OIM552 LEAN MANUFACTURING LTPC

3 0 03
OBJECTIVES:
• To study the various tools for lean manufacturing (LM).
• To apply the above tools to implement LM system in an organization.

UNIT I INTRODUCTION TO LEAN MANUFACTURING 9

Conventional Manufacturing versus Lean Manufacturing – Principles of Lean Manufacturing
– Basic elements of lean manufacturing – Introduction to LM Tools.

UNIT II CELLULAR MANUFACTURING, JIT, TPM 9

Cellular Manufacturing – Types of Layout, Principles of Cell layout, Implementation. JIT –
Principles of JIT and Implementation of Kanban. TPM – Pillars of TPM, Principles and
implementation of TPM.

UNIT III SET UP TIME REDUCTION, TQM, 5S, VSM 9

Set up time reduction – Definition, philosophies and reduction approaches. TQM – Principles
and implementation. 5S Principles and implementation - Value stream mapping - Procedure
and principles.

UNIT IV SIX SIGMA 9

Six Sigma – Definition, statistical considerations, variability reduction, design of experiments
– Six Sigma implementation

UNIT V CASE STUDIES 9

Various case studies of implementation of lean manufacturing at industries.

TOTAL: 45 PERIODS
OUTCOMES:
 The students will be able to identify waste in any process, reduce the waste using
proper kaizens and other methods thereby improving the productivity of the
organisation using LM tools.

REFERENCES:
1. Design and Analysis of Lean Production Systems, Ronald G. Askin & Jeffrey B. Goldberg,
John Wiley & Sons, 2003
2. Mikell P. Groover (2002) ‗Automation, Production Systems and CIM.
3. Rother M. and Shook J, 1999 ‗Learning to See: Value Stream Mapping to Add Value and
Eliminate Muda„ , Lean Enterprise Institute, Brookline, MA.
Lean Manufacturing

What is Lean Manufacturing?

Lean Manufacturing is an enterprise-wide strategy for achieving excellence:
- by creating value (from the customer's perspective)
- by creating a culture of continuous performance improvement and working to eliminate
ALL waste of resources and time
- by creating high quality, stable processes and emphasizing respect for people throughout
the organization.

The 3 M’s of Lean

Lean manufacturing is a Japanese method focused on 3M‟s. These Ms are: muda, the
Japanese word for waste, mura, the Japanese word for inconsistency, and muri, the
Japanese word for unreasonableness. Muda specifically focuses on activities to be
eliminated. Within manufacturing, there are categories of waste. Waste is broadly defined
as anything that adds cost to the product without adding value to it. Generally, muda (or
waste) can be grouped into the following categories:
1.Excess production and early production
2.Delays
3.Movement and transport

Definition of “Lean”
•Half the hours of human effort in the factory
•Half the defects in the finished product
•One-third the hours of engineering effort
•Half the factory space for the same output
•A tenth or less of in-process inventories:

Lean is a continuous process improvement methodology consisting of five primary

principles:
1. Value (from the customer's perspective)
2. Value Stream (map the steps in the value stream)
3. Flow (create a smooth flow)
4. Pull (the right amount pulled at the right time, no more, no less)
5. Perfection (elimination of all waste in the value stream)

Lean Manufacturing or Lean Methodologies?

Lean as we know it today was developed from the auto giant Toyota; more specifically, the
Toyota Production System (TPS). Lean is now being successfully applied in all types of
service related industries, saving companies hundreds of thousands to millions of dollars
each year.
Therefore, in today's environment, I believe the term Lean Manufacturing would be more
appropriately referred to as Lean Philosophies or Lean Methodologies.

OBJECTIVES OF LEAN MANUFACTURING

Lean manufacturing, also called lean production, is a set of tools and methodologies that
aims for the continuous elimination of all the waste in the production process. The main
benefits of this are lower production costs, increased output and shorter production
lead times. More specifically, some of the goals include the following
1. Defects and Waste
Reduce defects and unnecessary physical storage, including excess use of
raw material inputs, preventable defects, costs associated with reprocessing
defective items and unnecessary product characteristics which are not
required by customers.
2. Cycle Times
Reduce manufacturing lead times and production cycle times by reducing
waiting times between processing stages, as well as process preparation
times and product/model conversion times.
3. Inventory levels
Minimize inventory levels at all stages of production, particularly works-in-
progress between production stages. Lower inventories also mean lower
working capital requirements.
4. Labor productivity
Improve labor productivity, both by reducing the idle time of workers and
ensuring that when workers are working, they are using their effort as
productively as possible.
5. Utilization of equipment and space
Use equipment and manufacturing space more efficiently by eliminating
bottlenecks and maximizing the rate of production though existing
equipment, while minimizing machine downtime.
6. Flexibility
Have the ability to produce a more flexible range of products with minimum
changeover costs and changeover time.
7. Output
Insofar as reduces cycle times, increased labor productivity and elimination
of bottlenecks and machine downtime can be achieved, companies can
generally significantly increased output from their existing facilities. Most of
these benefits lead to lower unit production costs – for example, more
effective use of equipment and space leads to lower depreciation costs per
unit produced, more effective use of labor results in lower labor costs per
unit produced and lower defects lead to lower costs of goods sold.
 LEAN MANUFACTURING CONCEPTS

Value Creation and Waste

In Lean Manufacturing, the value of a product is defined solely based on
what the customer actually requires and is willing to pay for. Production operations
can be grouped into following three types of activities.

1. Value-added activities
These are activities which transform the materials into the exact product that
the customer requires.
2. Non value-added activities
These are activities which aren‟t required for transforming the materials into
the product that the customer wants. Anything which is non-values-added
may be defined as waste. Anything that adds unnecessary time, effort or cost
is considered non value added. Another way of looking at waste is that it is
any material or activity for which the customer is not willing to pay. Testing
or inspecting materials is also considered waste since this can be eliminated
insofar as the production process can be improved to eliminate defects from
occurring.
3. Necessary non value-added activities
These are activities that don‟t add value from the perspective of the
customer but are necessary to produce the product unless the existing supply
or production process is radically changed. This kind of waste may be
eliminated in the long-run but is unlikely to be eliminated in the near-term.
For example, high levels of inventory may be required as buffer stock,
although this could be gradually reduced as production becomes more stable.

Research at the Lean Enterprise Research Centre is the United Kingdom

indicated that for a typical manufacturing company the ratio of activities
could by broken down as follows:
Value-added activities 5%
Non value-added activities 60%
Necessary non value-added activity 35%

This implies that upto 60% of the activities at a typical manufacturing

company could potentially be eliminated.

Main Kinds of Waste

1. Over-production
Over-production is unnecessarily producing more than demanded or
producing it too early before it is needed. This increases the risk of
obsolescence, increases the risk of producing the wrong thing and increases
the possibility of having to sell those items at a discount or discard them as
 scrap. However, there are some cases when an extra supply of semi-finished
or finished products is intentionally maintained, even by lean manufacturers.
2. Production
In addition to physical defects which directly add to toe costs of goods sold,
this may include errors in paperwork, provision of incorrect information
about the product, late delivery, production to incorrect specifications, use of
too much raw materials or generation of unnecessary scrap.
3. Inventory
Inventory waste means having unnecessarily high levels of raw materials,
works-in-progress and finished products. Extra inventory leads to higher
inventory financing costs, higher storage costs and higher defect rates.
4. Transportation
Transportation includes any movement of materials that does not add any
value to the product, such as moving materials between workstations. The
idea is that transportation of materials between production stages should aim
for the ideal that the output of one process is immediately used as the input
for the next process. Transportation between processing stages results in
prolonging production cycle times, the inefficient use of labor and space and
can also be a source of minor production stoppages.
5. Waiting
Waiting is idle time for workers or machines due to bottlenecks of
inefficient production flow on the factory floor. Waiting also includes small
delays between processing of units. Waiting results in a significant cost
insofar as it increases labor costs and depreciation costs per unit of output.
6. Motion
Motion includes any unnecessary physical motions or walking by workers
which diverts them from actual processing work. For example, this might
include walking around the factory floor to look for a tool or even
unnecessary or difficult physical movements, due to poorly designed
ergonomics, which slow down the workers.
7. Correction
Correction, or reprocessing, is when something has to be re-done because it
wasn‟t done correctly the first time. This not only results in inefficient use of
labor and equipment but the act of reprocessing often causes disruptions to
the smooth flow of production and therefore generates bottlenecks and
stoppages. Also, issues associated with reworking typically consume a
significant amount of management time and therefore add to factory
overhead costs.
8. Over-processing
Over-processing is unintentionally doing more processing work than the
customer requires in terms of product quality or features – such as polishing
or applying finishing on some areas of a product that won‟t be seen by the
customer.
9. Knowledge Disconnection
This is when information or knowledge isn‟t available where or when it is
needed. This might include information on correct procedures,
specifications, ways to solve problems, etc. Lack of correct information
often leads to defects and bottlenecks. For example, unavailability of a
mixing formula may potentially suspend me entire processes or create
defective items due to time-consuming trial-and-error tests.

Pull Production
A core concept of Lean Manufacturing is Pull Production in which the flow
on the factory floor is driven by demand from downstream pulling production
upstream as opposed to traditional batch-based production in which production is
pushed from upstream to downstream based on a production schedule. This means
that no materials will be processed until there is a need from downstream.

For example, in pull production a customer order creates demand for

finished product, which in turn creates demand for final assembly, which in turn
creates demand for sub-assemblies, and so on up the supply chain. The specific
implications of this are as follows:

1. Orders start at most downstream stage

When an order is received from the customer and communicated to the
factory floor, the production order is initially placed with the most downstream
workstation as opposed to the most upstream workstations. This practice
requires a very effective communication system that ensures that upstream
suppliers are continuously aware of what is needed by their downstream
customers.
2. Product is pulled through production
It is based on demand from downstream process – Each production stage or
workstation is seen as a customer of the production stage or workstation
immediately upstream of it. Nothing is produced by the upstream supplier
until demanded by the downstream customer.
3. Rate of production
It is driven by downstream consumption rates. The rate of production at each
production stage or workstation is equal to the rate of demand/consumption
from its downstream customer.

Pull production is the same as Just-in-Time which means that raw materials or
works-in-progress are delivered with the exact amount and “just in time” for when
the downstream workstation needs it. The ideal of pull production is that the
materials will be available from the supplier exactly when the customer needs them.
This means that all inventory in the factory is being processes, as opposed to
waiting to be processed, and that the customer usually must plan ahead by
anticipating what it will require based on the turnaround time for the supplier.

Different models of Pull Production

Many lean manufactures are intentionally maintain certain inventories of

raw materials, semi-finished products and finished products in order to:
 Protect against variations in customer demand
 Protect against unexpected late shipments from suppliers or
production slow downs
 Smooth production flow by producing some items on a continuous
basis even if not required by the customer
 Accommodate the fact that raw materials must be delivered in
batches and that finished products must be shipped in batches
 Accommodate the fact that some processing must be done in batches
due to the nature of the equipment of the process

Generally speaking, the less predictable customer orders, the more unstable
production, or the less reliable the raw materials suppliers, the greated the inventory
that will be required to buffer against sudden changes in customer demand,
production instability or raw materials shortages. In such cases, lean manufacturers
intentionally maintain inventories of raw materials, semi finished products or
finished products to buffer against such events. In order to addition to those
situations, there are different models for implementing based production, including
the following.

1. Replenishment Pull System

In a replenishment pull system, the company intentionally maintains
inventories of each type of finished product and only when the
inventory of a certain finished product falls below a certain level of
replenishment order is issued to produce more of the product.
Replenishment pull is more common when a company has a large
number of small volume customers who order standardized products.
In a replenishment pull system, production schedules are more
predicable so low inventories of raw materials are required.
2. Sequential Pull System
In a sequential pull system, orders are placed on the factory floor
only when demanded by an outside customer. All products are made
on made-to-order basis. Sequential pull is more common when a
company has a small number of large volume customers who order
customized products. Although companies using this system should
have lower inventories of finished products, they will typically
require larger inventories of raw materials or semi-finished materials
due to less predictability in the production schedule.
3. Mixed Pull System
 In a mixed pull system, certain elements of replenishment and
sequential pull systems are used in conjunction with each other. For
example, a company may produce some products on a replenishment
pull basis while producing other products on a sequential pull basis.
Alternatively, a company may use replenishment pull for part of the
production process and sequential pull for a different part of the
production process.

An example of this would be a company that maintains a managed level of

inventory of certain semi-finished items but only produces a finished product when
ordered by the customer. In such a case, the company applies a replenishment pull
system for producing the semi-finished items and applies a sequential pull process
for the reminder of the production.

In the Toyota Production System, production is triggered to restock semi-

finished items so that whenever an item is needed, it available.

Why high levels of inventory increase defects and wastage

Pull production results in the elimination of unnecessary inventory between

processing stages. High levels of inventory between processing stages result in
higher defect rates for the following reasons:

1. Non-detection of defects in batch processing

In batch processing, more defective units will be produced before being
detected at the next processing stage. For example, if the batch size of a bag
printing process is three thousand pieces at a time before going to the next
workstation and the quality controller doesn‟t identify the defect, it is likely
that many defective bags will have been produced before the errors are
discovered by the next workstation.
2. Defects and wastage from storage and transportation
Some defects occur during transportation and storage. For example, in the
furniture industry exposure to humidity during storage can contribute to high
moisture content which may be considered a defect. Meanwhile, the act of
storing inventory requires extra labor, energy and space.
3. Direct accountability
When there is an inventory queue between two production stages, there is no
direct connection between the two production stages. The downstream stage
may not even know which worker or tem produced particular items. When
there is less accountability, by the upstream worker/team, it is more likely to
make a defective product or not produce exactly to customer specifications.
Conversely, a direct handoff and immediate use by the downstream
worker/team will help ensure that the upstream worker/tem takes full
responsibility to only produce items which will be accepted by the
 downstream worker/team.

However, as mentioned in the previous section, there are some cases inventory is
essential for ensuring smooth production and therefore certain kinds of inventory
should be maintained at a managed level to ensure that no disruption occurs.
Continuous Flow
Continuous flow is the linking of manual and machine operations into a
perfectly smooth flow in which works-in-progress are continuously undergoing
some form of processing and never become stagnant waiting to be processed.
Continuous flow eliminates waiting time for works-in-progress, equipment or
workers.
In Continuous Flow, the ideal is one- piece flow or small batches which can
be processed with virtually no waiting time between production stages.
Continuous Flow may require a redesign of the production layout away from
groups of similar workstations located near each other and towards highly integrated
production lines in which semi-finished products can move as quickly and easily as
possible from one production stage to the next.
Continuous flow can result in very substantial reductions in total cycle time.

For example,
 When Simms Fishing Products, a U.S. based manufacturer of
garments used by fishermen, implemented Lean Manufacturing, their
production throughout fell from 17 days to 2-3 days.
 When Woodland Furniture Company, a U.S. based manufacturer of
high-end wood furniture, implemented lean manufacturing, lead
times were reduced from 12 weeks to 1 week.

Mixing Continuous and Discontinuous Flow

Sometimes continuous flow isn‟t possible for some stages of the production
process. In these cases, continuous flow can be implemented in some but not all of
the production stages. Some examples of cases in which continuous flow is not
appropriate for some stages of the process include:
 Cycle time mismatches in which some processes occur at very fast cycle
times and must change over to serve multiple product types.
 Distance between processes may be unavoidable in some cases and may
mean that transportation of materials must be done in relatively large
batches.
 Some processes are too unreliable and therefore have unpredictable yields
which can be disruptive to a continuous flow operation.
 Some process must be done in large batches. For example, Kiln drying of
wood is done in batches which means that when wood comes out theat
process, it will likely need to be stored as inventory for at least some time
because it cannot all be processed at once.
 Sometimes the use of scrap should be maintained as inventory for future use
 in order to maximize yields. Fjor example, some scrap which is generated in
wood-cutting stages can be re-used at a later time when there is a
requirement for a piece of wood with the dimensions of the scrap. This
means that some works-in-progress inventory might be intentionally
generated at stages where reusable scrap is produced. In a case like this, a
truly continuous flow would result in a higher level of waste than a yield-
maximizing approach in which some scrap is intentionally created for later
use.
 In some cases, the company may intentionally maintain inventories of semi-
finished products at some stages of the production process.

Continuous Improvement / Kaizen

A company can never be perfectly efficient. Lean manufacturing requires a

commitment to continuous improvement, and preferably a systematic process for ensuring
continuous improvement, whereby the company constantly searches for non value-added
activities and ways to eliminate those. The focus of continuous improvement should be on
identifying the root causes of non value-added activities and eliminating those by
improving the production process.
Kaizen is a Japanese term for “continuous improvement”, with an emphasis on
small incremental improvements. A main theme of Kaizen is to create a culture of
continuous improvement, largely by assigning responsibility to workers, and encouraging
them, to identify opportunities for improvement.

Worker involvement
In lean manufacturing, workers are assigned clear responsibility to identify sources
of non value added activities and to propose solutions to those. Lean manufacturers
typically believe that the majority of useful ideas for eliminating non value-added activities
typically originate with workers involved in those processes. A significant body of research
also substantiates this assertion.
In order to ensure that ideas for eliminating non-value added activities are acted upon, the
power to decide on changes to the production processes are pushed down to the lowest level
possible (ie., normal workers) but any such changes are required to meet certain
requirements.

For example, at toyoto workers are encouraged to implement improvements to the

production processes but the improvement must have a clear logic which is in accordance
with the scientific method, the improvement must be implemented under the supervision of
an authorized manager and the new process must be documented in a high level of detail
covering content, sequence, timing and outcome. Toyoto initially implements the proposed
changes on a small scale on a trial basis and if the improvement is effective. Toyoto will
implement the change across its manufacturing operations.
 Two common ways to encourage worker involvement in the continuous
improvement process are
1. Kaizen circles – one way of increasing the levels of worker involvement is to
implement Kaizen circles in which groups of 6-8 workers are formed to generate
ideas for solving particular problems. Typically a kaizen circle will meet for
around one hour per week for 6-8 weeks and at the end of that period will
present some proposals to their managers on how to solve particular problems.
Active involvement/support by managers critical to the success of Kaizen
Circles.
2. Suggestion Programs – Another way of increasing worker involvement is
having an active suggestion program where people are strongly encouraged to
make suggestions and rewarded for suggestions that are successfully
implemented. Often the cost of the reward is quire small relative to the value
that is created for the company by implementing the improvement.

Some experts in lean manufacturing maintain that high levels of worker

involvement in continuously suggesting improvements is a critical success
factor in implementing of lean and is the key thing which differentiates Toyoto
from other companies in terms of its success at implementing lean
manufacturing principles.

Principles of Lean Manufacturing

Key lean principles:
 Eliminations of the waste is the fundamental principle of lean manufacturing and to
achieve this following principles should be practice.
 LM‟s essences lies in producing with as few people as little inventory and as little
waste as possible.
 Lean ensures that each production stage processes exactly “what”, “how much” and
exactly “when” the next stage wants it.
 Lean allows enormous variety in product without the kind of change over cost that
customizes mass production involves.
 Lean embraces every fact of organization – sourcing, manufacturing,
marketing,accounting and strategic planning.

1. Recognition of waste
The first step is to recognize what does and does not create value from the
customer‟s perspective. Any materials, process of feature which is not
required for creating value from the customer‟s perspective is waste and
should be eliminated. For example, transporting materials between
workstations is waste because it can potentially be eliminated.

2. Standard processes
Lean requires implementation of very detailed production guidelines, called
Standard Work, which clearly state the content, sequence, timing and
 outcome of all actions by workers. This eliminates variation in the way that
workers perform their tasks.
3. Continuous flow
Lean usually aims for the implementation of continuous production flow
free of bottlenecks, interruption, detours, backflows or waiting. When this is
successfully implemented, the production cycle time can be reduced by as
much as 90%.
4. Pull-production
Also called Just-in-Time, Pull-production aims to produce only what is
needed, when it is needed. Production is pulled by the downstream
workstation so that each workstation should only produce what is requested
by the next workstation.
5. Quality at the Source
Lean aims for defects to be eliminated at the source and for quality
inspection to be done by the workers as part of the in-line production
process.
6. Continuous improvement
Lean requires striving for perfection by continually removing layers of waste
as they are uncovered. This in turn requires a high level of worker
involvement in the continuous improvement process.

Difference Between Traditional and Lean Manufacturing

I am occasionally asked, "What is the difference between traditional manufacturing versus

lean manufacturing." The overarching "big picture" difference between traditional
manufacturing and lean manufacturing involves a totally different mindset.

To be more specific I've put together a short list below, in no particular order, of what I see
as some of the important differences between lean and the traditional approach. These are
generalizations, but based on my experience I've found these generalizations to be true
100% of the time.

Traditional: Production driven by a sales forecast (Push).

Lean: Production is driven by customer demand; items are only produced when an order is
placed (Pull - one of the 5 lean principles).

Traditional: Problems are viewed as just that, problems.

Lean: Problems are viewed as opportunities for improvement often through root cause
analysis.

Traditional: Work in process (WIP) is viewed as a normal part of operations.

Lean: WIP is a sign that a process needs to improved and is considered a type of waste that
should be reduced or eliminated (the same is true for inventory).
Traditional: Improve system (disregarding all of the types of waste in the process).
Lean: Improve system by 1) Eliminating waste and 2) Improving current processes.

Traditional: Management is the primary driver of change.

Lean: Everyone is empowered, trained in the principles of lean and encouraged to look for
ways to improve processes.

Traditional: If a process is working (if it ain't broke) don't fix it.

Lean: Always look for ways to improve processes.

Traditional: Standardized work (people performing the same task the same way) only
exists in documents like SOPs, rarely in reality.
Lean: Everyone performs the same task the exact same way until a better way is
discovered; then everyone performs the task the new and improved way.

Traditional: Focuses on training and relies on people to not make mistakes.

Lean: Focuses on building processes that are error proofed (a person cannot make a
mistake or it would be difficult to do so).

Traditional: Systems thinking (views the organization as a whole), often ignoring or

unable to see the enormous opportunities for improvement.
Lean: Views the organization as a series of interrelated processes that can and should be
improved.

Final Thought: Everything Functions Through Processes (A Part of Lean Thinking)

As lean professionals we see the world as a series of processes. Anytime you have
something with a defined beginning and ending, you have a process that could and should
be improved. This is one of the primary reasons Lean has been successfully applied in so
many different types of industries; every industry has processes.

For a non-manufacturing example let's consider routine doctor's appointments. The process
could START when the computer indicates a patient is scheduled for a routine
appointment. It could END when that particular patient completed the routine appointment.

In this example we would analyze all of the steps from start to end with a team of local
experts. What we'd undoubtedly find is a series of wasted steps, wasted time, reworks, non-
standardized work, poor process flow, etc.

Another example could be an auto service center. The START could be when a customer
signs in at the counter, and END when the customer's car has been fixed and paid
for. Again, like the previous example, if we analyzed this process we'd undoubtedly find
many areas for improvement. These improvements equates to increased efficiencies that
have a direct impact on the bottom-line.

Traditional vs. Lean Thinking

S.No Major Aspects Traditional Lean
manufacturing Manufacturing
waste Maximum Minimum
Approach to Individual process Overall System
Efficiency
Philosophy Output-centered Market Centered
Scheduling Push Pull
Production Stock JIT
Lead time Long Short
Batch Size Long Batch & Queue Small Continuous
Flow
Inspection Sampling 100% at source
Shop floor Layout Activity based Cellular
Manufacturing
Empowerment Low High
Inventory turns Low High
Flexibility Low High
People Utilization All people must be Because work is
busy at all times performed based
directly upon
customer demand,
people might not be
busy
Process Utilization Use high-speed Processes need to
processes and run only be designed
them all the time to keep up with
demand
Work Scheduling Build products to Build products to
forecast demand
Labor Costs Variable Fixed
Work Groups Traditional Cross-functional
(functional) teams
departments
Quality Inspect/sort work at Processes, products,
end of process to and services
make sure we find all are designed to
errors eliminate errors
Orientation Supply driven Customer driven
Planning Push production Pull production
Batch size Large Small
Quality inspection Checking of samples In-line inspection by
 by QC inspectors workers
Inventory More inventory Little or no inventory
Handoff of works in Materials after each Materials handled off
progress stage accumulated directly from one
into works-in- production stage to
progress storage the next
areas before being
retrieved by next
production stage
Production cycle Longer cycle time Shorter cycle time
time

Traditional Lean
Revenue-focused Margin-focused
Improvement focus: optimizing value-added Improvement focus: eliminating non-
work valueadded
work
Fire fighting is rewarded Fire prevention is rewarded
Focus on financial metrics & lagging Focus on operational metrics & leading
indicators indicators
Suboptimization is rewarded Value stream performance is rewarded
Specialized workers organized by function Cross-trained workers organized by value
streams
Complexity is the norm Simplicity is the norm
Inspect in quality Build in quality
Non-visual workplace / management Visual workplace / management
Dynamic schedule and priorities Static priorities and schedule
Unclear ownership & accountability Clear ownership & accountability
Excessive reviews and approvals by Decisions are made by those closest to the
leadership work
Improvements identified by management Improvements identified by workers

Advantaof Lean Manufacturing

 Half the hours of engineering effort
 Half the product development time
 Half the investment in machinery, tools and equipment
 Half the hours of human effort in the factory
 Half the defects in the finished product
 Half the factory space for the same output
 A tenth or less of in-process inventories
  Half the hours of engineering effort
 Half the product development time
 Half the investment in machinery, tools and equipment
 Half the hours of human effort in the factory
 Half the defects in the finished product
 Half the factory space for the same output
 A tenth or less of in-process inventories

Advantages of LM:
1) since LM involves the JIT inventory levels (raw material, WIP, finished goods) can be
brought down to nearly nil, thus reducing cost
2) LM uses simple multitask machinery where by product of different design can be
produced on the same machine.
3) Transition between various designs takes only a few minutes. This enables increase in
flexibility and better response to customer requirements.
4) It also reduces customer lead time, cost of production and wastage.
5) Lm is an effective competitive tool, not in then least due to dramatic saving in
productivity and cycle time to WIP inventory. LM helps to unleash the power of the
work force, ultimately taking the organization to, a competitive position.
Hence LM about making the company trim, fit, strong and swift.

Lean Manufacturing Philosophy:

Customers can have what they want, when they want it without a penalty.
Improvement is always possible and necessary.
Customers are the reason for existence, and they must always have a perfect product or
service.
All buffers are wasteful and need to be eliminated.
A career consists of solving more difficult problems in a multi-skilled, cross-functional
team environment.

Lean Manufacturing Strategy:

Know your customer and their needs, identify value-added activities and functions.
Focus all the businesses' processes around the value stream of activities.
Align your company to the needs of your customers.
Activities that take time, resources and space but do not to the customer's requirement, are
non-value added and must be reduced or eliminated.
Establish performance measurements in all aspects of the value stream.
Basic Elements of Lean Manufacturing

Elimination of Waste: Waste is defined as anything that consumes material or labor and that
does not add value to the final end customer.

Equipment Reliability: Equipment that runs when production requires it to run

Process Capability: Processes which always make good parts.

Continuous Flow:

 Material flows one part at a time vs. mass production using big batches.
 Less inventory required throughout the production process, raw material, WIP, and
finished goods.
 Reduces defects
 Reduces lead time. Speeds up order to delivery time.

Process Capability speeds up order to delivery.

Error Proofing: Ways to prevent the product from being built incorrectly.

Stop the Line Quality System: The production line is stopped when bad quality is being
produced.

Kanban System: Kanban is a pull material system. The material is pulled through the
production process by customer demand. Kanban uses cards to move material along the value
stream.

Standard Work: Standard Work is a system of organizing work steps and documenting
them. The team leader prepares the Standard Work.

Visual Management: When a plant utilizes Visual Management fully, a new employee can
understand how to do his job from the visual information in the plant.

In Station Process Control: Each workstation has the information and equipment for the
worker to inspect and produce good quality parts.

Level Production: Production is leveled to customer demand.

Takt Time: Production is paced to customer demand. Takt Time = Time available to produce
a product divided by the number of parts that the customer wants to buy.

Quick Changeover: A system to change over from one product to another quickly.
25 ESSENTIAL LEAN TOOLS
The following is a collection of 25 essential lean tools. Each tool is distilled into a simple
description of what it is and how it helps.
Lean Tool What Is It? How Does It Help?
5S Organize the work area: Eliminates waste that results from a
 Sort (eliminate that which is not poorly organized work area (e.g.
needed) wasting time looking for a tool).
 Set In Order (organize remaining
items)
 Shine (clean and inspect work
area)
 Standardize (write standards for
above)
 Sustain (regularly apply the
standards)
Andon Visual feedback system for the Acts as a real-time communication
plant floor that indicates tool for the plant floor that brings
production status, alerts when immediate attention to problems as
assistance is needed, and they occur – so they can be instantly
empowers operators to stop the addressed.
production process.
Bottleneck Identify which part of the Improves throughput by
Analysis manufacturing process limits the strengthening the weakest link in
overall throughput and improve the the manufacturing process.
performance of that part of the
process.
Continuous Flow Manufacturing where work-in- Eliminates many forms of waste
process smoothly flows through (e.g. inventory, waiting time, and
production with minimal (or no) transport).
buffers between steps of the
manufacturing process.
Gemba (The A philosophy that reminds us to Promotes a deep and thorough
Real Place) get out of our offices and spend understanding of real-world
time on the plant floor – the place manufacturing issues – by first-hand
where real action occurs. observation and by talking with
plant floor employees.
Heijunka (Level A form of production scheduling Reduces lead times (since each
Scheduling) that purposely manufactures in product or variant is manufactured
 much smaller batches by more frequently) and inventory
sequencing (mixing) product (since batches are smaller).
variants within the same process.
Hoshin Kanri Align the goals of the company Ensures that progress towards
(Policy (Strategy), with the plans of middle strategic goals is consistent and
Deployment) management (Tactics) and the thorough – eliminating the waste
work performed on the plant floor that comes from poor
(Action). communication and inconsistent
direction.
Jidoka Design equipment to partially After Jidoka, workers can
(Autonomation) automate the manufacturing frequently monitor multiple stations
process (partial automation is (reducing labor costs) and many
typically much less expensive than quality issues can be detected
full automation) and to immediately (improving quality).
automatically stop when defects
are detected.
Just-In-Time Pull parts through production Highly effective in reducing
(JIT) based on customer demand instead inventory levels. Improves cash
of pushing parts through flow and reduces space
production based on projected requirements.
demand. Relies on many lean tools,
such as Continuous Flow,
Heijunka, Kanban, Standardized
Work and Takt Time.
Kaizen A strategy where employees work Combines the collective talents of a
(Continuous together proactively to achieve company to create an engine for
Improvement) regular, incremental improvements continually eliminating waste from
in the manufacturing process. manufacturing processes.
Kanban (Pull A method of regulating the flow of Eliminates waste from inventory
System) goods both within the factory and and overproduction. Can eliminate
with outside suppliers and the need for physical inventories
customers. Based on automatic (instead relying on signal cards to
replenishment through signal cards indicate when more goods need to
that indicate when more goods are be ordered).
needed.
KPI (Key Metrics designed to track and The best manufacturing KPIs:
Performance encourage progress towards critical  Are aligned with top-level
Indicator) goals of the organization. Strongly strategic goals (thus helping to
promoted KPIs can be extremely achieve those goals)
powerful drivers of behavior – so it  Are effective at exposing and
is important to carefully select quantifying waste (OEE is a good
 KPIs that will drive desired example)
behavior.  Are readily influenced by plant
floor employees (so they can
drive results)
Muda (Waste) Anything in the manufacturing Eliminating muda (waste) is the
process that does not add value primary focus of lean
from the customer‟‟s perspective. manufacturing.
Overall Framework for measuring Provides a benchmark/baseline and
Equipment productivity loss for a given a means to track progress in
Effectiveness manufacturing process. Three eliminating waste from a
(OEE) categories of loss are tracked: manufacturing process. 100% OEE
 Availability (e.g. down time) means perfect production
 Performance (e.g. slow cycles) (manufacturing only good parts, as
 Quality (e.g. rejects) fast as possible, with no down time).
PDCA (Plan, Do, An iterative methodology for Applies a scientific approach to
Check, Act) implementing improvements: making improvements:
 Plan (establish plan and expected  Plan (develop a hypothesis)
results)  Do (run experiment)
 Do (implement plan)  Check (evaluate results)
 Check (verify expected results  Act (refine your experiment; try
achieved) again)
 Act (review and assess; do it
again)
Poka-Yoke Design error detection and It is difficult (and expensive) to find
(Error Proofing) prevention into production all defects through inspection, and
processes with the goal of correcting defects typically gets
achieving zero defects. significantly more expensive at each
stage of production.
Root Cause A problem solving methodology Helps to ensure that a problem is
Analysis that focuses on resolving the truly eliminated by applying
underlying problem instead of corrective action to the “root cause”
applying quick fixes that only treat of the problem.
immediate symptoms of the
problem. A common approach is to
ask why five times – each time
moving a step closer to discovering
the true underlying problem.
Single Minute Reduce setup (changeover) time to Enables manufacturing in smaller
Exchange of Die less than 10 minutes. Techniques lots, reduces inventory, and
(SMED) include: improves customer responsiveness.
 Convert setup steps to be
 external (performed while the
process is running)
 Simplify internal setup (e.g.
replace bolts with knobs and
levers)
 Eliminate non-essential
operations
 Create standardized work
instructions
Six Big Losses Six categories of productivity loss Provides a framework for attacking
that are almost universally the most common causes of waste in
experienced in manufacturing: manufacturing.
 Breakdowns
 Setup/Adjustments
 Small Stops
 Reduced Speed
 Startup Rejects
 Production Rejects

SMART Goals Goals that are: Specific, Helps to ensure that goals are
Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, effective.
and Time-Specific.
Standardized Documented procedures for Eliminates waste by consistently
Work manufacturing that capture best applying best practices. Forms a
practices (including the time to baseline for future improvement
complete each task). Must be activities.
“living” documentation that is easy
to change.
Takt Time The pace of production (e.g. Provides a simple, consistent and
manufacturing one piece every 34 intuitive method of pacing
seconds) that aligns production production. Is easily extended to
with customer demand. Calculated provide an efficiency goal for the
as Planned Production Time / plant floor (Actual Pieces / Target
Customer Demand. Pieces).
Total Productive A holistic approach to maintenance Creates a shared responsibility for
Maintenance that focuses on proactive and equipment that encourages greater
(TPM) preventative maintenance to involvement by plant floor workers.
maximize the operational time of In the right environment this can be
equipment. TPM blurs the very effective in improving
distinction between maintenance productivity (increasing up time,
and production by placing a strong reducing cycle times, and
emphasis on empowering operators eliminating defects).
to help maintain their equipment.
Value Stream A tool used to visually map the Exposes waste in the current
Mapping flow of production. Shows the processes and provides a roadmap
current and future state of for improvement through the future
processes in a way that highlights state.
opportunities for improvement.
Visual Factory Visual indicators, displays and Makes the state and condition of
controls used throughout manufacturing processes easily
manufacturing plants to improve accessible and very clear – to
communication of information. everyone.

Lean Building Blocks

In order to reduce or eliminate the above wastes, Lean practitioners utilize many tools
or Lean Building Blocks. Successful practitioners recognize that, although most of these may
be implemented as stand-alone programs, few have significant impact when used alone.
Additionally, the sequence of implementation affects the overall impact, and implementing
some out of order may actually produce negative results (for example, you should address
quick changeover and quality before reducing batch sizes). The more common building
blocks are listed below. Note that some are used only in manufacturing organizations, but
most apply equally to service industries.

• Pull System – The technique for producing parts at customer demand. Service
organizations operate this way by their very nature. Manufacturers, on the other hand, have
historically operated by a Push System, building products to stock (per sales forecast),
without firm customer orders.

• Kanban – A method for maintaining an orderly flow of material. Kanban cards are used to
indicate material order points, how much material is needed, from where the material is
ordered, and to where it should be delivered.

• Work Cells – The technique of arranging operations and/or people in a cell (U-shaped, etc.)
rather than in a traditional straight assembly line. Among other things, the cellular concept
allows for better utilization of people and improves communication.

• Total Productive Maintenance – TPM capitalizes on proactive and progressive

maintenance methodologies and calls upon the knowledge and cooperation of operators,
equipment vendors, engineering, and support personnel to optimize machine performance.
Results of this optimized performance include; elimination of breakdowns, reduction of
unscheduled and scheduled downtime, improved utilization, higher throughput, and better
product quality. Bottom-line results include; lower operating costs, longer equipment life, and
lower overall maintenance costs.
• Total Quality Management – Total Quality Management is a management system used to
continuously improve all areas of a company's operation. TQM is applicable to every
operation in the company and recognizes the strength of employee involvement.

• Point-Of-Use-Storage – See above for more information on POUS.

• Quick Changeover (a.k.a., Set Up Reduction and Single Minute Exchange of Dies) –
The technique of reducing the amount of time to change a process from running one specific
type of product to another. The purpose for reducing changeover time is not for increasing
production capacity, but to allow for more frequent changeovers in order to increase
production flexibility. Quicker changeovers allow for smaller batch sizes. See Batch Size
Reduction below for more details.

• Batch Size Reduction – Historically, manufacturing companies have operated with large
batch sizes in order to maximize machine utilization, assuming that changeover times were
“fixed” and could not be reduced. Because Lean calls for the production of parts to customer
demand, the ideal batch size is ONE. However, a batch size of one is not always practical, so
the goal is to practice continuous improvement toreduce the batch size as low as possible.
Reducing batch sizes reduces the amount of work-in-process inventory (WIP). Not only does
this reduce inventory-carrying costs, but also production lead-time or cycle time is
approximately directly proportional to the amount of WIP. Therefore, smaller batch sizes
shorten the overall production cycle, enabling companies to deliver more quickly and to
invoice sooner (for improved cash flow). Shorter production cycles increases inventory turns
and allows the company to operate profitably at lower margins, which enables price
reductions, which increases sales and market share.

• 5S or Workplace Organization – This tool is a systematic method for organizing and

standardizing the workplace. It‟s one of the simplest Lean tools to implement, provides
immediate return on investment, crosses all industry boundaries, and is applicable to every
function with an organization. Because of these attributes, it‟s usually our first
recommendation for a company implementing Lean.

• Visual Controls – These are simple signals that provide an immediate and readily apparent
understanding of a condition or situation. Visual controls enable someone to walk into the
workplace and know within a short period of time (usually thirty seconds) what‟s happening
with regards to production schedule, backlog, workflow, inventory levels, resource
utilization, and quality. These controls should be efficient, selfregulating, and worker
managed, and include kanban cards, lights, color-coded tools, lines delineating work areas
and product flow, etc.

• Concurrent Engineering – This is a technique of using cross-functional teams (rather than

sequential departmental assignments) to develop and bring new products to market. In many
instances, implementing concurrent engineering has reduced time-to-market by 50%; the
automotive and computer industries are good examples. Time-to-market is one of the most
important tools for capturing and maintaining market share.
Benefits of Lean Manufacturing | Why Implement Lean?
Why Implement Lean Manufacturing?
If you are considering Implementing Lean Manufacturing or one of your Customers is
insisting that you go down this road you are probably asking yourself “what‟s in this for me?”
There are many companies that have implemented lean manufacturing and are singing its
praises and claiming massive improvements and also companies that insist that they “have
done lean” and gained nothing but problems from it! But what is the truth, what are the
benefits of lean manufacturing?
Lean Manufacturing has originated from the Toyota Production System (TPS),
unarguably the most successful automotive manufacturer. Toyota consistently outsells any
other manufacturer and its products top polls and surveys with regards to quality and
reliability. They are also a profitable company unlike so many of their rivals facing
bankruptcy around the world!

If Toyota‟s success is not enough reason; what are the actual benefits of Lean?

The Benefits of Implementing Lean Manufacturing

The implementation of lean manufacturing through trying to make value flow at the
pull of the customer (Just In Time) prevents and eliminates waste in your processes. Waste
being categorized as part of the seven wastes; Transport, Inventory, Motion, Waiting, Over-
processing, Overproduction, and Defects.
All of these wastes have a direct impact on your costs, they are all non-value adding
operations, operations that your customer would not be happy to pay for and add no value to
the product or service that you provide.
Many studies have shown that we only add value for around 5% of the time within
our operations, the remaining 95% is waste! Imagine if you could remove that 95% wasted
time and effort; what would it do for your operations?

Lean Removes Waste

Typically Lean will improve;
 Quality performance, fewer defects and rework (in house and at customer).
 Fewer Machine and Process Breakdowns.
 Lower levels of Inventory.
 Greater levels of Stock Turnover.
 Less Space Required.
 Higher efficiencies, more output per man hour.
 Improved delivery performance.
 Faster Development.
 Greater Customer Satisfaction.
 Improved employee morale and involvement.
 Improved Supplier Relations.
 HIGHER PROFITS!
 INCREASED BUSINESS!

Are these not good enough reasons to implement Lean?

Gaining Satisfied Customers
The first principle of Lean is identifying value as perceived by the customer; if you
can provide your customer what they want every time then you will ensure that you have
satisfied customers. If you always supply top quality products and services on time, at the
right place then you have a business that is going to succeed! Implementing Lean provides
you with those satisfied customers that are going to keep on returning to buy from you
allowing you to maintain and even grow your business.
Financial impact of Lean

While many accountants see lots of stock as a benefit to the business and an asset it
really is a major hindrance to your business. Stock costs money to store and to move and it
uses your cash (or you have to borrow) to maintain it. One of the major aims of Lean is to
eliminate the stock in your processes, we seek to eliminate inventory that is generally there to
hide all of the other problems. This in turn releases cash back into your hands to use within
the business (Remember; Cash is King!)
Removing inventory also frees up space and removes the need for excessive amounts
of handling equipment as well as removing the opportunity for handling damage and even for
products becoming obsolete.
An example of this is a company that I visited in the UK, they wanted a 30k loan from
the government to buy some machinery. This company employed about 100 people and
turned over over 2million GB pounds. But they held over 2 million pounds of stock in their
warehouse and half of their employees were employed only in moving product around. The
products were simple and the company could actually manufacture them quicker than they
could find them and retrieve them from the stores. This company could free up over 2 million
just be starting to make to order and using up all of their stock.

Lean Improves Your Profits

Most companies work on the following formula;
Selling price = Profit + Costs
But if your selling price is too high you customers will not buy from you, the selling
price is in reality something that is fixed by the market and not by you. If you don‟t offer
your product or service at the right selling price you will not retain or gain customers.
You should work on the following;
Profit = Selling price – Costs
 Lean works to drive down your costs; therefore the more you save the higher your
profits. Every penny that you save is added directly to your profit. Companies that implement
Lean typically make significant cost savings that have a very real impact on the companies
profitability. As mentioned earlier you only have to look at the performance of Toyota
against the big US car makers to see the difference.

Lean Manufacturing Implementation Facts and Figures

The following information is taken from the Manufacturing Advisory Service in the
UK, they have been performing business improvement projects in many thousands of
manufacturing companies across the Uk for the last several years. Most of these projects are
based on the principles and tools of Lean manufacturing.
The following figures are average results for companies in many differing industries
and of different sizes over a period of several years;

 DELIVERY +26%
 STOCK TURNS +33%
 PRODUCTIVITY +25%
 SCRAP -26%
 SPACE -33%
These are average figures from thousands of projects, not just a select few studies to
make the figures look good. These figures are typical of what other academic and
consultancy studies have published.
What would an increase in productivity of 25% mean to your company? How much
time and money would be saved if scrap levels were reduced by 26%. How many angry
customers would be happy and how many panic transports avoided if your delivery
performance improved by 26%? How much cash would be freed up if you could reduce your
inventory? What could you do with a third of your space free?
Risks of Implementing Lean
Lean is not a one size fits all, implement by the book overnight tool! It requires
commitment and the involvement of everyone within your organization.
It is often very easy to work around the principles of lean to hit short term targets at the end
of each month to look good, this often undermines lean initiatives leading to its rapid
dismissal as an effective tool.
Gains made by individual applications of tools are often lost over a short period of
time due to there being no overall focus on a lean culture for the business.
People see that improvements to efficiency can make their jobs unnecessary so they resist the
changes unless there are policies in place to redeploy them in a productive manner.

The Need to change

As Deming once said; “It is not necessary to change, survival is not mandatory!” You
can stay as you are and hope that no one out there makes better cheaper products that better
meet you customers needs…
However we are now in a global market, someone out there is looking at your share of
the market and working out how to win it from you, will you just sit back and give it to them?
Your competitors will improve, they will evolve, they may even revolutionize your industry,
you need to be there first or you will lose your business.
It is not enough to just make improvements when a crisis hits, you need to have a program of
continual business improvement to ensure that your business will thrive, not just struggle to
survive.
Implementing Lean Manufacturing and Lean Tools are a proven method to improve
your business and beat the competition.

HOW DO WE REDUCE COSTS WITH LEAN?

This will be a very general and basic question. We build a large product that several
weeks to complete. We fabricate some things in-house and others outside. Currently no form
of Lean exists. I have been asked to reduce the cost of a product by a significant amount. I
believe that lean is the way to go. What are the steps and the sequence that must be taken to
start down the road of reducing cost?

I am thinking about starting by creating a value stream map, then working to

reduce material handling, and then to reduce setup times. I know we could list every single
tool available in the Lean kit, but I am looking for 5 or 6 tools and the order of attack.

A) Fascinating question, if only in trying to imagine what kind of large product takes several
weeks to complete. The question provides a good opportunity to examine the fundamental
debate about whether to apply the lean tools to every process, or whether to develop
the kaizen mind in every employee. I realize that you‟re under pressure to deliver quick
results, and are in no mood for a lecture on stepping back, taking a deep breath and looking at
things differently. I sympathize. However, there‟s never a convenient time to have the
mindset discussion, so grit your teeth and bear with me.
One way of attacking your problem would be to draw a value stream map of the
entire process, identify steps in the processwhere things could be better, and then eliminate
the waste you‟ve spotted. You'll find low-hanging fruit right away. And you will learn to use
specific lean tools moving forward. This will, however, take several months, even if you do
this like a maniac, and will end up in many political fights about who is responsible for what.
And you still face the hard truth that at the end of the project you may succeed in fixing parts
of it, but won't show a reduction in the total cost because you still won‟t understand exactly
where the real costs come from. This has plagued many a lean officer in the past.

There's another way of looking at this. In order to reduce the cost of a product, we
first need to understand the cost. This would be the basic sensei injunction of not debating
what solution to apply (which tool to use where) until the important people involved agree on
the problem. Now, understanding the cost in such long cycle is not an easy problem, and, it
can be argued, that if you did understand the cost already – you‟d have reduced it. Chicken
and egg.
So where to start? First, teamwork. This can't be your project alone. You need your
team to agree to a basic challenge. Can a core team (manufacturing, engineering, logistics,
purchasing) agree to a basic kaizen challenge of reducing the cost of each product by X%?
Cost shouldn't be the only parameter. To avoid doing something silly, you'd have to challenge
yourself on all three aspects of customer satisfaction: delivering on time, without quality
complaints, while reducing the cost. As well as doing so working safely (so no accidents) and
with good spirit. The key idea here is that the team of managers commits to the idea that each
product will be better than the last one, and in solving immediate problems, we will discover
the real costs of the product - the core at the center of the plum to use a lean image.

So the main thing is to start by forming a common ownership of the problem and
forging a commitment to the kaizen process. This requires a core team of people involved in
the cost of the product agreeing to hard targets, and to the beginning of a PDCAcycle: a firm
commitment to a post-mortem ("Hansei" in leanspeak) session at the delivery of every
product.

In the first post-mortem session, invite all the key actors (don't forget maintenance,
they'll have a lot of interesting things to say about existing products out in the field) to look at
the initial project plan (it can be drawn as a VSM to scale with an actual timeline) and
examine where things basically went wrong. In long lead-time projects, the total time
slippage of the project is usually a good indicator of cost, because of the added burden of
overhead and as an indicator of things going wrong. Start by identifying the exceptional costs
that occurred in the previous cycle. These exceptional costs are probably the first costs you
can reduce if you understand them better. The next step is to "go and see" and try to find
ways at the Gemba to trigger alerts when one of these exceptional costs happens, so that you
can understand the facts of the costs - and have a good place for the first 'why?'.

Once you get a good handle of what kind of exceptional costs you're incurring, you'll
probably find that they are consequences of not-right-first-time. Rework, mis-deliveries, poor
planning etc. At this stage, you can start spreading the kaizen spirit by asking every shop
floor function to monitor its key points of rework and focus on doing it the right first time.
Here the lean tools can be very useful both to get some gains and, as importantly, to
understand the shop-floor based costs.

The aim of this first phase is to understand in detail the standard conditions you need
to work in so that you can eliminate exceptional costs, and so you can then reduce costs
caused by rework and other recurring issues. To do so, every shopfloor supervisor can head
a kaizen project, with the appropriate tool, with two missions: one, reduce the costs by using
the tool, two: understand what, in our current management practice, generates this cost.

Once the largest shop-floor driven costs are brought under control by keeping
operations in standard conditions, confirming each activity to avoid rework and making sure
teams are on track with the standard sequence, you can start thinking about processcosts.
What costs, in your current operations are caused by your technical processes? Do you have
many delays because of equipment issues, uncontrolled technical processes, supply chain
problems, and so forth? Once we know that operators‟ work is in standardized work &
with kaizen conditions, we can look at the manufacturing process itself.

The last stage, and obviously where the largest potential payoff can be found, is in
engineering. A detailed understanding and resolution of the manufacturing process costs will
probably highlight many problems set at the engineering stage - from unnecessarily costly
parts (opportunities to simplify the design), to an unnecessary variety of parts (which is a
huge burden on the supply chain) and assembly difficulties due to the engineering design (or
quality issues due to parts sourced cheaply from unreliable suppliers). Rule of thumb is that
two thirds of the costs are set at the design stage, so this is the area of the greatest cost
reduction potential. However, experience shows that attacking design issues without first
understanding operational and process capabilities opens the way to potentially disastrous
"redesign to cost" decisions.

Granted, this is no quick fix. However, you'll probably be surprised at how, at every
stage, you get both quick wins and a step in the right direction: more quick wins. This is the
beauty of the kaizen approach: it pays now, and it continues to pay as long as you maintain
the kaizen spirit. On the other hand, if you hit your processes now with the lean tools, you
will get an immediate gain in low hanging fruit, there is no doubt about it, but then you're
likely to get stuck in a position where it's difficult to get to stage to further gains, and to a
sustainable competitive advantage.

Tools are important. Tools are the entry point in any manufacturing problem. But the
real issue is to start with a common ownership of the cost problem, and a commitment to
a kaizen process, first from the core team, and progressively from each are supervisor. The
tools are the how of kaizen spirit realized in practice.
Applied Mechanics and Materials Vols. 799-800 (2015) pp 1431-1435 Submitted: 2015-07-09
© (2015) Trans Tech Publications, Switzerland Accepted: 2015-07-16
doi:10.4028/www.scientific.net/AMM.799-800.1431 Online: 2015-10-19

Implementation of lean manufacturing principles in the process industry:

a case study

Ali Abd El-Aty1, a *, Ahmad Farooq2, b, Azza Barakat1, c *, Mohamed Etman1, d

1
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Helwan University, Cairo, Egypt.
2
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics,
Nanjing, China.
a
abdelaty85@gmail.com, bahmf239@yahoo.com, cazzabarakat5@hotmail.com,
d
dretman@gmail.com
*Corresponding authors

Keywords: lean manufacturing, value added time, non-value added time, pull manufacturing system,
wastes, cycle times, work in progress.

Abstract. This research aims at implementing lean manufacturing principles in different industries
and re-design the manufacturing system based on the concepts of lean manufacturing by developing a
pull-oriented manufacturing system. This research was applied at the assembly line of Sunny Egypt
Company for Electronics Industry which related to UNION AIR GROUP at Egypt. LCD 32'' model
television was selected from the company's products for improvement. The Results obtained showed
that the implementation of lean manufacturing in industrial systems eliminates wastes, increases
productivity, profit, improves product’s quality, decreases cycle times, work in progress, inventory,
raw materials, costs and number of operators. This research can be useful in developing a more
generic approach to design lean environment.

Introduction
Within the last 15 years a new term, “Lean”, has entered the manufacturing vocabulary. Lean
manufacturing has increasingly been applied by leading manufacturing companies throughout the
world. The reasons why lean manufacturing is a particularly important winning strategy today are: (1)
the need to compete effectively in the global economy, (2) Pressure from customers for price
reduction, (3) Continued marketplace focus on cost and on-time delivery, (4) Increasing customer
expectations, and (5)The need to standardize processes to consistently get expected results [1, 2].
Many researchers suggested that applying the full set of lean principles and tools contribute to the
successful lean manufacturing transformation. However, in reality not many companies in the world
are successful to implement this system.Some previous studies were performed in order to identify
the key factors of the lean manufacturing implementation success [3,4]. These studies refer to four
critical lean manufacturing success factors: leadership and management, financial, skills and
expertise, and supportive organizational culture of the organization. Previous researchers insist that
there is no ''cookbook'' to explain step by step of the lean manufacturing process and how exactly to
apply the tools and techniques [5,6].

Implementation of lean manufacturing principles on current system

The current system of the LCD 32'' model television assembly line, owned by Sunny Egypt
Company for Electronics Industry is unorganized, as well as, the raw materials were stored in
unorganized stores, in different locations which increase the time taken in searching for supplies and
the number of raw materials in the assembly line is very high. Steps of implementing lean
manufacturing principles to optimize the current system will be implemented according to the
methodlogy explained in the next sections.

All rights reserved. No part of contents of this paper may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means without the written permission of Trans
Tech Publications, www.ttp.net. (ID: 132.239.1.230, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, USA-01/11/15,14:20:48)
1432 Mechanical and Electrical Technology VII

Identification of critical products and their processes

In this step, the products under development and study have been identified in terms of the
sequence of manufacturing operations, their cycle times, and the processes attributes. The authors and
the company selected LCD 32'' model for improvement

Identify the value stream for the product

This step is divided into two stages, the first stage is to construct and draw the value stream
mapping (VSM) for the current state as shown in fig. 1 and the second stage is to use this VSM to
identify the different types of wastes in the manufacturing system. In order to construct the VSM of
the product, the following data must be obtained; Attributes of the assembly process, information
about material flow, cycle times and cumber of workers per process for each process in assembly
process and finally, work in progress (WIP). An important summary box was got as shown in fig. 1b,
from time line graph that depicted in fig. 1a. It’s observed from figures 1a and 1b that the numbers of
WIP between each process are not the same and very high, the total lead time is higher than the real
lead time, the value added time is much smaller than the real than the real value added time and the
number of raw materials in assembly line is much longer than required, which indicate that the
assembly line of current production system was unbalance production system, as well as,
overproduction and large inventory have found in the assembly line of current production system.
The second stage of identifying the value stream for the product is identifying and eliminating the
wastes throughout the stream to shorten lead-time and increase the value-added time. According to
the Toyota Production System (TPS), there are seven types of wastes that do not contribute to the
value of the product: overproduction, inventory, transportation, waiting, motion, over-processing,
and defects. From the current VSM, all seven types of wastes have been identified.

(a) (b)

Fig.1: Current state (a) value stream mapping and (b) summary box of time line graph of LCD 32''
model

Make the value flow without interruption.

According to different types of wastes which mentioned previously, Takt time analysis, Six S's,
visual display & control, were selected from lean manufacturing tools to implement in current system,
since, these tools are the most tools compatible and effective for current production.Takt time is "Beat
Time" or "Rate Time". That means the speed to control entire manufacturing system. In lean
principles, Takt time is used as the rate or the time that a completed product is finished. Takt time is
the number of units required by the customer per unit of time. Equation 1 is used to calculate Takt
time:
Takt Time Available Work Time Customer Demand 1
Takt time for this model was 75 second as shown in table 1; this means that the company must
produced this product 75 second to meet the customer's demand. In order to develop a current
production system and convert it in to lean manufacturing system, cycle time must be reduced to
become less than or equal Takt time. Uncontrolled lost time during working day was observed. Hence,
goal time was used instead of Takt time during implementing lean manufacturing and drawing future
VSM to vanish the effects of uncontrolled lost time and access to one piece flow system. Goal time is
the percentage of Takt time determined by authors and company as shown in equation 2.
 Applied Mechanics and Materials Vols. 799-800 1433

Goal Time = 93% of Takt time (2)

Table 1: Calculation of Takt time and goal for LCD 32'' model

Model Actual Customer's Takt Goal

working time demand Time(Sec) Time
(Sec.) (Unit / day) (Sec)
LCD 27000 360 75 69
32''
Six S's were selected as the second lean manufacturing tool to implement in current system while
Visual display and control were selected as the third tool to implement. Six S's primary goal was to
reduce cost through better workplace organization and improved inventory management, while
Visual factory aided the understanding of production engineers and line supervisors by inducing
clarity on the activities in the workplace.
Let the customer pull value from producer
Some preparation processes have small cycle time if compared to other processes and the
quantities which produced from these processes were very high if compared to the required
quantities. . This was done by implementing pull production or kanban production system for these
prepration processes. kanban production system are implemented as follows: (a) Calculate the
required number of Kanban cards as shown in table 2 (b) Design the signaling mechanism (c) Train
the operators (d) Start the kanban (e) Improve the kanban. The required number of kanban or kanban
cards was calculated based on the current needs of the organization, not on future plans. Equation 3
was used to calculate number of required kanban, where: N is the Number of kanban cards or
containers per day, H is the Highest daily demand, S is the daily Safety Stock which the percentage of
highest daily demand and finally C is the Container size.
= (3)
Production leveling
Production leveling or line balance was applied to plan and level customer demand by volume and
variety, while keeping the level of production as constant over a specific time period. This step
includes constructing a work balancing diagram of the future state and then using this diagram to
exanimate the effects of these stages by eliminating wastes and reducing cycle times of each
manufacturing process to be less than or equal to the Takt time.
There are two stages which must be followed to accomplish and implement production leveling in its
current production system: (a) view the time line diagram and work balancing graph (Yamazumi
chart) to show the cycle time of each process in assembly process, required Takt time to produce
required quantity and (b) balance the assembly process by distributing operator work elements in
relation to Takt time.
Standard operations
Standard operations are the final and important step in implementing lean manufacturing and
eliminating the wastes. It refers to organizing the job and performing it in the most effective way after
leveling by writing each of the process sequences for the assembly, since it does not depend on the
presence or absence of operators. The operation also includes minimizing cycle times,
overproduction, WIP, waiting, motion and over processing. . Work instructions of each process in
assembly process for LCD 32'' model were done and accomplished. The team followed the sequences
of work instructions of Toyota production system (TPS), where, TPS includes in its work instructions
three elements: (a) Cycle time: The time necessary to produce one piece or unit (b) Standard
1434 Mechanical and Electrical Technology VII

operations routine: The order of operations in which workers process a product (c) Standard
inventory: The minimum amount of work-in-process inventory necessary to process a product [6].
Results and Discussion
After implementing lean manufacturing in current system, the authors monitoring the assemply
line for 3 and 6 months to collect the data for studying and analyzing the effects of implementing lean
manufacturing on different types of wastes as shown in figures 2a, 2b, 3a, 3b. After 6 months as
shown in table 3, its observed that the total lead time was reduced and closed to real lead time, total
cycle time, raw materials, WIP, inventory, number of non-conforming products and number of
workers were reduced. on other side,Value added time and production rate were increased to satisfy
the customer's requirements. These results emphasize and verify that if the lean manufacturing
implemented and applied significantly in industrial systems, a lot of benefits will be achieved.
Table 2: Number of Kanban cards for preparation processes of LCD 32'' model.

Model Process Part Name H S C (Product/ N

Name Name (Product / container) (Card/
day) day)

LCD 32'' Board Board 25 16

Prep.
LCD LCD 11% 20 20
Prep. of 360
Speaker Speaker = 20 20
Soldering 360 40
Acc. Accesso-ries 50 8
Prep.
Carton Prep. Carton 20 20

Fig. 2: (a) value stream mapping and (b) Summary box of time line graph of LCD 32'' model after 3
months from implementing lean manufacturing

Fig. 3: (a) value stream mapping and (b) Summary box of time line graph of LCD 32'' model after 6
months from implementing lean manufacturing
 Applied Mechanics and Materials Vols. 799-800 1435

Table 3: Process attributes before and after implementing lean manufacturing

Before After After

lean lean lean
manufacturing manufacturing manufacturing
(3months) (6 months)
Total lead 1396 Minutes 975 Minutes 913 Minutes
time
Total cycle 30.7 Minutes 25.4 Minutes
time
Raw 750 units 540 units
Materials
WIP 458 Minutes 300 Minutes 238 Minutes
Inventory 1374 Minutes 956 Minutes 895 Minutes
time
No. Of 27operators 23 operators
Operators
Production 300 units / day 330 units / day 355 units / day
rate
Rejected 7 units / day 4units / day 2 units / day
Items

Conclusions
After implementing the lean manufacturing and redesigning the manufacturing system, a lot of
benefits will be achieved. Different types of manufacturing and time wastes were eliminated. Lead
time, cycle time, raw materials which found in the production line, WIP, inventory, number of
workers and number of non conforming products were reduced by 35%, 17%, 28%, 48%, 35% , 15%,
71% respectively.Value added (V/A) time was increased, NV/A time was decreased. Production
costs were decreased and Productivity is increased by 18% to satisfy the customer's needs. Lean
concept is not only a set of mutually supporting technique, but also a global change in organization’s
culture; this is the most important factor for any quality or productivity improvement.
Acknowledgement
Authors are also thankful to the management of Sunny Egypt Company for Electronics Industry
which related to UNION AIR GROUP, Egypt.
References
[1] Gupta, A. and Kundra, T. K. A review of designing machine tool for leanness. Sadhana ; 37.2
(2012): 241–259.
[2] Pattanaik, L.N. and Sharma, B.P. Implementing lean manufacturing with cellular layout: a case
study. The International Journal of Advanced Manufacturing Technology; 42 (2009): 772-779.
[3] Chauhan, G. Singh, T. B. and Sharma, S. K. Role of Machine Flexibility in Lean Manufacturing.
International Journal of Applied Engineering Research; 4.1 (2009): 25–33.
[4] Muslimen, R., Mohd Yusof, S. and Abidin, A. S. Z. Lean Manufacturing Implementation in
Malaysian Automotive Components Manufacturer: a case Study. Proceedings of the World Congress
on Engineering I (2011).
[5] Schonberger, R. J. Japanese production management: An evolution - with mixed success.
Journal of Operations Management; 25 (2007), 403-419.
[6] Prakash D., Dr. C.T. Sunil Kumar, Implementation of Lean Manufacturing Principles in Auto
Industry, Industrial Engineering Letters,1 (2011), 56-60.
 Mechanical and Electrical Technology VII
10.4028/www.scientific.net/AMM.799-800

Implementation of Lean Manufacturing Principles in the Process Industry: A Case Study

10.4028/www.scientific.net/AMM.799-800.1431

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ISSN : 2248-9622, Vol. 6, Issue 7, ( Part -2) July 2016, pp.52-58

RESEARCH ARTICLE OPEN ACCESS

Through Lean Manufacturing Techniques Improvement

InProduction of Cement Plant
Udai Singh Chouhan1, LalitYadav2, Pardeshi Ram3
1
(M.Tech Student, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Mewar University Chittorgarh,
2
(Assistant Professor , Department of Mechanical Engineering, Sir PadampatSinghania University Udaipur,
3
(Assistant Professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Mewar University Chittorgarh,

ABSTRACT
The production of cement is a process industry which is distinct from manufacturing and the main objective here
is to apply lean manufacturing technique to the eradicate waste to the processes and parameters which are
common between process and discrete manufacturing. Lean signifies a major advance over traditional mass
production methods. Value stream mapping is used first to identify different waste present in the current state.
This paper will describe work undertaken investigating the application of lean thinking to a continuous
production environment, in this instance exemplified by the cement industry. Implementation of lean helps
many organizations to improve their productivity and efficiency Cement plays a vital role in economic
development of any country. Having more than a hundred and fifty years history, it has been used extensively in
construction of anything, from a small building to a mammoth multi-purpose project. The need for improving
the efficiency of the cement production line is widely acknowledged in order to reduce the downtime rates, and
satisfy high levels of market demand where the demand for cement is mostly second substance behind water.
This paper articulates a methodology for data collection, knowledge extraction, model creation and
experimentation that combines the use of process mapping, computational simulation. A detailed description of
each step of the process is given and is illustrated by results from a case study undertaken during the research.
This paper describes work undertaken to implement lean practices in the continuous process sector as
represented by cement production. One of the major barriers to lean implementation is providing evidence of its
potential benefit to end-users. This work aims to overcome this obstacle by producing a tool which can be used
to easily visualize the benefits of adopting lean practices without requiring disruption to the production
environment.
Keywords:Lean manufacturing, eliminating waste, cement production, Implementation of lean and simulation
model.

I. Introduction (MTPA) by 2025, and about 67% of total

Lean Manufacturing is the art of levitation consumption in India.
quality, sinking costs, improving delivery, The industry is characterized by high
generally becoming competitive by removing waste levels of consumption of raw materials and energy
and concentrating on activities that add value for with fuel accounting for 30-40% of the production
the customer. costs.
Lean manufacturing or lean production,
often simply "lean", is a systematic method for the Cement production in Mt.
elimination of waste ("Muda") within a 2012-13 250-251
manufacturing system. Lean also takes intoaccount 2013-14 258-260
waste created through overburden ("Muri") and 2014-15 270
waste created through unevenness in workloads 2015- 16(E) 289 E: Estimate [1]
("Mura"). Working from the perspective of the
client who consumes a product or service, "value" The objective of this paper is that the
is any action or process that a customer would be current processes have been charted, formulated
willing to pay for. and evaluated, proposals to restructure these
The cement industry is one of the oldest procedures using Lean Manufacturing principles
industries in the world. The demand for cement has will be formulated, evaluated and implemented.
risen rapidly since the beginning of the 20th The main purpose of implementing LM principles
century to become the second most consumed will be to reduce the quantity of line side stock,
substance after water. India’s cement demand is reduce obsolete stock increase the material
expected to reach 550-600 million tons per annum expediting processes. This will lead to great
financial savings per project.
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II. Literature Study clinker is cooled by air andsubsequently ground

The definitions and concept of Lean with gypsum to form cement.
Manufacturing. There are three types of processes to form
 Continuous elimination of all waste resulting cement - the wet, semi-dry and dryprocesses. In the
in a system of value added activity (Internet: wet/semi-dry process, raw material is produced by
Best Management Articles). mixinglimestone and water (called slurry) and
 Lean Manufacturing is the art of raising blending it with soft clay. In the dryprocess
quality, lowering costs, improving delivery, technology, crushed limestone and raw materials
generally becoming competitive by removing are ground and mixedtogether without the addition
waste and concentrating on activities that add of water.
value for the customer (Pullin, 2000) [2] The dry and semi-wet processes are more
From these definitions and the literature fuel-efficient. The wet processrequires 0.28 tonnes
study that was conducted on LM, it was clearthat of coal and 110 kWh of power to manufacture one
the main objective was to eliminate waste in all tonnes ofcement, whereas the dry process requires
processes to improve anorganization as a whole. only 0.18 tonnes of coal and 100 kWhof power.
There are different varieties of cement
2.1 LM primarily focuses on eliminating waste based on different compositions accordingto
There are currently 8different types of wastes specific end uses, namely, Ordinary Portland
identified by the pioneers of LM and they are listed Cement, Portland PozzolanaCement, White
below.[5] Cement, Portland Blast Furnace Slag Cement and
1. Overproduction: Producing parts or SpecializedCement. The basic difference lies in the
components which there are no customerorders for, percentage of clinker used.
which results in unnecessary holding costs, raw
materials used,labour costs etc. 2.3Cement Manufacturing Process:
2. Waiting (time on hand): Workers that are
waiting for a machine to perform atask, tools or
parts to be issued etc.
3. Unnecessary transport or conveyance: Refers
to carrying Work-in-Progress(WIP) over long
distances, raw materials are located in the wrong
areas of aplant and needs to be moved long
distances..
4. Over processing or incorrect processing: Parts
that needs to be reproduced dueto wrong tooling
equipment, defect parts, producing a wrong product
at thewrong time.
5. Excess inventory: Excess raw material, WIP or
finished goods causing longerlead times,
obsolescence, damaged goods, transportation and
storage costs.
6. Unnecessary movement: Wasted motion where Chart -1: Process layout of Cement Plant
workers have to look for tools ormaterial, searching
for lost material as well as materials that are moved 2.4 Global Consumption
from oneplace to another unnecessary. The demand for cement is a derived
7. Defects: Production of defective parts or demand, as it depends on industrial activity,real
correction and repair or rework of partsdue to estate, and construction activity. Since growth is
redesigns. taking place all over the world, in these sectors, the
8. Unused employee creativity: Losing time, global consumption is also increasing. During
employee ideas and creativity by notengaging with theperiod from 2008 to 20012, total cement
your employees. [4] consumption grew from 2,568 milliontonnes to
2,8572 million tonnes, at a Compounded Annual
2.2 Cement Production Growth Rate (CAGR)of close to 7%.The rapid
The manufacturing process of cement increase in global cement consumption is led by
consists of mixing, drying and grinding increasing demand forinfrastructure in emerging
oflimestone, clay and silica into a composite mass. economies, with Asia accounting for 66% of the
The mixture is then heated andburnt in a pre-heater globaldemand. China was the world’s largest
and kiln to be cooled in an air-cooling system to consumer of cement in 2012 andaccounted for
formclinker, which is the semi-finished form. This
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48.7% of total cement consumption.India was

second largest consumer of cement and account for
40.23 %of total cement consumption

Chart -3 Top 10 Major players in cement industry

SOURCE: Prowess, CMIE [4]

Table 1: Wastes within the Cement Production

The Cement production Line
Fig -1: SOURCE: Consumption, exports and GDP Overproduction
Wastes is clearly
data from USGS, ITC and IMF, respectively* Overproduction present within the cement
Since, the cement consumption was not readily manufacturing process
available, in the calculations above, cement resulting in very high levels
consumption data has been calculated by deducting of WIP batch
between
country’s cement exports from its total cement Waiting Different sizes sub-
are
processes (Das, 1987).
associated with the cement
production.
production line create waiting
2.5 Global Production wastes which affect flow of
Cement is produced in 156 countries materials. Furthermore the
Motion The worker+s travel long
unplanned
across the Globe. During 2008, the
destinations
maintenance can be between one of
globalproduction capacity of cement stood at
different
the mainworkstations
sources of waiting
around 2,872 million tonnes with Chinaaccounting
Transportation Materials need
waste within the to be
for approximately 1,400 million tones and India a
transported for a long journey
cement industry.
distant second withtotal production of 183 million
starting from quarry siteto the
tonnes. The production of Cement is highly
cement silos. In addition the
skewedwith top ten countries together accounting
layout of the cement factory
for close to 70% of total cementproduction. These
Inventory may
Cement industry is one of the
countries account for close to 70% of total
cause transportation
industries with wastes.
largest
population.
inventories and WIP.
Non-standardisation
Over processing Unnecessary long time and is
batch for
spent size verities
milling can and
the hard be
amongparticles
large the causes of
Defects excessive
High inventories
levels of recirculation
situation. are associated with
(rework)
the both raw milling and
finish grinding processes

 Between 2010 and 2014, demand for housing

units is estimated to be 4.3 million, leading to
a higher demand for cement for homebuilding
 It plans to increase investment in infrastructure
to USD1 trillion in the 12th Five Year Plan
Chart -2 Word Cement Production (2012–17), compared with USD514 billion
Source: US geological survey [4] under the 11th Five Year Plan (2007–12)

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 Growing urbanisation, an increasing number of IV. RESEARCH METHOD & RESULTS

households and higher employment are The research aims will be accomplished through
primarily driving the demand for housing. achieving the following objectives:
 Initiatives by the government are expected to 1. Collect and verify the required data that
provide an impetus to construction activity in needed to build-up a simulation model
rural and semi-urban areas through large representing cement factory. The simulation
infrastructure and housing development model will give a visual image of the cement
projects production line, highlight the value and non-
value activities, and help in decision making
III. EXPECTED MOVEMENT IN process which improves the line efficiency.
ADDITIONAL CAPACITY 2. Identify variables and factors, which one has a
REQUIREMENT great influence or effect on the efficiency of
Installed capacity increased at a CAGR of the production line.
13.6 per cent over FY06-11 while production 3. Attempt to improve and enhance the
witnessed an increase of 9.1 per cent during this performance parameters through eliminating or
period reducing wastes within the cement production
→Total capacity of 331 MT is estimated to have line.
been created in FY12 4. In order to achieve (1) and (2) , it is very
→The strong momentum in capacity addition is not important to identify cement production line
surprising given the sharp growth in construction, performance parameters which yield an
infrastructure and real estate in the Indian economy immediate positive feedback.
→It is hence not surprising that the 12th Five Year
Planestimates additional capacity requirement to First Step: Data Collection
touch 139.7 MT by FY17 This is initial step to identify the required data
which is help in production process. Review of
Additional capacity creation as per the 12th Five published literature.
Year Plan The research identified different factors that are
associated with or play an important role in the
effectiveness of the cement production line.
Visits were arranged for data collection of the
cement production line process from two selected
sites.
1. Birla cements works.Chanderia ,Chittorgarh
Annual installed capacity ( Milliontonnes )-
2.00 FY2012
2. 2.Adityabirla cement industry (Ultra tech
cement) Shambhupura ,Chittorgarh(Raj.).
Annual installed capacity ( Milliontonnes )-
5.00
3. J.K.CementNimbahera
Annual installed capacity ( Milliontonnes )-3.30
Interviews were made with production
manager , line operators, coaches and production
Source: CMA, Kotak Institutional Equities, Aranca manager of both of factors. The obtained data were
Research used to develop the simulation modelling elements
Notes: Additional capacity creation estimates are and validate the obtained results.
based on increase in base lines, roads, housing and Interview with Industry
fiscal support [6] RepresentativeIndia is the second largest producer
of cement in the world and the increased focus on
Birla cement is India's largest exporter of infrastructure and affordable housing is expected to
cement clinker spanning export markets in significantlyincrease the production capacity of
countries across the Indian Ocean, Africa, Europe cement in India over the next few years.
and the Middle East. UltraTech and its subsidiaries However, before this happens statutory
have a presence in five countries through 11 issues related to project executionand greater
integrated plants, one white cement plant, one private and foreigninvestment, would require to be
clinkerisation plant, 15 grinding units, two rail and simplified,says Mr. Sumit Banerjee, Chairman, CII
three coastal terminals, and 101 RMC plants. It has Cement Industry Division & MD,ACC Ltd
an annual capacity of 52 MT
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The Housing segment accounts for a major portion Collection after 43200 minutes
of the total domestic demand for cement in India Period:
Probability Triangular distribution was
Second step: The required data that needed to distribution: chosen to be the probability
build-up a simulation model representing cement distribution type within the
factory undertaken research as it
The simulation modelling has become a provides an acceptable trade-
very popular analysis approach which can be off between accuracy results
applied within a wide variety of disciplines such as (Khalil et al, 2008
service domain, production lines, health and care
firms, and social sciences. V. IMPLEMENTATION OF LEAN IN
Computational modelling technique can
CONTINUOUS PROCESS-BASED
significantly contribute to a high-performance
product development system. The simulation
INDUSTRIES
The research identified several variables
techniques provide the decision-maker with a quick
and factors, which control and govern the cement
feedback on ideas, result in a faster convergence of
production line. To investigate the nature of the
designs and ensure integration among different
interrelationship between these factors,
modules (Dennis et al, 2000). The appropriately
brainstorming sessions were carried out with
use of simulation technique can strongly contribute
industry experts and led to the development of
to identifying and solving problems at a faster rate
Cause-Effect matrices identifying non-relations,
(Carley, 2002). Fowler (2003) has mentioned that
indirect-relations, and direct-relations between the
the simulation model is able to create causal
variables. During the brainstorming sessions many
structures and analyze real-world
creative ideas were generated and evaluated. This
organizationalbehaviours in order to identify
led to an agreed list of most effective variables,
sources of variation, wastes, and problems that may
their interrelationships and their effects on
occur within the system. The simulation technique
production.
provides a powerful digital modelling methodology
Subsequent to the determination of
and helps to identify the right improvement
variables and factors that control each process
opportunity within the firm (Cho et al 2005). [8]
within the cement production line; all
The model included the following
interrelationships types between these variables
working areas:
were identified using cause and effect matrices. [7]
 Raw milling working area, which includes raw
materials store, mill feed building, raw milling
workstation, and raw meal silo.
 Thermo-chemical working area, which
includes the kiln system and clinker storage
area
 Cement grinding working area, which includes
finish grinding workstation, packing house,
and cement silos. [3]

Table -2 The Simulation Model Produced had the

Following Properties:
Plant Running The simulation model runs
Time for 43200 minutes
(equivalent to one month (30
days) of real timeoperation).
Working Shift The plant works on non-stop
base, i.e. 24 hours per day.

Well The factory is planned to

maintained schedule maintenance
Schedule stoppage for six weeks per
year, i.e. theActual Available
Time for the three working
areas is 46 weeks per a year.
Results The results will be collected

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The reduction of the cycle time can be

obtained by eliminating or minimizing all kinds of
wastes and non-valueadded activities within the
given system

VI. FORMULA USED

Equipment Utilization[Jambekar, 2000). Lee et al
(1994]
% Utilization =(available time– unused time) x 100

Available.time

Available time = Monthly Available time (MAT)

43200mins
Unused time = PMT + BT
PMT= Planned maintenance time
BT=Break down time
Therefore the percentage of machine utilisation can
be determined as[Braiden et al, 1996].
% Machine Utilization = MAT – (PMT+BT) x 100

MAT
Throughput (tons)= SRT - BT [Hopp et al, (2001)]

CT
Where:
SRT =Schedule running time
Breakdown time (BT in mins)
Cycle time (CT in mins per ton)

VII. EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS –

Similarly preparation Connectivity Matrix for Raw AFTER IMPLEMENTING LEAN,
Milling Process. IMPROVEMENT IN PRODUCTION
(IN TONS) ]
Table-3:Dry Raw Milling Process Variable Levels Throughput beforeWIP Reduction
Raw Milling Level 1 Level 2 Level 3 Throughput After WIP Reduction
Process
Factors Series 1
Air flow rate 7200 7300 7400 Series 2
(cm3/min)
30000
Recirculation 20 25 30
rate (% of
25000
feeding rate)
Production in tons

Material 14 18 22 20000
moisture
content (% of 15000
weight)
Material grind- Easy Normal Hard 10000
ability
Material bed 5 7 8
depth (cm) 5000
Product 3850 3950 4020
fineness 0
(cm3/g) 3900 0 4 8 12 16 22 26 30
3950 4000
Separator 65 70 80 No. of Experiments
speed (rpm)

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VIII. CONCLUSIONS
The effects of reducing WIP for the rest of
the cement production line clearlydemonstrating
the potential efficiency gains that could be made by
implementing lean in the cement industry.
The research used cement production, a
typical example of a continuous process industry,
where massproduction is currently adopted using
inflexible and expensive machines to produce,
transport, and accumulate largeamounts of
materials within each working area. Results from
the simulated experiments carried out showed how
leanchanges could produce significant positive
benefits to key performance measures and were
validated by industry experts.3

REFERENCES
[1]. www.outlook.com(Outlook 2015)
[2]. www.leanmanufacture.net (Best
Management Articles)
[3]. Khalil R.A., Stockton D.J., ,International
Journal of Mechanical Engineering
(IJME) Vol.1, Nov.2012
[4]. Cement Industry in India: Trade
PerspectivesUS geological survey.
Prowess, CMIE
[5]. LIKER, J. K. 2004. The Toyota Way: 14
Management principles. United States
ofAmerica: CWL Publishing. 330p.
[6]. ICR-GlobalCement Report 8th
Edition,CMA, Kotak Institutional
Equities, Aranca Research
[7]. www.simul8.com.
[8]. Carreira, B., 2005, Lean Manufacturing
that works: powerfull tools for
dramatically reducing waste
andmiximizing profits, 2nd edition,
AMACOM, New York, USA, pp. 49-61.

www.ijera.com 58|P a g e
Proceedings of the 2012 Industrial and Systems Engineering Research Conference
G. Lim and J.W. Herrmann, eds.

Implementing Lean Manufacturing in the Sewing Industry

Mohammed S. Obeidat, Z.J. Pei
Industrial and Manufacturing Systems Engineering Department
Kansas State University
Manhattan, KS 66502, U.S.A.

Raid Al-Aomar
College of Engineering & Computer Science
Abu Dhabi University
Abu Dhabi, U.A.E.

Abstract

Lean manufacturing has been adopted in a number of industries including electronics, automotive, and consumer
products manufacturing. Several industries are questioning the applicability of lean manufacturing principles. One
such industry is sewing industry. This research is focused on extending the scope of lean application by
implementing lean manufacturing in sewing industry. A sewing factory is selected for a case study. Characteristics
of sewing are first identified. Value Stream Mapping is developed to identify wastes. Five types of wastes are
identified and analyzed in one sewing production line: defects, inventory, overproduction, transportation, and
waiting time. Applied lean techniques include line balancing, layout redesign, and quality-at-the-source. The
impacts of these techniques on production are analyzed and an improved future state VSM is developed. Results
show a reduction of 96% in production wastes and 43% in lead time.

Keywords: Lean manufacturing, value stream mapping, sewing industry, waste reduction

1. Introduction
In a highly competitive global marketplace characterized by decreasing profit margins, waste reduction has become
an essential element in companies’ effort to thrive or in some cases to just survive. Muda is a Japanese word for
waste, “specifically any human activity that absorbs resources but creates no value” [1]. Wastes include defects,
inventory, overproduction, transportation, waiting time, overprocessing, and excessive motion [2]. The cost of such
wastes contributes to the total production cost, reduces profits, and decreases competitiveness.

One of the initiatives that companies have been trying to implement to maintain competitive in the global market is
lean manufacturing. The main focus of lean manufacturing is on cost reduction by eliminating or reducing wastes.
Lean manufacturing has been spanned in many sectors including electronics, automotive, and consumer products
manufacturing. Examples can be found in [3-5]. Sewing industry is one important section of textile industry. It
includes a wide range of operations such as cutting fabric, using different machines to assemble fabric pieces,
attaching different accessories such as buttons, checking, and packaging. Details on sewing can be found in [6, 7].

This paper reports implementation of lean in sewing industry. A case-based approach is used to identify the different
key wastes in sewing industry and to prescribe suitable lean techniques to reduce wastes, and result in better overall
financial and operational performance. A sewing plant in Jordan referred to as AB sewing throughout the paper is
used as a case study. The study is focused on one production line that produces one product. Value stream map
(VSM) is firstly used to map the current state of the line and to identify different types of wastes in sewing process.
Formulas are developed to quantify each type of waste and guide the improvement. Relevant lean techniques are
applied to reduce wastes. Future state VSM is then developed to illustrate the improvement achieved. Actual results
are used to verify lean benefits.
 Obeidat, Pei, and Al-Aomar

2. Case Study Description

One production line in AB sewing factory is selected, it’s the line that produces V436 product (V436 line). The
monthly demand for this product is 37500 pieces. Because time can be either value added (VA) or non-value added
(NVA), it is important to differentiate between three time phenomena in our study. The first one is cycle time: which
has the same definition of time standard: “the time required to produce a product at a work station with the
following three conditions: (1) a qualified, well-trained operator, (2) working at normal pace, and (3) doing a
specific task” [8]. The second one is lead time: the amount of time between ordering a product and receiving it, it
includes both the VA and the NVA times. The last one is the takt time: the available time for production divided by
the customer demand [8]. Each sewing operation in this line has a specific cycle time (OCT) that was initially
measured according to motion and time studies (MTS). Figure 1 shows V436 line details. To implement lean
techniques in sewing process, it is essential to define some important process measures and quantify cost of
processing. Sewing is a labor intensive process that highly laded on the skills of manual workers [9]. Line
productivity is related to the number of line workers (LW), and to product cycle time (PCT). To increase
productivity of workers, a line target (LT) is set to each production line in the sewing plant. Line supervisor is
responsible to meet the line target. LT represents the number of units required during an 8 hours shift per day.
Consequently, LT can be calculated using Equation 1.


  

 (1)


Figure 1: V436 line details (process, machine type, and cycle time)

Similarly, operation target (OT) can be calculated based on the number of workers in the operation (OW) and
operation cycle time (OCT). OT is calculated for a shift of 8 hours as expressed in Equation 2. Worker produced
quantity (WPQ) which was used to calculate workers efficiency (WE) is calculated based on Equation 3.


  
 (2)

 Obeidat, Pei, and Al-Aomar

!
    100% (3)


The company costing system expresses production cost in term of time spent by products in sewing processes. Each
hour spent on product processing or handling cost an amount (Ch) which is $3.54/ hour. Wastes are also converted
into time. The processing cost (PC) for a quantity (Q) for any product on a sewing line is determined by Equation 4.
!(
%&& '&
%' (4)


3. VSM: Current State Map

Value stream is the combination of all actions that are required to fulfill a customer order [10]. Value stream map
(VSM) includes main processes starting from receiving order(s), coordinating with the required supplier(s), passing
through processes of production and inspection, and ending with shipping to customer [9, 11]. The main goal of
VSM is to highlight the different sources of all types of wastes, and to develop solutions to eliminate or reduce them
[11]. In constructing a VSM, a particular product or product family with a high production volume must be selected
for process improvement [10]. The next step is to draw the current state VSM that represents the current
performance [10]. This can be achieved by following all processes related to the selected product aiming to find
different types of wastes. The final step is to develop and design the future state VSM, which represents the
improved picture of processes after implementing lean techniques [10]. Readers may refer to [11] for more details
about VSM.

All data for the current state VSM for V436 line were collected, starting from receiving and analyzing customer
orders, and ending with shipping. The overall collected data include ordering amounts and their frequency, materials
flow, information flow, inventory level, and shipping time and capacity. Specific data at each production operation
include cycle time, number of workers in each operation, daily available time, and inventory levels between
operations. Data is collected through direct observation, from production manager, line supervisor, and workers.

Figure 2 represents the current state VSM for V436 line. Production operations are mapped using a data box for
each operation. The number at the top of each data box represents operation number based on Figure 1. Inventory
triangles represent the level of materials between operations. Arrows in the map represent the flow of information
between the plant sections. The timeline at the bottom of the current state VSM has two components; one for delay
(in days) and the other is the operation cycle time (in minutes). Inventory is converted into NVA time by dividing
inventory level in front of each operation by the daily demand. For example, in Figure 2, the inventory level in front
of operation 2 is 827 pieces, and the daily demand from V436 product is 1500 pieces, so the NVA time is 0.551 day.
Another source of NVA time is the quality inspection time. In AB sewing there are two final quality inspections, one
for product quality (inspecting samples from product lots), and the other is the packaging quality (inspecting 100%
product packaging). The total NVA time for V436 line is 5.31 days, VA time is 5.48 minutes, and the total lead time
is 5.322 days.

3.1 Sewing Process Wastes in the Current VSM

Plant observation combined with a detailed analysis of the current state VSM had led to detecting five types of
wastes (defects, inventory, overproduction, transportation, and waiting time). They were observed over a period of
one month (30 days) of production to characterize their nature and quantify their impact using lean measures.
Formulas are developed to translate these wastes into cost values, and to guide the development of future state VSM.
Following is a description and assessment for them.

3.1.1 Defects
Defects can be defined as “frequent errors in paperwork or materials, product quality problems resulting in scrap or
rework, as well as poor delivery performance” [12]. Defects in AB sewing plant are measured using two daily
measures: the quality level percent (QL%) and the rejection percent (R%). Equations 5 and 6 describe how both
measures are obtained, respectively. QL% is used in the plant to give management an idea about quality level in the
company. According to Equation 5, for each product, the size of all samples being inspected during a day are added
together, the number of defects found in these samples is recorded and totaled, and at the end of the day QL% is
obtained by dividing the total number of defects by the total size of samples. In AB sewing plant, sample size is
determined by management according to the quantity lot size that needs to be checked. For example, if 5 samples for
the same product were inspected with a size of 150 pieces each, the total sample size will be 750 pieces, and if 15
 Obeidat, Pei, and Al-Aomar

I I I I I I I I

Figure 2: Current state VSM for V436 line

 Obeidat, Pei, and Al-Aomar

defective pieces from those five samples were found, the QL% will be 2% by dividing the total number of defects
(15) by the total size of samples (750). Based on Equation 6, for each product, the sizes of all lots being inspected in
a day are added together, the sizes of all lots being rejected (if any) is added together, and R% is obtained by
dividing the total rejected lots by the total lots being inspected in the same day. For example, if 4 lots from V436
product with 750 pieces each were inspected, (3000) in total, and if one of those lots was rejected by final quality
inspection, then R% will be the result of dividing the rejected lot size (750) by the total size of the 4 lots (3000) to be
25%. Defects cost (DC) is calculated based on Equation 7. These lots need to be repaired by operations 10 and 12
with a 0.85 minute cycle time in total. Table 1 shows the current defects waste and their cost.

∑0
123 ./
)*+
+,+ % )
% ∑0
 100% (5)
123 .

∑0
123 6!
45
 % 4% ∑0
 100% (6)
123 !

6!689
7
'&
7'  ': (7)


Where SD is sample defective pieces, S is the sample size, RQ is the size of the rejected lot, LQ is the lot size, and
RCT is the total operations cycle time involved in reworking.

Table 1: Quality measures and defects waste

Rejected quantity Quality level % Rejection % Defect cost ($)
3053 4.93 13.32 153.11

3.1.2 Inventory
Inventory is defined by “more materials, parts or products on hand than the customer needs” [5]. The actual
inventory level during the period of studying for V436 line is shown in the current state VSM in Figure 2. These
amounts are converted into NVA time by dividing each inventory quantity (IQ) by the customer daily demand (D),
and then converted into cost using Equation 8. Table 2 shows the NVA time cost due to inventory during the study
period.
<!
;,
 &
;'  8  ': (8)
/

Table 2: Inventory waste cost

Inventory quantity Daily demand NVA time (days) Inventory cost ($)
7404 1500 4.936 139.78

3.1.3 Overproduction
Overproduction is producing items that are no more demanded [1]. In quantifying overproduction waste during the
study period, the daily operations production (Q) was monitored and recorded. Overproduction quantities can be
calculated by subtracting the daily operation’s target (OT) that being calculated based on Equation 2 from the daily
operation’s production. A Positive result means there is an overproduction. Operations that had overproduction
during the study period were 4 and 9 with overproduction quantities of 10330 and 11310, respectively. The
overproduction cost is calculated using Equation 9. Table 3 shows the overproduction cost.

!?
,>*
 &
'  ': (9)


Table 3: Overproduction waste cost

Overproduction (hour) Cost ($)
183.21 648.72

3.1.4 Transportation
Transportation waste is defined by “excessive movement of people, information or goods, resulted in wasted time
and cost” [12]. Figure 3 shows the current layout of V436 line in the study period, where numbers inside boxes are
 Obeidat, Pei, and Al-Aomar

related to operations number in Figure 1. To quantify transportation waste, movement number in the line can be
assumed if we know worker number in the first operation (Ni-1) and in the next one (Ni) as in Equation 10.

 @,@
& *@A 
BC ∑F
DGE CD?E  CD (10)

Based on Equation 10, the total workers movements to produce one batch from V436 product was 37. This was also
calculated referring to Figure 1. To measure the waste associated with transportation, the predetermined time
standard system was used to determine the movement time. During the study period, we noticed that the walking
distance was around 4.5 meters per batch. We considered worker’s walking distance only and neglected other
components of movement such as reaching, and grasping. In the predetermined time standard system, walking 3.048
meters requires 0.04 minute [8]. As a result, 0.0591 minute is required for walking 4.5 meters. The cost of moving
one batch can be obtained using Equation 11. The batch size was 25 pieces. Equation 12 explains the process of
calculating transportation cost. AB sewing management assumes 50% of transportation in lines as waste, because
workers went to pick a batch with free hands and come back loaded. Table 4 shows the transportation cost.
JFK/LMN
H
I
&

 &
H'  ': (11)


'&

&

 ' H'  CH (12)

Where; AWD is the average walking distance by worker, TAWD is the time during the AWD in minutes, and NB is
the number of transported batches.

Figure 3: V436 line current layout

Table 4: Transportation waste cost

Production Number of batches Batch transportation cost ($) Transportation cost ($) Waste ($)
13350 534 0.581 310.25 155.13

3.1.5 Waiting Time

Waiting time waste is defined by “long period of inactivity for people, information or goods, resulting in a poor flow
and longer lead-times” [12]. During the study period in the sewing line, buffers were used to absorb fluctuation in
production stream throughout the line. To quantify this waste, worker produced quantity (WPQ) at each operation is
recorded and compared by the operation target (OT). Waiting time cost is computed for each operation using
Equation 13 where i refer to the operation number. Table 5 shows the cost of waiting time waste.

!?
W

@ &
' ∑EO
DGE  ': (13)


Table 5: Waiting time waste

Waiting time (hour) Cost ($)
2230 7897

4. Applying Lean Techniques

Lean techniques are focused on reducing different types of wastes. A set of relevant lean techniques that can suit to
the nature of sewing industry is implemented to develop the future state map of V436 line. Observing the actual line
behavior during the 30 days had showed a huge glare for the key issues of the sewing plant such as unbalanced line
operations, ineffective process layout, frequent defective units, flow delays, and lack of an effective monitoring
scheme. Process observation resulted in selecting three important lean techniques to treat plant issues. These lean
techniques were line balancing, layout redesign, and quality-at-the-source. Following is a brief summary on
implementing these techniques in sewing plant.
 Obeidat, Pei, and Al-Aomar

4.1 Line Balancing

Table 6 shows operations cycle times, operation target per day if only one worker used based on Equation 2, and the
required worker(s) to fulfill the daily demand (1500 pieces/ day). Number of workers is calculated based on
Equation 14 that was modified to calculate for each operation. The total required number of workers to produce the
daily demand based on the daily available time and product cycle time is 17.14 workers. Decimal means workers
can be shared in more than one operation. According to the required number of workers as shown in Table 6, no
bottleneck in V436 line will be found because of selecting only the required number of workers to produce the
required daily demand and this will result in reducing overproduction, Inventory, and waiting time wastes.
/

 P *@A 
C (14)


Table 6: Line balancing details

Operation 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
Cycle time (minute) 0.43 0.40 0.80 0.67 0.26 0.36 0.72 0.18 0.36 0.60 0.45 0.25
Operation target (1 worker) 1116 1200 600 716 1846 1333 666 2666 1333 800 1066 1920
Required worker(s) 1.34 1.25 2.50 2.10 0.81 1.13 2.25 0.56 1.13 1.88 1.41 0.78

4.2 Layout Redesign

Based on the line balancing results, the actual production flow shown in Figure 1, and our study period information;
a new line layout was developed as shown in Figure 4. Each operation was located in a specific place to make a
serial production flow and to enhance cellular manufacturing. Product flow, transportation and cross linking
between operations were considered and minimized in the implemented layout. In the current state, for each 3-4
sewing lines, a packaging line located in the side of the sewing hall for packaging these lines products. For reducing
transportation, the packaging line was divided into operations distributed into sewing lines in the hall. This enhanced
the implementation of the cellular manufacturing, and reduces workers movements to the minimum. Transportation
waste was also reduced by discarding large buffers between operations, and installing part bins instead to each
machine in the operation for storing materials and work in process (WIP). This allowed sewing workers, especially
in serial operations, to be loaded with work while they are setting in their operations.

Figure 4: V436 improved layout

4.3 Quality-at-the-Source
A new quality policy was implemented aiming to increase quality level by focusing on products quality in the
sewing line rather than relying on quality procedures after packaging. To this end, workers were trained to inspect
one piece out of five at their operations; this procedure was easy for them because each one is an expert in his or her
operation. Moreover, workers were convinced to call their supervisor or quality monitor (the one responsible on
selecting samples from all operations hourly) if there is any defective piece passed to them from any operation
before. In addition, line supervisor was asked not only to meet production level, but also to select samples from all
workers randomly from all operations. Furthermore, we installed a new final quality inspection inside the line; the
function of this is to select a sample from the finished products before sending them to packaging, which had a good
effect in reducing reworking time for rejected lots, and increasing the control on quality.

5. Lean VSM: Future State Maps

The process of designing future state VSM starts when developing the current state VSM, where critical areas that
required improvement start to shine [10]. While considering the current state map for V436 line, several issues were
standing out: large WIP, and the difference between lead time and VA time. Based on lean improvement discussed
earlier, we constructed the new future state VSM for V436 line as shown in Figure 5.
 Obeidat, Pei, and Al-Aomar

Figure 5: Line V436 future state VSM

 Obeidat, Pei, and Al-Aomar

5.1 Sewing Process Wastes in the Future VSM

After implementing lean techniques to the line in AB sewing, we selected another month (30 days) to measure
results. Results of lean implementing were quantified by reassessing the five identified wastes in the line based on
the future state VSM. Following is a summary of this assessment.

5.1.1 Defects
This waste was reduced by implementing quality-at-the-source approach, where quality became everyone’s
responsibility in the plant. During the improvement period, both quality level percent and rejection percent had been
reduced. Table 7 shows the quality measures and the cost of quality during the period of study after improvement;
reworking time includes operations 10 and 12 times (0.85 minute) as shown in Figure 1.

Table 7: Quality measures and defects waste

Rejected quantity Quality level % Rejection % Defect cost ($)
630 3.66 3.26 32.19

5.1.2 Inventory
The applied lean techniques contributed together to reducing inventory waste. Lead time reduction was the main
benefit. Implemented lean techniques assisted in the reduction of WIP as well. Table 8 shows the NVA time due to
inventory and its cost based on Equation 8.

Table 8: Inventory waste cost

Inventory quantity Daily demand NVA time (days) Inventory cost ($ per month)
3941 1500 2.627 74.41

5.1.3 Overproduction
Line balancing and layout redesign played a great role in reducing overproduction cost. The monthly overproduction
quantities were identified in operations 1, 3, 5, 6, 9, and 11 with quantities of 1004, 13, 470, 678, 685, and 137,
respectively. According to Equation 9, the new overproduction cost is shown in Table 9.

Table 9: Overproduction waste cost

Overproduction (hour) Cost ($)
18.61 65.88

5.1.4 Transportation
Transportation waste was reduced by implementing line balancing and layout redesign lean techniques. Line layout
was improved by sequencing sewing operations according to the result of line balancing and the flow of product
shown in Figure 1. In the improvement period, workers walked about 1 meter on average to pick a batch, and
according to the predetermined time standard system, 0.013 minute is required to walk this distance [8]. We used the
management information mentioned before about plant transportation, the average batch size that used in the plant
was 25, and the least number of movements remains 37. Table 10 shows the transportation waste cost based on
Equation 11.

Table 10: Transportation waste cost

Production Number of batches Batch transportation cost ($) Transportation cost ($) Waste ($)
45013 1800 0.018 32.4 16.2

5.1.5 Waiting Time

Line balancing and layout redesign resulted in reducing waiting time waste. Furthermore, inventory reduction
contributed to waiting time reduction. Waiting time cost is recalculated based on Equation 13 as shown in Table 11.

Table 11: Waiting time waste

Waiting time (hour) Cost ($)
29.56 104.64
 Obeidat, Pei, and Al-Aomar

6. Conclusions
This study shows a great evidence of the applicability of lean manufacturing implementation in sewing industry. In
this study, lean manufacturing implementation resulted in a 96% saving in the wastes cost comparing to before
implementing lean techniques, as shown in Table 12. Moreover, Lean manufacturing implementation in sewing
resulted in reducing process lead time, 43% reduction in process lead time was obtained after lean manufacturing
implementation, as shown in Table 13.

The most effective lean techniques in sewing are layout redesign, line balancing, and quality-at-the-source. These
techniques might work together to reduce five types of wastes in sewing: defects, inventory, overproduction,
transportation, and waiting time.

Table 12: Waste comparison before and after lean implementation

Waste Cost before ($) Cost after ($) Saving (before-after) ($) Saving %
Defect 153.11 32.19 120.92 79
Inventory 139.78 74.41 65.37 47
Overproduction 648.72 65.88 582.84 90
Transportation 155.13 16.20 138.93 90
Waiting time 7897.00 104.64 7792.36 99
Total 8993.74 293.32 8700.42 96

Table 13: Lead time comparison before and after lean implementation
Lead time (days) before Lead time (days) after Reduction %
5.322 3.04 43

References
1. Womack, J., and Jones, D., 2003, Lean Thinking: Banish Waste and Create Wealth in Your Corporation,
Free Press, New York.
2. Svensson, G., 2001, “Just-In-Time: The Reincarnation of Past Theory and Practice,” Management
Decision, 39(10), pp. 866-879.
3. Rajenthirakumar, D., and Thyla, P., 2011, “Transformation to Lean Manufacturing by an Automative
Component Manufacturing Company,” International Journal of Lean Thinking (in press).
4. Holweg, M., 2007, “The Genealogy of Lean Production,” Journal of Operations Management, 25, 420-437.
5. Taj, S., and Berro, L., 2006, “Application of Constrained Management and Lean Manufacturing in
Developing Best Practices for Productivity Improvement in an Auto-Assembly Plant,” International Journal
of Productivity and Performance Management, 55(3/4), 332-345.
6. Shaeffer, C., 2000, Sewing for the Apparel Industry, Prentice Hall, New Jersy.
7. Rosenau, J., and Wislson, D., 2001, Apparel Merchandising: The Line Starts Here, FairChild Publications,
Inc., New York.
8. Meyers, F., and Stewart, J., 2002, Motion and Time Study for Lean Manufacturing, 3rd Edition, Prentice
Hall, New Jersey.
9. Obeidat, M., and Al-Aomar, R., 2011, “Adopting Lean Techniques in Textile Industry: A Sewing Plant
Case Study,” ALHOSN University Journal of Engineering and Applied Sciences, 4(1), 33-53.
10. Abdulmalek, F., and Rajgopal, J., 2007, “Analyzing the Benifits of Lean Manufacturing and Value Stream
Mapping Via Simulation: A Process Sector Case Study,” International Journal of Production Economics,
107, 223-236.
11. Rother, M. and Shook, J., 1999, Learning to See: Value Stream Mapping to Add Value and Eliminate
MUDA, The Lean Enterprise Institute, Inc., Brookline, MA.
12. Sullivan, W., McDonald, T., and Van Aken, E., 2002, “Equipment Replacement Decisions and Lean
Manufacturing,” Robotics and Computer-Integrated Manufacturing, 18(3-4), 255-265.

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Mohd Shoeb. Int. Journal of Engineering Research and Application www.ijera.com
ISSN : 2248-9622, Vol. 7, Issue 6, (Part -4) June 2017, pp.41-46

RESEARCH ARTICLE OPEN ACCESS

Implementation of Lean Manufacturing System for Successful

Production System in Manufacturing Industries
Mohd Shoeb
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Jamia Millia Islamia New Delhi, (India)

ABSTRACT
In manufacturing industries lean manufacturing is a broadly accepted philosophy. There are more requirements
of research and studies. To investigate the needs, techniques, benefits of lean manufacturing and approaches for
implementation Lean manufacturing is a leading manufacturing paradigm has applied in many economy sectors,
where we have to reduce manufacturing cost, improving product quality, reducing cost of poor quality, and
quick to respond and “first to market to customer needs are critical to competitiveness and success. Lean
methods and principle focus on the continuous improvement and engages employees reducing the intensity of
materials, time, and capital necessary for meeting a customer’s needs. Successful implementation of lean
manufacturing is very important to increase quality and waste reduction. By implementation of lean
manufacturing there are various benefits such as waste elimination, reduction in reworking, financial benefits,
lead time reduction and lower inventory levels.
Keywords: Product quality: Lean Production: Cost of poor quality: Continual improvement: Waste elimination.

I. INTRODUCTION The manufacturing industries are identified

Lean manufacturing is most powerful during the production of product there are leaner.
manufacturing systems in the world. Numerous The major green wastes from their disposal methods
plants around the world have attempted to have high influence on environment. These wastes
implement or adopt it to enhance their efficiency [1]. have to be reduced or eliminated by practicing a
It can increase the environmental and economic suitable Green supply chain and lean concept. In
performance inside a supply chain domain. It can present most of the companies doesn’t practice any
help to take into a account for environmental factors supply chain in their organization. The implement of
in the whole process through their collaboration of green supply chain and lean manufacturing could
upstream and downstream enterprises, including decrease the wastes of the industries and
purchase of raw materials, manufacturing of environmental pressures to some extent [16].
intermediate products or finished products, and Lean Manufacturing is a valuable approach
delivery of finished products to end users through to eliminating waste and identifying through
sales network. It appears an environmental continuous improvement. In India manufacturing
innovation in current scenario which integrates industry must look to leverage its advantages, good
environmental concerns. There is the reduction of conditions in terms of raw materials, its large
unwanted material and other resources as it domestic market and skilled labour and the quality
indirectly reduces the amount of waste at focus. “Lean manufacturing” is a leading
manufacturing such as concept of Green supply manufacturing paradigm being applied in many
chain management [11, 13, 22] sectors of the economy, where product quality has
The respondent firms are classified as in- been improved, reduce inventory level, reducing
transition towards lean manufacturing practice. production costs by reducing cost of poor quality,
These in-transition firms have moderate mean values decreased material [2]. Lean manufacturing was
for each of the five lean manufacturing practice developed for maximizing the resource utilization
categories. It is also found that these firms spend through minimization of waste. Later on lean was
more resources and attention in internal areas such formulated in response to the competitive and
as firms’ operation and management, compared to fluctuating business environment. Due to fast
external relationships with customers and suppliers. changing business environment the organizations are
These firms believe that the factors that drive the forced to face complexities and challenges. Any
implementation of lean manufacturing are the desire organization whether service or manufacturing or
to focus on customers and to achieve the oriented to survive may ultimately depend on its
organization’s continuous improvement [4]. ability to systematically and continuously respond to
these changes for enhancing the product value.

www.ijera.com DOI: 10.9790/9622-0706044146 41 | P a g e

 Implementation of Lean Manufacturing System for Successful Production System in Manufacturing Industries

Therefore value adding process is necessary to  Create the Flow

achieve this perfection; hence implementing a lean  Establish Pull
manufacturing system is becoming a core  Seek the Perfection
competency for any type of organizations to sustain
[3]. Today lean manufacturing concept has
The practices and principles of Lean manufacturing apply in many industries including service provider,
are widely used by industries to eliminate waste and healthcare and even military. The organizations
make more efficient process. Lean has been variety that are practicing lean concepts in them goes
recognized as one of the key approaches in to show the universal applicability of lean thinking
enhancing the productivity and hence the or lean concepts. Lean technologies may be unique
competitiveness of an organization is increased [5]. to the implementation but the lean thinking is
universal. Lean can be implemented in engineering,
II. METHODS AND PRINCIPLES OF production, sales, planning, / maintenance,
LEAN MANUFACTURING marketing, store, Research and Development etc
Eight core lean methods are used in Lean [29].
Manufacturing described below:
 Just‐in‐time Production III. SEVEN MAIN WASTAGES IN
 Kaizen INDUSTRY
 5S There are seven main wastages in the manufacturing
 Cellular Manufacturing industries [31]. By removing these wastages
 Total Productive Maintenance (TPM) manufacturing industries increase profit and smooth
 Six Sigma production which are shown in fig 1 and discussed
 One‐piece Flow Production Systems below:
 Pre‐Production Planning Overproduction: Production of products which are
 Kanban above the requirement of customer at that point.
Rejection: The product which is not as per the
Principles requirement is considered as a scrap and waste.
Following are the main basic principles of the lean Transportation: During production when there is
manufacturing:‐ unnecessary movement of the parts which does not
 Identify Value add any value to the product and considered as a
 Map the Value Stream waste.

Fig 1: Different types of Wastes in Industry [30]

Inventory: Stocks of products waiting to be Motion: On the shop Unnecessary movement of

shipped or parts waiting to be finished. Inventory the workers floor is considered as a waste.
of any kind is carried as a waste in the industries.

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 Implementation of Lean Manufacturing System for Successful Production System in Manufacturing Industries

Work in Process (WIP): Over production and  Reduction of paperwork in office areas
waiting time also results of waste. It is also a type  Streamlining of customer service functions so
of waste. that customers are no longer placed on hold
Waiting Time: Unnecessary waiting by the worker  Reduced staffing demands, allowing the same
or the product is waiting to be processed on the number of office staff to handle larger numbers
next work station. It is also considered as a waste. of orders
 Reduction in turnover and the resulting costs
IV. SUCCESSFUL IMPLEMENTATION of attrition
OF LEAN ELEMENTS  Documentation and streamlining of processing
The perfect manufacturing system can be achieved steps, enabling noncritical functions to be
through successful implementation of lean outsourced and allowing the company to focus
elements. For successful implementation of lean, its efforts on customer’s needs
practically need incorporation of all lean elements  Implementation of job standards and pre-
and sequencing of implementation task [3]. Various employment profiling, ensuring the hiring of
successful implementations of lean elements are as: only above-average performers (imagine the
 Scheduling benefit to the organization if everyone
 Takt time performs as well as the top 20%)
 Value stream mapping (VSM)
 Bottleneck process VI. LEAN MANUFACTURING SYSTEM
 Cellular manufacturing (CM) DESIGN AND IMPLEMENTATION
 Group Technology ISSUES
 Line balancing Lean Manufacturing is delivering sustainable
 U-line manufacturing system competitive advantage to organizations as a change
 Flow Manufacturing and improvement strategy it has not been
 Small Lot size/Small Batch successfully implemented in Indian industries at
 Quick Changeover/Single Minute Exchange of large. The philosophy of lean is not new to Indian
Die Industries as but they fail gain sustainable
 Inventory development through proper implementation of
 Production Levelling/ Heijunka Lean manufacturing system. The related issues
 Pull System with One-Piece Flow discussed in detail to have a clear cut idea about the
 Kanban tools and techniques necessarily to implement Lean
 Continuous Improvement (CI)/Kaizen manufacturing system. The management should be
 Quality at source committed to LMS and the roles and
 Standardized Work responsibilities of employees should be well
defined [28].
V. THE BENEFITS OF LEAN
Whether we are looking to cut costs, gain Implementation Issues
a competitive advantage, or remain viable in the There are issues which are necessary for
face of competition that has gone lean, there are the implementation lean manufacturing system
many reasons to adopt lean manufacturing [28].The overview of these issues bring significant
techniques in your company. Lean benefits include business improvements while implementing lean
reduced work-in-process, increased capacity, manufacturing system which are as under:
increased inventory turns, cycle-time reduction,  Lead time reduction
and improved customer satisfaction. According to a  Worker’s (Employee) participation (Total
recent survey [10] of 40 companies that had Employee Involvement - TEI)
adopted lean manufacturing, typical improvements  Inventory reduction
[8].  Quality Improvement (TQM)
 Customer satisfaction
Operational Improvements  Maintenance (TPM) –Less breakdown
 A 90% reduction in lead time (cycle time) maintenance
 An 80% reduction in work-in-process  Vendor development and relationship
inventory  New product (faster introduction)
 A 50% increase in productivity  Improved housekeeping & Material Handling
 A 75% reduction in space utilization  Throughput Time (Better delivery
 An 80% improvement in quality performance)

Administrative Improvements
 Reduction in order processing errors

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 Implementation of Lean Manufacturing System for Successful Production System in Manufacturing Industries

VII. EIGHT TYPE OF typically targeted by environmental management

MANUFACTURING WASTE agencies, such as non-product output and raw
TARGETED BY LEAN METHODS material wastes, are not explicitly included in the
Lean manufacturing methods typically target eight list of manufacturing wastes that lean practitioners
types of waste [9]. These waste types are discussed routinely target.
in Table 1. It is interesting to note that the “wastes”

Table 1. Eight Types of manufacturing waste

S.No Waste type Description References
1 Defects Production of off-specification products, components [20]
or services that result in scrap, rework, replacement
production, inspection, and/or defective materials
2 Over production Manufacturing items for which there are no orders [24]
3 Unnecessary Process steps that are not required to produce the [21]
processing product

4 Waiting Delays associated with stock-outs, lot processing [20]

delays, equipment downtime, capacity bottlenecks
5 Inventory Excess raw material, WIP, or finished goods [25]
6 Complexity More parts, process steps, or time than necessary to [26]
meet customer needs
7 Unused Creativity Failure to tap employees for process [23]
Employee improvement suggestions
8 Movement Human motions that are unnecessary or straining, [27]
and work-in-process (WIP) trans- porting long
distances

VIII. LEAN MANUFACTURING TOOLS  Other waste reduction techniques (such as

AND TECHNIQUES setup reduction, zero defects, line balancing
There are various tools and techniques used to etc.)
enhance lean manufacturing system which are as:  PDCA Cycle etc.
 Cellular manufacturing
 Muda, Muri & Mura IX. SUCCESSFUL IMPLEMENTATION OF
 Pull production LEAN MANUFACTURING SYSTEM IN
 Just-In-Time MANUFACTURING INDUSTRIES
 Standardization of work According to Black and Hunter [10] the steps are
 Kaizen (Continuous improvement) numbered and the order of implementation should
 Production smoothing exactly follow the step order. The ten steps and a
 Total Productive Maintenance brief description are given in Table 2:
 Pokayoke

Table 2: Successful implementation of LMS in Manufacturing Industries

S.No Steps Description References
1 Reengineering the Restructure/reorganize fabrication and assembly [19]
Manufacturing systems into cells that produce families of
System parts/products. The cells should have one-piece parts
movement within cells and small-lot movement
between cells, achieved by creating a linked-cell
system.
2 Setup Reduction and Setup time for a cell should be less than manual time, [6]
Elimination or the time a worker needs to load, unload, inspect,
deburr etc.
3 Integrate Quality The operation should be “Make-one, check-one, and [18]
Control into move-on-one” type; and the quality of products output
Manufacturing from the system should be 100%.

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 Implementation of Lean Manufacturing System for Successful Production System in Manufacturing Industries

4 Integrate Preventive There should be no equipment failure and the workers [17]
Maintenance into should be trained to perform routine low level process
Manufacturing maintenance.
5 Level, Balance, Fluctuations in final assembly should be eliminated, [15]
Sequence and output from cells should be equal to the necessary
Synchronize demand for parts downstream and the cycle time
should be equal to takt (available production time
divided by customer demand) time for final assembly.
6 Integrate Production Cells respond to demand by delivering parts and [12]
Control into products only as they are needed, or just in time.
Manufacturing
7 Reduce Work-In- Minimize the necessary WIP between cells, and parts [14]
Process (WIP) are handled one at a time within cells.
8 Integrate Suppliers Reduce the number of suppliers and cultivate a single [7]
source for each purchased component or subassembly.
9 Automation Inspection should become part of the production [24]
process (100% inspection) and there should be no
overproduction.
10 Computer-Integrated Production system to be as free of waste as the [18]
Manufacturing manufacturing system

X. CONCLUSION Manufacturing Industries” International

Lean Manufacturing is a collection of Journal of Advanced Technology in
techniques and philosophies that reduce waste and Engineering and Science. Volume No.03,
add value of the product. It is becoming more Issue No. 06. pp 123-127
accepted and implemented in the manufacturing [3]. Sundara, R, Balajib, A.N., Kumar, R.M.S.,
industry and essential to remain competitive in the (2014) “A Review on Lean Manufacturing
long term. Most of the industries adopting lean Implementation Techniques” 12th GLOBAL
manufacturing practices but its implementation is CONGRESS ON MANUFACTURING AND
not in appropriate way. Some successful MANAGEMENT, GCMM 2014. Procedia
implementation is more necessary for effective Engineering 97. Pp. 1875 – 1885
production system; the focused should be on [4]. Nordin, N., Deros B. M., Wahab, D.
continuous improvement, has to focusing on systems A.,(2010) “A Survey on Lean Manufacturing
approach, automation and upgradation of Implementation in Malaysian Automotive
technology, implementation of new and emerging Industry” International Journal of Innovation,
techniques which reduced costs, reduced lead time, Management and Technology, Vol. 1, No. 4.
and improved quality provide opportunities for new pp 374-380
marketing campaigns. Lean is applicable for all the [5]. Chaple, A. P., Narkhede, B. E., Akarte, M.
type of the organization irrespective of their size, lot M.,(2014)“Status of implementation of Lean
of work has been carried out in manufacturing sector manufacturing principles in the context of
that to in different functional areas, the level of Indian industry: A Literature Review” 5th
implementation varies across the sectors and their International & 26th All India Manufacturing
size. The Reduction of waste, Productivity Technology, Design and Research Conference
improvement, Inventory reductions are commonly (AIMTDR 2014) December 12th–14th, 2014,
cited benefits across the lean implemented firms. IIT Guwahati, Assam, India. pp 567(1 -6)
Proper successful implementation of lean [6]. Benjamin, S. J., Murugaiah, U.
manufacturing is very essential part of K., Marathamuthu, M.S., (2013) "The use of
manufacturing to enhance the quality and waste SMED to eliminate small stops in a
reduction. manufacturing firm", Journal of
Manufacturing Technology Management,
REFERENCES Vol. 24 Issue: 5, pp.792-807,
[1]. Wong, Y. C., Wang, K., (2011) “Approaches [7]. McCullen, P., Towill, D., (2001) "Achieving
and practices of lean manufacturing: The case lean supply through agile
of electrical and electronics companies”, manufacturing",Integrated Manufacturing
African Journal of Business management. Systems, Vol. 12 Issue: 7, pp.524-533,
Volume No. 5 Issue No. 6, pp. 2164-2174. [8]. Kilpatrick, J., (2003) Lean Principles, Utah
[2]. Shoeb ,M., Javaid, M.,(2015)“Some Studies Manufacturing Extension Partnership.
on Lean Manufacturing In Indian

www.ijera.com DOI: 10.9790/9622-0706044146 45 | P a g e

 Lean Manufacturing Insights

By Ron Ketterling, President BASM

Introduction system can fit into a lean organization. In addition, we

also saw it as an opportunity to be better business
In our effort to always be ahead of the business automation consultants. The class provided us with the
automation curve, Mark, a Solutions Specialist, and I insight to see issues we may not have seen as issues
took a week out of our already busy schedules to attend before and it demonstrated how simple changes could
a Lean Manufacturing class through a local college. The cause big improvements. A one hour process that can
40 hour class was taught by a consultant / industrial be converted to a 15 minute process by doing it better,
engineer with expertise in lean manufacturing. The faster, without money out-of-pocket, could be a huge
instructor identified 15 areas where the manufacturing benefit to a company.
process can by wasteful, and ways to streamline those
processes. To drive the point home, there were several We’re not trying to be your lean manufacturing guru, but
manufacturing process simulations throughout the we do want to understand the thought process to help
class. get the software systems work in more a lean way. We
always want our clients to be better at what they do, and
One of these simulations was to build an airplane out of if BASM as your partner can help you do it better, more
Legos. The goal was to build 15 airplanes in one profitably it’s a win for everyone and we’ve done our
day. However, using traditional – or batch manufacturing job.
processes, the group only got 5 done in 3 days. By the
end of the class, using lean manufacturing techniques,
the group had moved from 6 people on the production
line to 3 or 4, depending on the process. We were able
to demonstrate how dramatically we could improve
productivity, profitability, and customer satisfaction and
we were 98% on-time by the last day.

In the lean manufacturing processes, we learned about:

• The 5 “S’s” which included cleaning out junk,
keeping things simple, and keeping things in their
place.
• Differentiating between pull systems vs. push
systems to reduce inventory excess.
• Benefits of standardizing work to give you a
foundation for change. Figuring ways to do it faster, The Basic Principles of Lean Manufacturing
better, in a way that is repeatable and creates a new
standard. Our goal in taking this lean manufacturing class was to
• Mistake proofing – how do you build a system that make sure that as we are working with our customers we
prevents mistakes versus a checklist of things not to have a good understanding of how an ERP / MRP
do. A great example is that every car that takes system can fit into a lean organization. In addition, we
unleaded gas has a knockout that only lets an also saw it as an opportunity to be better business
unleaded nozzle go in. automation consultants. The class provided us with the
• Cellular design to group machines to do a task for a insight to see issues we may not have seen as issues
smooth flow, and how to match production times before and it demonstrated how simple changes could
between them. cause big improvements. A one hour process that can
• The KAIZEN Continuous Improvement Process be converted to a 15 minute process by doing it better,
faster, without money out-of-pocket, could be a huge
advocates tackling the glaring problems first. It
benefit to a company.
takes too much planning time to try to make it
‘perfect’. Don’t try to get it all the first time—get the So, what is “Lean”? It is a simple and effective way of
immediate gain and then begin again. conducting business processes. It characterizes all
activities as either value-added or non-value-added with
Of course, one of our goals in taking this class was to the focus on eliminating non value-added activities
make sure that as we are working with our customers we (wastes). Waste is eliminated by employing simple
have a good understanding of how an ERP / MRP principles and tools that have been practiced and

1
improved for many years. The Toyota Production Seven Forms of Waste
System is Toyota’s unique implementation of Lean. Eiji
Toyoda, founder of Toyota, took his inspiration from One of the primary focuses of the Lean Manufacturing
others and refined these ideas into the Toyota process is on reducing waste. Waste can come from
Production System. Toyoda greatly admired Henry Ford seven areas including: transportation, inventory, wasted
and in 1950 took a team of managers on a 12-week tour motions, waiting, over-production, over-processing, and
of US auto plants. He took the principles Henry Ford defects. Here is a tip to help remember these seven
outlined in his two books (My Life and Work – 1923, and wastes – use the acronym Tim Wood - look back at the
Today and Tomorrow – 1926), coupled them with Dr. W. bold letters to see what it means.
Edward Deming's (another American) Quality
Management principles and with Taiiichi Ohno, refined • Transportation waste occurs when materials are
these concepts into the Toyota Production System. moved from one place to another. This type of waste
is caused by the inefficient layout of machines and
The five main lean principles are: factories. For instance, any time a pallet jack, forklift
• Specify value from the standpoint of the end or truck is used to move product from one location to
customer another, this is classified as transportation waste.
• Identify all the steps in the value stream and The result is non-value-added time between value
eliminate all non-value added activity added processes.
• Raw material, work in process, and standing
• Create flow for value-creating process steps
inventory are all non-value-added, and therefore,
• Let customers pull value from upstream activity have the potential to create inventory waste.
Pursue perfection through continuous improvement Excess inventory is the result of overproduction and
it actually hides and even creates other forms of
The ultimate goal of lean is to eliminate the waste waste. For instance, space is wasted when stock
between the time of request and delivery by utilizing our rooms are filled with finished goods. And, although
resources to do the work that our customer pays us for. having a full inventory can give a sense of security,
Why focus on lead time? Because when you reduce your cash is tied up in your stock. However, reducing
lead time, you: improve productivity, reduce inventory, your inventory waste is the best gauge of a lean
increase responsiveness, improve quality, reduce capital transformation.
expenses, and improve delivery performance. No need
to get bogged down chasing all of these objectives at • Any movement of a person’s body that does not add
one time. Focus on lead time and you will see positive value is wasted motion. Excess motion, such as
gains in all of these metrics. extraneous lifting, walking or reaching can result in
fatigue, injuries, wasted time and frustration. A
Key principles in lean manufacturing focus on producing simple visual tool called a Spaghetti Map outlines the
exactly what the customer wants, when they want it, in flow and pathways taken by people and materials
the smallest possible quantities to gain efficiencies. You throughout a facility, often resembling cooked
can achieve this when the processes have been spaghetti, hence the name. Spaghetti Maps can help
designed for the workers success, as the worker is a company reduce its wasted motion by quantifying
central to value creation. However, eliminating waste in distances traveled, in addition to helping identify the
the processes must first be identified which is often the bottlenecks, poor layout and workarounds and
most difficult step. inefficiencies in the process.
• Waiting occurs when a person or machine must wait
to do needed work. Typically, 99% of a product’s
time is spent waiting. This waste also occurs when a
worker watches a machine run automatically. Not
only does waiting reduce productivity, it interrupts
the flow of materials through the value stream.
Additionally, waiting increases lead time, negatively
impacts delivery performance and adds expediting
costs.
• Companies will overproduce a product before the
customer wants it - or - produce more product than
the customer ordered. Consequently, overproduction
adds lead time, reduces productivity and hides other
waste forms. Furthermore, it enables defects and
causes scrap and must be eliminated to implement
lean processes.
• Processing waste is an operation that the customer
does not pay for. This can include an extra operation
to hold an unnecessary tolerance or to rework

2
 defective parts. “Just in case” operations, because you go along), paper, and a stopwatch. Start with
customer needs are not truly understood, are also an shipping and ask them, “What had to happen for you
example of processing waste. Moreover, over- to get these finished goods to ship?” Observe and
automation, which drives overproduction, is another time them as they complete the shipping step, then
way a company creates processing waste. move to the previous step. Moving backwards is
• Defects result in scrap or rework and have the much more likely to identify non-value added
serious potential to lead to compromised customer activities because you are not repeating a process
expectations and poor delivery and productivity. by rote. You will be truly examining it as it occurs.
Defects actually affect all of the other forms of waste
and are often the result of not matching the process Once the non-value added activities become apparent,
to the need. you can develop a Future Value Stream that has
eliminated all non-value added activities. Most non-value
Understanding the causes of waste will likely help you added activities fall into the following categories: Scrap
identify ways to minimize it. Our goal is not to be lean rate, lead time, change-over and excessive inventory.
manufacturing experts, but to help you maximize your Eradicating each of these four items will begin to show
automation systems. By understanding the principles you how lean your manufacturing process can truly be.
behind lean manufacturing, together we can help your The Future Stream will provide a goal but it will also
company refine processes so you can be better at what reveal the gaps between your current and future value
you do, and ultimately, do it in a more profitable manner. stream. These gaps will give you solid goals and an
actionable plan. Create high
level metrics so that you can
Value Stream Mapping be sure that your efforts are
making an impact on the
Value Stream Mapping is a snapshot of the current state organization.
of a segment of the business at a 20,000 foot view. It
helps to visually see where to tackle your next project Value Stream Mapping helps
improvements and challenges the paradigm of every you to create a vision of what
member of your team. Part 4 of our Lean Manufacturing is possible and challenges
Series will help to address the basics of Value Stream the current paradigms of your
Mapping so that you can fully understand how this organization. The exercise
powerful exercise can benefit your organization. will result in an actionable
plan that is easy to
The purpose of the Current Value Stream Mapping is to communicate with all of the
understand the actual flow of your materials and members of your team.
information and, as a result, expose both value-added
and non-value added activities. Material flow mapping
shows the movement of all material from the raw Everything in Its Place – the 5 S’s
material phase to the point of customer receipt. This
involves inventory moves, production time and the The 5 S’s lean manufacturing concept was introduced in
movement of operators during the process. Information Japan and has revolutionized the way that manufacturing
flow is the process that ensues between the customer’s facilities are organized.
initial call and the actual production launch. It outlines
calls, faxes, emails and even foot traffic that has to occur The five components of the “5S’s” methodology are Sort,
before production begins. Both components are Showcase, Set-in-Order, Standardize and Sustain. The
necessary when getting finished goods to your first three S’s involve general housekeeping and
customers are made up of value-added activities organization. The last two focus on the expectations that
(manufacturing the goods) and non-value added your staff will maintain that level of order. While the
activities (running to get inventory before you begin the undertaking may seem daunting, the results are well
production run). worth it. The ‘5 S’s’ reduce frustration, decrease the
likelihood of defects and create a safer, more productive
How do you get started with Value Stream Mapping? work environment. Below is a breakdown of each of the
• First, identify one value stream or product family to 5 steps
explore fully. Select one that will have the biggest
impact to your organization once it has been Sort
optimized. The first step is to evaluate what you have. Mark some
• Second, choose your team. The best choices are empty floor space off with tape and label it into three
operators, supervisors, leads and engineers. Keep categories: Tools to do the job, Inventory (raw materials,
the same team on the value stream rather than Work in Progress (WIP), and finished goods) and Area
breaking it up among multiple teams. Support (brooms, trashcans, etc.). Once you have
• Third, start walking the process…backwards. You handled, evaluated and placed every item in the
will need a pencil (so that you can change things as appropriate category, sort them by frequency of

3
use. Place a red tag on any items that are of no use to Even if you aren’t focused on lean manufacturing, the 5
that workstation, and then move them to a “Red Tag” S’s could be applied to any work (or even home)
area. Next, sort the red tag area into categories. Decide environment.
if another department can use an item or should you
auction, sell, donate or throw away the item. This will
ensure that you only have the tools you absolutely need
at each workstation.

Showcase
The showcase step is simple – Get things clean! Once
you have removed all the tools, deep clean the tabletops
and even the machinery until it shines. Make the
environment a place to be proud of, paint things in a
lighter color and bring in better lighting. The idea is to
create a space that you would be excited to show a
customer if they dropped by for a tour.

Set in Order
We’ve all heard the expression, “everything has a
place”. In this step, you determine a place for each
component needed for that operation. First, determine
the best way to store the items. Small storage bins that Setup Reduction
stack on a tabletop may be best for small components
while a pegboard would be perfect for tool Setup reduction is designed to eliminate wasted time and
storage. Restrict the use of drawers and toolboxes resources, while gaining valuable production time. While
because the items are not visible to the operator and in the manufacturing setup mode, available capacity on
often become a catchall for items that don’t seem to equipment is reduced and you are producing no sellable
have a place. Make it simple for the operator by keeping product for your Customer. By improving setups, you not
the most commonly used items close to them. Arrange only increase your ability to run more sellable product,
the tools and equipment in order of the operation. you also delay the purchase of additional, expensive
capital equipment. For many years, companies ignored
Standardize the fact that setups can, and should be, reduced. To
Once everything is in its place, post simple visual cues at compensate for long setups, companies would
each workstation so that the operators know exactly “amortize” the setups over long runs of product. While
where each item goes. Print out a picture of the producing these long runs, two things happened: They
workstation in perfect order then laminate it and hang it ran more than they had orders for (overproduction
at the workstation. Outline each tool on the pegboard to created excess motion and excess inventory), and the
create a shadow and make it clear when something is product that they actually had orders for had to wait for
missing. Color code item groupings and clearly label all of the extra product to be done running on the
each bin. The idea is to make it simple for anyone to machine (Waiting).
know where something goes and if something is
missing. The true test is to bring in an outsider and ask Setups in many companies have been reduced by 50%
them to put items away. If they can do it without many times over, by implementing setup reduction
assistance, you have accomplished your goal of strategies. A great example is a powdercoat system that
standardization! used to take 35 minutes to change over. After the first
setup reduction event it took 15 minutes to change over.
Sustain After the second setup reduction event it took 7 minutes
Keeping the environment clean and organized takes a to change over, after the third setup reduction event it
commitment of staff and management alike. Here are took 3 minutes to change over, and after the fourth and
three tips to keep you on track: final setup reduction event it took 80 seconds to change
over.
• Be Consistent: Address EVERY infraction so that
workers know that management is serious about Furthermore, setup reduction doesn’t require a large
keeping things neat. capital investment. The powdercoat system example
• Be Persistent: New behaviors take 30 days to cost a total of $500 to make those improvements.
become habit. Don’t give up too soon!
• Be Assured: This will soon become part of the Longer setups cause more scrap
natural flow of their day and your workers will A majority of setup time on equipment is spent running a
maintain it without difficulty. product, making an adjustment to the machine, running
another product, making another adjustment, and so on.
While running these “test” or “setup” products,

4
companies typically are creating scrap or rework. A good orders.
measure for setup reduction is “First Pass Yield” (FPY) of • Improves on-time delivery. Increases capacity to meet
the setup. What percentage of the time is the first part out customer demand and shortens production lead time
of the setup good? Most processes prior to setup for mixed-model production.
reduction have less than 10% setup first pass yield. Many • Keeps Value Stream Moving. Reducing setups keeps
times it is zero. your Value Streams producing value for your
Customer
Setup is 100% Waste
As mentioned, while in setup, you are producing no Taking a hard look at setup reduction could have a
products you can sell to your Customer. In many cases, quantifiable value on your bottom line. Our goal is to
setups are “necessary” to produce the myriad of products/ understand the principles behind lean manufacturing so
services your Customer wants, it’s still waste and should we can help you better maximize your automation
be reduced. Even if you charge your Customer (and they systems. Together we can help your company refine
actually pay you) for a setup, it is still waste. Look at it as a processes so you can be better at what you do, and
prime opportunity to increase your margin on setups and ultimately, do it in a more profitable manner.
make more money. Additionally, you position yourself well
in the future to be more competitive.

Bottleneck Processes
One cause of bottleneck processes is that the need – or To learn more about Lean Manufacturing read our
demand - exceeds the current capacity of the process.
The goal to fix this bottleneck would then be to create
article “Lessons Learned from the Toyota Way” on
more capacity. Capacity can be expressed as available our blog at http://blog.bautomation.com/toyota-way/.
run time x the production rate. The solution is to reduce
setup time which increases available run time. Increasing
available run time increases capacity. The result is that
capacity is increased to meet demand without additional
capital expenditure.

Non-Bottleneck Processes
A good example of a non-bottleneck process is the need
for more flexibility for mixed-model production. Reducing
setup time allows you to increase the number of setups 
per period, which allows for smaller batch sizes, and
ultimately more flexibility. The result is that daily model mix
production is now possible which also creates a
competitive advantage in that you have the flexibility to
About Business Automation
meet customer demand, and have shorter lead times for Specialists of Minnesota, Inc.
all models.

The main objective of setup reduction isn’t to achieve a Business Automation Specialists leverages 25 years of
certain percentage reduction in setup time—it’s to enable practical business experience with software technology
a specific manufacturing goal! However, there are many to help mid-sized manufacturers and distributors
benefits of setup reduction, including:
capitalize on their unique business strengths. We've
• Reduces the defect rate. Typically, defects aren’t
caught on the first piece. The larger the batch size, the built our business by helping clients build theirs;
greater the possibility that more defects have occurred enabling them to become better, faster and stronger
before the defect is caught. Also, with a large batch through improved management controls, cash flow and
size, the operator spends more time sorting back
profitability.
through the lot until they find where the defect
occurred. Many times the defect in the batch isn’t
caught until much later in the process, so the 3 0 0 C o o n R a p i d s Bo u l e va r d NW
knowledge of what went wrong disappears. Suite 100
Eliminating adjustments as part of the setup, means Mi n n e a p o l i s , MN 5 5 4 3 3
the first piece is a good piece every time.
• Reduces inventory cost. Produce in daily batches, or ( 7 6 3 ) 5 7 1- 8 5 8 0
less, and recover square footage.
F A X ( 7 6 3 ) 5 7 1- 5 5 0 4
• Increases production flexibility. Enables average daily
production which is more responsive to customer

© Copyright 2012 Business Automation Specialists of Minnesota, all rights reserved.

5
 Case Study: Traditional vs. Lean Process Improvement
and the Justification for Laboratory Automation
by Thomas P. Joseph, MT (ASCP), MBA
Managing Member
Sprick Stegall & Associates, LLC

There has been considerable and increasing interest in laboratory automation in recent years.
Automation is sometimes viewed as a “silver bullet” that will ensure that laboratories are operating in
the most efficient manner possible. An objective examination of the benefits of automation suggests
that the gains are limited.

It is helpful to understand two very different approaches to improving processes and the resulting
improvement in performance including turn-around-time, a key laboratory quality indicator.

The traditional approach of process improvement places the focus on the equipment and value added
processes. The goal is to improve uptime, cycle tests faster and to replace staff with automation. There
are benefits in this approach and there will be improvement in specific processes, but little impact
overall on entire value stream.

A value stream includes all of the actions, both value creating, and non-value creating, required
to bring a product (e.g. lab test) from order to delivery1. When analyzing a value stream and
identifying value added and non-value added steps, it is evident that value added steps account
for a small percentage of the total time, often 10% or less of the time for a product (or lab
specimen) to move through the entire value stream (as illustrated in Figure 1).

Lean Manufacturing principles are derived from the highly regarded Toyota Production System (TPS),
which has become a widely adopted approach in many industries to achieve best practices and world-
class performance. The Lean approach of process improvement recognizes that most of the benefits are
derived from reducing or eliminating waste: the non-value added steps. Here the entire value stream is
dramatically improved (e.g. lead times reduced) and value added processes are improved (because of
lean process improvements).

Case Study
A recent study of operations at five medical centers looked at the merits of front-end automation on
various measures: financial (return on investment), operations (lead time or turn-around-time
improvements), safety, and quality.

Figure 1 shows the value stream and turn-around-times for morning draws under various scenarios.
ƒ The current state (first bar-graph series) represents the current time required from collection to
verification, about 115 minutes.
ƒ The second series shows the improvement from implementation of front-end automation. A
thorough examination of the process steps in the specimen processing area and improvements
from automation indicates that lead times would improve by about 8 minutes. Automation links

1
From the “Lean Lexicon,” Lean Enterprise Institute, 2003.

© Sprick, Stegall & Associates, LLC. 2006 1

 a series of process steps such as loading / unloading centrifuges and sorting, thereby eliminating
any wait times between process steps. Much of the benefit from the front-end automation was
derived from a shorter spin cycle in the centrifuge.
ƒ Several facilities had a practice of delivering the entire batch of morning draws after the last
patient draw. In some cases, it took up to 2 hours for a phlebotomist to return to the lab from
their rounds. In lean, this storage on the phlebotomist’s tray represents waste. The third series
shows the improvement from current state (without automation), with earlier deliveries to the
lab, (three batches instead of one). This result (third series) includes the time needed for the
phlebotomist to walk back to the lab with a smaller batch and return to the floors. Here, the
average turn-around-time would be reduced by 39 minutes.
ƒ The final series show potential for improvement from examination of the entire value stream and
application of lean principles.

Figure 1. Traditional Process Improvement vs. Lean Improvement:

ƒ Traditional (w Front End Automation): 8 minute improvement
ƒ Lean (Phase 1): 39 minute improvement
Traditional vs Lean Process Improvement (AM Draws: Chemistry Specimen)

Storage on
Draw

Verif
Current State phlebot tray
Centrif Analysis

w Front End Storage on

Draw

Verif
Centrif Analysis
phlebot tray
Automation

Non Value
Added
Lean Phase 1 Storage on
Draw

Verif

Centrif Analysis
phlebot tray
(Phlebot Kaizen)

Value
Added
Storage on
Draw

Verif

Lean Phase 2 Centrif Analysis

phlebot tray

- 20 40 60 80 100 120
Minutes

In this example, the lean approach results in a five-fold increase in performance gain without a $400k
capital investment. As this case illustrates, the most important performance improvement opportunities
are to be found in the identification and elimination of waste using lean principles. A traditional focus
on the value added processes fails to recognize or remove waste in the value stream.

Lean principles and the Toyota Production System do, in fact, support use of automation when
appropriate, but only after thorough assessment of the value stream and elimination of waste.

“It is often better to use manual processes even when automation is available and would seem to justify
the cost [by reducing staffing]. People are the most flexible resource you have. If you have not
efficiently worked out the manual process, it will not be clear where you need automation to support the
process.” 2
2
Jeffery Liker, “The Toyota Way”, McGraw Hill, 2004

© Sprick, Stegall & Associates, LLC. 2006 2