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Nascar Lean Manufacturing Case Study Essay

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NASCAR: Every Second Counts Helping Win From The Pits.
By: Mark Appolloni:

Introduction to the case:

NASCAR, The National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing, is the largest approved body of motorsports in the United States. In 2006, after 15 years of working in NASCAR racing as an athletic director for HMS, Andy Papathanassiou (known as Papa) began searching for the next breakthrough to improve pit crew performances and times. His innovative techniques and determination had successfully cut pit crews performance times in half because he introduced athletic training and much like chapter 3 in our book standardized (organized) practices to the process thus turning crew members into athletes. The introduction of pit …show more content…

At most tire shops it may take 30 minutes to change the tires on your car. Today, most pit stops in a car race take 1% of that time and this is one example of how the race is won or lost. A few years ago 18 seconds used to be the standard time to change all four tires on a racecar’s pit stop and nowadays in 15 seconds some crews can not only change the tires but fuel the car up as well. Crews are more specialized these days as they have found more ways to lean out their process. So don’t be surprised if pit times drop even further in the future as more ways are being found to lean out the process even more. It is all part of an equation when the driver first hits the pit for his stop. His tires have to be at a certain mark in a box and if he misses the mark he needs to get pushed back before the service can even start and he loses time for every part of this lean process or equation that he is off. The jackman and the tire changes can be over the wall separating the pit from the crew just before the driver and the car even stops. This is another part of the process that needs to be exact. The jackman gets to the right side of the car and raises the car while the tire changers loosen the lug nuts on each wheel and pull it off and put the new tire on the car (Royce, 2002). This, is all part of a leaned out process used to gain an edge to win the

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