This article: misconceptions about Lean (2/2)
Source: Business-improvement.eu
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Lean: Value adding organization |
![]() By Dr Jaap van Ede, editor-in-chief Business-improvement.eu, 15-01-2020 [ part 1 ] [ part 2 ]
Preliminary version available earlier with a free subscription. In Dutch on Procesverbeteren.nl
Do you think that without Toyota there would not have been Lean, that Lean makes work boring, or that Smart Industry and Agile fit in badly with it? We deal with this misunderstandings in this article. Do you think Lean means producing in a One Piece Flow, that Lean is all about daily production kick-offs, that Lean soon will become obsolete, or that Lean is an operations management tool? We examined those misconceptions already in part 1. Lean manufacturing is defined in this series of 2 articles as: Ceaselessly striving for an increased production flow and thereby maximum value addition for (end) customers, with everyone contributing to this goal. All distortions of the flow are made visible and are seen as improvement opportunities.
In part 2, we discuss another seven misunderstandings! 8. Toyota = Lean, so Lean = Toyota ![]()
In addition Toyota was - and partly still is - further with Lean than others. However, if there is something wrong with this company, such as the big recall years ago, it is illogical to use this to proof ‘that Lean does not work’. It is equally strange to use tricks or cut corners in such an event, to show that Toyota remains superior, because Lean would have failed otherwise. ![]() Henry Ford can be seen as the Newton of Lean knowledge. The picture above shows that right-angled supply to flowing assembly lines was already applied in 1913. Even Kanban-like supply boxes are present! (Photo Ford)
Ohno made it also possible to make multiple product variants on one assembly line. To this end, he introduced the Kanban system, with cards that signal when certain materials are used. At that moment, replenishment should follow, right angled to the production line. Third, Ohno promoted all people in his factory to ‘thinkers’. Each and every person should constantly try to improve the flow towards the customer, and should be challenged and coached to do this.
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9. Lean only develops itself within Toyota Lean inventions are seen not only inside, but also outside Toyota. Sometimes it concerns solutions that companies develop to cope with specific logistical problems that they encounter. In the case descriptions on this website you will find many ideas that might inspire you. In addition to these comparatively 'small' inventions there are also developments with a much bigger impact. In the nineties, for example, Rajan Suri developed his so-called POLCA-system. This is a Kanban-variant for job shop production environments (high mix, low volume production). Later, POLCA became part of the improvement method Quick Response Manufacturing (QRM). ![]()
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![]() Smart Industry: The dutch metal processing company De Cromvoirtse digitized the whole process from quotation to delivery, to make One Piece Flow production possible
The development of Smart Industry or Industry 4.0 also starts to contribute to the further development of Lean. For example, some dutch metal processing companies, including De Cromvoirtse and Tailorsteel247, succeeded to digitize the whole chain from quotation to production. That way, they made customer-driven production in a One Piece Flow possible, without humans. Their employess switched from boring and repetitive production work to other tasks, like programming and process improvement tasks. Those tasks remain necessary, because even a 'smart' factory not automatically becomes Lean! However, there is no true conflict between Lean and Smart. In each factory the process chain should be as slim (Lean) ánd as flexible as possible. Smart techniques predominantly contribute to the latter: flexibilisation. Just as a person can make many different products, an intelligent factory can do this too, it's that simple! Smart Industry makes it also easier to split a factory into QRM-like mini-factories, along which intermediairy products then for example are transported on self-driving carts (AGVs). In addition, smart industry makes it possible to add or remove mini-factories more easily. ![]() Smart industry experiments at Audi: Car bodies choose their own assembly route along production islands.
In this respect, the experiments with fertigungsinseln at car manufacturer Audi a few years ago are interesting, see the picture above. In this concept, cars are no longer manufactured with an assembly line. Instead, car bodies choose their own route along production islands, depending on their need for parts. Smart industry is indispensable for the digital communication to accomplish this. Some kind of 'mastermind' could 'tell' the robots on a production island what their next assembly tasks looks like. The industrial internet of things (IIOT) - the name of the matching communication network - ensures that car bodies (on carts) automatically choose the right route. The theoretical result is a self-thinking and self-managing factory: a cellular e-factory! From a logistics perspective, such a cellular factory is far from new. The already mentioned Lean variant Quick Response Manufacturing (QRM) considers it even as the ideal solution for high mix, low volume production. However, Smart industry now facilitates the development of factories for this. That said, regarding IIOT, there are two major challenges. First, the security of the network, and second the development of a communication standard. Continuously striving for the greatest possible throughput, or in QRM terms waiting times as short as possible, remains the most important goal, also in a smart factory. Even in the futuristic situation at Audi - you cannot buy a car made in such a factory yet! - the three main Lean principles remain valid: make the flow towards the customer visible, develop a system to control this flow, and continuously try to enlarge it. BMW formulates it like this: Smart industry should be in the service of Lean. The German company SEW Eurodrive says: Lean and Smart join forces. It is very well possible to build a bad smart factory, with investments that never return, because of illogical workflows and frequent computer failures. In addition, it is not always good to make your production as flexible as possible. Sometimes this brings along unnecessary variation, caused for example by product variants that few customers want. If it is possible to form traditional Lean production lines for groups of products, then you should continue to do so. From a mathematical point of view, a Lean production line with a One Piece Flow - performing one operation on one semi-finished product and then immediately moving it to the next station - has the shortest lead time. In addition, the capacity utilization on the processing stations is then greater than with varying routings. In that case semi-finished products sometimes have to wait for each other. Randomly selected advertiser from the category: Lean ![]() The TWI Institute is the training institute for first-line managers. The TWI Methods help supervisors to support and instruct people and to improve daily work methods. > To website
11. Lean makes work boring In an One Piece Flow (OPF) production chain, employees must perform their actions within a fixed 'takt time'. Overload (muri) should however be prevented by ensuring that the takt time is more than sufficient to complete a task. This reduces stress, but still there remains some tension. First, being an operator you are obliged to follow the rythm of the takt. Second, your capacity is underused, because you have time left when you complete a task amply within the takt time. Third, you repeat the same or a similar task over and over. This can be experienced as boring. You could say that technically OPF is the most superior production system. However, for the people working with it, not naturally built for 100% error-free and steady work, this is not true. Fortunately, solutions to make working in a One Piece Flow more pleasant are developed regularly. For example, it is possible to adapt an OPF production chain to the people, so that they can move more freely from station to station. The Dutch company Mansveld Combinatiebouw produces switching and control panels in a Lean way, but without takt times. This is possible because the operators are allowed to overtake each other. As a result this is more a One Piece Production line than a One Piece Flow line. Another solution is the bumping system that KONI applies. Products in the making then move along the workstations, as if it were a regular OPF production line. However, as an operator you now move along. So you perform multiple tasks consecutively, on the same semi-finished product. You continue to do this until the operator who is working in front of you has no more work. In that case this person walks backwards and takes over your work. The word bumping describes this moment. The result of this way of working is that the operators no longer 'feel' the takt time of the OPF line. In addition their tasks become much more diverse. A third option is the use of capacity buffers between the production stations. Just as the pursuit of OPF should never become a dogma, zero stock between production steps should not be seen as a holy grail within Lean. What the best way is to deal with the pressure that working with cycle and takt times brings along, depends on the context. This might be an interesting subject for scientific research. ![]() A Lean factory is a calm factory: everything flows regularly, rush orders do not disturb the flow. On the photo: production of the Toyota Yaris in France (Photo Toyota)
Working the Lean way, on the other hand, makes the work flow calm and with few disturbances. That aspect is often appreciated. There is not only flow literally, in a Lean factory you can also experience a sense of flow figuratively speaking. Perhaps even more important: in a traditional factory employees are not allowed to think. That is considered the privilege of management. In contrast, in a Lean factory every employee is challenged to continually improve their own work tasks. Besides this, employees often recieve training to be able to take over each other's tasks. This makes the production flexibility greater and the work becomes more diverse. Finally, machines and robots are taking over more and more repetitive work. Think of the digitization revolution that is currently taking place under the heading smart industry. The more interesting work, like continuously improving processes, is left over for the employees. ![]() 12. Lean matureness can be measured It is not possible to measure how far you are with rolling out a sort of ideal Lean template. Why? Because there is not such a blueprint! Each logistic situation and corporate culture is different. Therefore, Lean means adapting and not copying solutions from others. With trial-and-error - within safe limits - you should work towards (intermediate) goals, to increase the flow towards the customers step-by-step. This is the way the now famous Toyota Production System (TPS) was built. Of course you can use Toyota and other Lean companies as sources of inspiration, but in the end you have to develop your own production system. This makes it even more important to involve everyone in the organization in thinking about process improvement. Not only is every logistic situation different, soft (human) factors are difficult to measure. Which company do you think is more Lean: a company full of improvement boards, or an organization in which everyone thinks Lean, and realizes that everything should contribute to enlarge the production flow? ![]() In a period of ten years Auping worked via trail-and-error towards the preliminary Lean result above. Beds and mattresses move in a flowing stream through their factory. At every point, the customer is known.
Does this mean that a Lean assessment or audit never makes any sense? No, but consider this as a strength-weakness analysis, to learn which issues should be tackled first. The result can vary from a road map with points of interest, to finding a lever which can initiate a Lean journey. If your processes are unstable, then you might, for example, begin with standardization. And if your management style turns out to be directive, then a switch to a more coaching approach might be needed, to invite everyone to think along and to develop new skills. A blueprint of how all these things will be done must never be the goal of a Lean assesment. 13. Lean is better/worse than QRM or the TOC ![]()
Because of these differences, Lean, TOC and QRM can complement each other when it comes to improving your logistics. Which method is most suitable to start with depends on your specific situation. Improving your logistics might even be not the most urgent thing you should do. If you need to improve the productivity of your machine park, applying Total Productive Maintenance (TPM) is more appropriate to begin with. And if variation in your processes is your biggest problem, leading to quality problems, then Six Sigma offers good tools to identify and tackle the causes of those problems. In general, companies start with one of the improvement methods mentioned above. However, after several years, they often combine (nearly) all approaches. Unilever is a good example of this. 14. Lean is the opposite of Agile ![]() Companies must be efficient, which is achieved by 'streaming' (Lean) production, and they must be able to adapt quickly to changing customer needs (Agile). So, balancing between Lean and Agile is needed.
Until recently Agile was, in contrast to Lean, primarily a buzzword: if you want competitive advantage, you have to be flexible and therefore Agile. How you should accomplish this remained unclear. Today this is different. There are several tools and methods to become Agile, among others Scrum, Lean Startup and Holacracy. All these methods turn out to work just like Lean. They sense opportunities and respond to them. Options for change are identified, actions are taken to 'harvest' them, and finally it is checked whether the results are as expected. The strong overlap with the well-known plan-do-check-act cycle of Lean is striking. Improving with Lean or adjusting with Agile therefore works technically the same. Lean and Agile are therefore like Yin and Yang, or two sides of the same coin. You should seek for the right balance between continuous improvement (Lean) and continuous change (Agile). > Did you read part one of this article yet? Do you need help with the implementation of Lean? Referral to this article on internet? Use this link: https://www.business-improvement.eu/lean/Lean_misconceptions2.php |
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