Lean Assembling Case Study

Lean manufacturing is the production of goods using less of everything than in mass production: less human effort, less manufacturing space, less investment tools and less engineering time to develop a new product. A company becomes lean by continuously increasing its capacity to produce high-quality goods while simultaneously decreasing

The lean philosophy centers on the elimination of waste in all forms in an organisation (Shpak, 2016). Lean is usually implemented by initially conducting training, initiating pilot projects and implementing changes (Poksinska, 2010). Some of the benefits of lean implementation includes: improves quality and safety; improves staff moral; improves throughput; improves delivery and helps in cost reduction (Jones and Mitchel, 2006; NHS Institute for Innovation and Improvement 2007). The challenges of lean implementation include: resistance to change and lack of team work; limited communication and leadership and staff having less knowledge of the lean concept (Grove et al., 2010; Halling and Wijk, 2013 and Poksinska, 2010). This research is to explore some challenges of

Production practices have had an important role in satisfying the dynamic market. Many approaches have being developed in order to respond effectively to specific business requirements. In fact, some areas of management have focused its study on the overseeing, designing, and controlling the process of production in an effort to find the best methodology that ensures the business success and performance. However, complexities arise in this field because many variables such as costs, inventory, scheduling, suppliers, etc have to be considered in any business. Lean approach and the traditional approach are two points of view that aim to address this complexities, and those will be examined in this essay.

“Lean is a systematic approach to identifying and eliminating waste (non-value-added activities) through continuous improvement by flowing the **product at the pull of the customer in pursuit of perfection.” Lockwood [24].

This essay is going to analyze a case study based on lean thinking principles and techniques. It could divide in five significant parts. First, outline the definitions of a sequence of process and techniques, next introduce the categories of costs and benefits in establishing the cell, and also non-financial benefits which be taken into account, furthermore, critically discussed the stage should Deane sell his idea to the Joinery Manager and the workers, and additionally, evaluated four main differences of cell work in main Joinery Department, and illustrated the risks in Deane 's suggestion at final.

With the lean thinking process comes new ideas, systems and equipment that have been realistically applied to enhance the flow process. Methods used to deal with organization, standardization, exclusion of non-value added steps and overall visual control.

“Lean manufacturing systems produce what customers want, in the quantity they want, when they want it, and with minimum resources. Applying lean concepts in manufacturing typically presents the greatest opportunities for cost reduction and quality improvement” (Jacobs & Chase, 2011, p. 423), Riordan Manufacturing can better position themselves as market leaders.

Chase et al. (2006) state that “lean production is an integrated set of activities designed to achieve high-volume production using minimal inventories of raw materials, work-in-process, and finished goods” (p. 471). The essential components of lean production are surplus elimination, constant work-flow, and consumer appeal. The minute these components are in the neighborhood of supply, quality and cost, this outlines the groundwork for a lean production organization. A Japanese plan of continuous progress named the Kaizen is responsible for the lean production idea. Riordan can adjust the lean production concept by employee empowerment and advancement, staying focused on making processes stronger, impact of consumer relations, rapid merchandise growth and production, and cooperation with suppliers are the imperative strategies of Riordan managing lean. Features of a lean enterprise include a combined single piece continuous workflow and near incorporation of the entire value series from raw material to finished product. In addition, demand drives production rather than predictions. This means that manufacture designing is by consumer demand or appeal and not to become system loading or strict work flows on the company floor. This will help Riordan keep minimal inventories at each step of the production process. It is also important to know that having a working participation by employees involved in

Lean manufacturing is the production of goods using less of everything than in mass production: less human effort, less manufacturing space, less investment tools and less engineering time to develop a new product. A company becomes lean by continuously increasing its capacity to produce high-quality goods while

Since the lean operation and the total quality management model are based on a highly technical approach, toolsets and qualitative analysis, hence sufficient training in leadership, functional and technical skill will be mandatory for the employees in every category, including the operation, functional and business area to ensure a successful operation and to communicate and maintain proper control in the process. The Company will follow the agile manufacturing practice which comprises a set of quality standards, practices and iterative testing process driven by the end user feedback method to deliver a high quality customizable product that fits the exact need for a specific market segment and keep constant focus to reduce production overheads and eliminate any unnecessary steps in the process engineering that could potentially increase the cost and the delivery timing (Schnaars,

The fourth chapter is titled “Standardize Work.” The theme is “to identify how the work is well defined and how the effective team effort is exerted on the maintenance of the same repetitive work in sequence”. Thus, the standardization and the effort towards lean production is important (Ballé and Ballé).

Boeing made use of lean techniques in their production system and increased its production by 50% and also reduced its floor space by 40%. Assembling a Boeing 737 is a typical job. Workers should take 367,000 parts, an same number of bolts, rivets, other equipment and 36 miles (58 kilometres) of electrical wire and then keep them all combined to make an airplane [2]. Engineers to machinists were involved in lean (reducing waste) in the factory. By creating an assembly line, aircraft will pass through the workers were they going to concentrate on assembling. Allocating all employees in the factory building and organising special teams helped a lot to solve the errors in the assembly line [2]. In the assembly line, there are eight beacon lights which reflect the production status. If everything is good it shows green colour. If an error occurs, the worker will press a button and the green light will changes to yellow and the panel board will shows the category of the problem(which category it is related to). The worker will pass on to a computer and writes about the problem in a brief manner and the problem should be assigned to special team to solve it within 30 minutes if not, the light turns to purple and the assembly line will shuts down. This moving assembly is the icon of factory’s lean strategies.

Lean is defines the manufacturing philosophy that reduces the time between the shipping and customer demand, which based on the systematic method by eliminating waste, that means giving the customer what they want when they want it, and don 't waste whatever. Rahmana, Sharif and Esa (2013) suggested lean production is mentioned to improve the company 's performance from the philosophy in reducing waste in order. That means, lean system destination is the decrease cost by removing the non-value activities, which they are applying a category of tools and techniques for checking and eliminating defective in the production process. In the Evenort Company should emulate the five overriding principles of lean thinking in terms of implementing lean that there is guarantee the company has been driving correctly in the lean manufacturing (Cardiff 2015) as can show in table 1.

An example of Lean incorporation can be done in storage warehouses. If it is done, there could be clear layout and this will lead to apt flow and good integration among the employees, leading to minimization in costs. “The introduction of Lean development brought about a new layout with clearer processes, and a more integrated team.” (King 2009). So, as part of change management model of Levin’s Force Field analysis, the current successful processes taking place in all the airlines can be made more ‘leaner’ and thereby ‘fitter’ using the lean and agile methodology. When these processes take place with optimum results, it will surely translate into giving optimum services to the customers. Thus, cost cutting as well good customer service can be equally managed.

Dean Hammond can implement JIT techniques that seek to eliminate the significant amount of waste that exists in his current operational processes. Basically, there are seven wastes to be considered as obstacles in the lean system. It consists of over production, wasting time, transportation, process, inventory, motion, and defectives. As a result of implementing this concept, it will arrange a better-valued chain and create a solid base of production.