remains the same in the new edition. All businesses must define the “value” that they produce as the product that best suits customer needs. The leaders must then identify and clarify the “value stream,” the nexus of actions to bring the product through problems solving, information management, and physical transformation tasks. Next, “lean enterprise” lines up suppliers with this value stream. “Flow” traces the product across departments. “Pull” then activates the flow as the business re-orients towards the pull of the customer’s needs. Finally, with the company reengineered towards its core value in a flow process, the business re-orients towards “perfection,” rooting out all the remaining muda (Japanese for “waste”) in the system.
Despite the authors’ claims to “actionable principles for creating lasting value in any business during any business conditions,” the lean model is not demonstrated with broad applications in the service or retail industries. But those manager’s whose needs resonate with those described in the Lean Thinking case studies will find a host of practical guidelines for streamlining their processes and achieving manufacturing efficiencies. –Patrick O’Kelley

As understanding of lean and its application to the entire enterprise has deepened, organizations find that they need resources to help them perform core business tasks in new, more effective ways. One of the most critical of these tasks is new product development. The Lean Enterprise Institute is honored to publish Lean Product and Process Development, by Allen Ward, one of the pioneers in the study and practice of lean product development. In this breakthrough text, Ward asks basic questions that drive at the fundamentals of product development, and observes the sources (a.k.a. wastes) of the most common maladies that plague many product development organizations. He distills what might be termed cornerstones from the practices of lean product developers, which differ remarkably from conventional practice. Ward uniquely melds observations of effective teamwork from his military background, engineering fundamentals from his education and personal experience, design methodology from his research, and theories about management, cognition, and learning from his understanding of history and interactions with clients. With Lean Product and Process Development, Ward carries the implications of his theories into specific, practical recommendations, and employs systems thinking in all aspects of thought and investigation.

Here is Dr. Shingo’s classic industrial engineering rationale for the priority of process-based over operational improvements for manufacturing. He explains the basic mechanisms of the Toyota production system in a practical and simple way so that you can apply them in your own plant. This book clarifies the fundamental principles of JIT including leveling, standard work procedures, multi-machine handling, and more.

Creating Level Pull shows you how to advance a lean manufacturing transformation from a focus on isolated improvements to improving the entire plant-wide production system by implementing a lean production control system. Lean efforts at most companies focus on point kaizen (e.g., reducing set up times, implementing 5S, etc.) that improves a small portion of the value stream running from raw materials to finished products. Or they focus on flow kaizen that improves the entire value stream for one product family. Creating Level Pull shows how companies can make the leap to system kaizen by introducing a lean production control system that ties together the flows of information and materials supporting every product family in a facility. With this system in place, each production activity requests precisely the materials it needs from the previous activity, and demand from the customer is leveled to smooth production activities throughout the plant. Creating Level Pull is written in plain English and walks you through the implementation process using a clear question-and-answer format, supported by diagrams, value-stream maps, and key formulas. Using a realistic example facility, the author shows you how to make the transition to a robust pull system. This involves answering a series of 12 critical questions including what items to hold in finished goods inventory and what items to make to order, how to buffer the system against instability, how to schedule batch processes, and how to level the production schedule. Careful attention to leveling (called heijunka) permits facilities to accommodate variations in demand with minimum inventories, capital costs, manpower, and production lead time.

The heart of JIT is quick changeover methods. Dr. Shingo, inventor of the Single-Minute Exchange of Die (SMED) system for Toyota, shows you how to reduce your changeovers by an average of 98 percent! By applying Shingo’s techniques, you’ll see rapid improvements (lead time reduced from weeks to days, lower inventory and warehousing costs) that will improve quality, productivity, and profits.

For companies to be competitive, leaders must engage people at all levels to focus their energy and enable them to apply lean principles to everything they do. Strategy deployment, called hoshin kanri by Toyota, has proven to be the most effective process for meeting this ongoing challenge. In Getting the Right Things Done, Pascal Dennis outlines the nuts and bolts of strategy deployment, answering two tough questions that ultimately can make or break a lean transformation: What kind of planning system is required to inspire meaningful company-wide continuous improvement? How might we change existing mental models that do not support a culture of continuous improvement? Getting the Right Things Done tells the story of a fictional midsized company, Atlas Industries, that needs to dramatically improve to compete with emerging rivals and meet new customer demands. While Atlas had already applied some basic lean principles, it had not really connected the people and business processes so that the company could dramatically improve. Something was missing: a way of focusing and aligning the efforts of good people, and a delivery system, something that would direct the tools to the right places. The book provides readers with a framework for understanding the key components of strategy deployment: agreeing on True North for the company, working within the PDCA cycle, getting consensus through catchball, the deployment leader concept, and A3 thinking. It links action to theory and reminds us that lean tools are only the means to an end, not ends in themselves. It takes a step-by-step instructional approach to the strategy deployment process. Through this unique combination, Getting the Right Things Done balances the human and technical dimensions of making strategy deployment a vital part of the daily culture of any company.

The value-stream map is a paper-and-pencil representation of every process in the material and information flow, along with key data. It differs significantly from tools such as process mapping or layout diagrams because it includes information flow as well as material flow. Value-stream mapping is an overarching tool that gives managers and executives a picture of the entire production process, both value and non value-creating activities.  Rather than taking a haphazard approach to lean implementation, value-stream mapping establishes a direction for the company.

Creating Continuous Flow narrows the focus of Learning to See from the door-to-door value stream perspective to achieving true continuous flow at your critical pacemaker processes.This new workbook explains in simple, step-by-step terms how to introduce and sustain lean flows of material and information in pacemaker cells and lines, a prerequisite for achieving a lean value stream. Creating Continuous Flow takes you to the next level in cellularization where you’ll achieve even greater cost and lead time savings.






You’ll Learn:

• Where to focus your continuous flow efforts
• How to create much more efficient cells and lines
• How to operate a pacemaker process so that a lean value stream is possible
• How to sustain the gains and keep improving

Making Materials Flow describes in plain language another step in  implementing a complete lean business system.
LEI’s first  workbook, Learning to See, focused on where to start — at the value  stream for each product family within your facilities.
Seeing  the Whole then expanded the value stream map beyond facility walls, all  the way from raw materials to customer.
After mapping has  identified waste and potential applications of flow and pull, you can  use the techniques in Creating Continuous Flow to implement truly  continuous flow in cellularized operations.
Making Materials  Flow takes the next step by explaining how to supply purchased parts to  the value stream in order to support continuous flow.
“Companies  are making progress in creating areas of continuous flow as more  managers learn about value-stream mapping and continuous-flow cells,”  said co-author Rick Harris, who also co-authored the Creating Continuous  Flow workbook. “But as I walk through facilities and examine earnest  efforts to create continuous flow, I see how hard it is to sustain  steady output. The problem often is the lack of a lean material-handling  system for purchased parts to support continuous-flow cells,  small-batch processing, and traditional assembly lines.”
Making  Materials Flow explains in plain language how to create such a system  by applying the relevant concepts and methods in a step-by-step  progression. The workbook reveals the exercises, formulas, standards,  and forms that a consultant would use to implement the system in your  environment. And, like LEI’s other workbooks, Making Materials Flow  answers the key question managers often have about lean tools and  concepts, “What do I do on Monday morning to implement this?” The four  key steps detailed in the workbook include:
1. Developing the  Plan For Every Part (PFEP). This basic database fosters accurate and  controlled inventory reduction and is the foundation for the continuous  improvement of a facility’s material-handling system.
2.  Building a purchased-parts market. Learn the formulas and methods to  size and operate a market that eliminates the waste of hoarding,  searching for parts, and storing inventory throughout a facility.
3.  Designing delivery routes.  You get the principles and calculations  that turn a sprawling, messy plant into an organized community where  operators get the parts they need, when needed, and in the quantity  needed, delivered right to their fingertips. Proper delivery routes not  only improve inventory and flow but also safety and housekeeping.
4.  Implementing pull signals to integrate the new material-handling system  with the information management system. Learn the steps to creating a  system that keeps inventory under control by allowing operators to pull  just what they need while focusing on producing value for customers.  You’ll also learn how to calculate the number of pull signals needed and  how often to deliver material.
Finally, you’ll learn how to  sustain and continuously improving the system by implementing periodic  audits of the material-handling system across the chain of management,  from route operator to plant manager. You’ll learn the five-step process  for introducing audits of the market, routes, and pull signals by a  cross-functional team from production control, operations, and  industrial engineering.
Harris and co-authors Chris Harris and  Earl Wilson lead you through 10 simple but pragmatic questions that  show how a manufacturing facility implements a robust but flexible lean  material-handling system for purchased parts:
The Plan For  Every Part (PFEP)
1. What information should you include in  the PFEP?
2. How will you maintain the integrity of the PFEP?
Developing a Purchased-Parts Market
3. Where do you  locate your purchased-parts market?
4. What is the correct  size for your purchased-parts market, and what is the correct amount of  each part to hold in the market?
5. How do you operate your  purchased-parts market?
Designing the Delivery Route and the  Information Management System
6. How do you convey parts from  the purchased-parts market to the production areas?
7. How do  your production areas signal the purchased-parts market what to deliver  and when?
8. How do you fill the delivery route?
Sustaining  and Improving
9. How can you sustain the performance of your  lean material-handling system?
10. How can you identify and  remove additional waste?
An appendix explores how to adapt the  key principles of lean material-handling to more complex environments,  such as incorporating work-in-process (WIP) markets into the system for  purchased parts, adding delivery routes from production cells to a  finished-goods market, and applying the system to low-volume, high-mix  processes.
Making Materials Flow will benefit lean leaders,  managers, and executives in production control, operations, and  engineering who have at least a basic knowledge of lean concepts such as  value-stream mapping, cell design, and standard work. The 93-page  workbook contains more than 50 illustrations.