Lean practices in bussiness environment

An effort by: Neelkanth Prashant Prem Tarun

Introduction
Lean means streamlining work flow for greater efficiency to focus on customer needs rather than on organizational bureaucracy.

Impact of lean in bussiness environment

Many organizations have found that implementing lean concepts and tools results in improvements in environmental performance, even when lean activities were not initiated for environmental reasons.

5S

5 s contd..
Sort, the first S, focuses on eliminating unnecessary items from the workplace that are not needed for current production operations. Set In Order: Set In Order focuses on creating efficient and effective storage methods to arrange items so that they are easy to use and to label them so that they are easy to find and put away. Strategies for effective Set In Order include painting floors, affixing labels and placards to designate proper storage locations and methods, outlining work areas and locations, and installing modular shelving and cabinets.

Contd..
Shine :Working in a clean environment enables workers to notice malfunctions in equipment such as leaks, vibrations, breakages, and misalignments. Organizations often establish Shine targets, assignments, methods, and tools. Standardize, the method to maintain the first three pillars, creates a consistent approach with which tasks and procedures are done. The three steps in this process are assigning 5S (Sort, Set in Order, Shine) job responsibilities, integrating 5S duties into regular work duties, and checking on the maintenance of 5S.

Contd..
The second part of Standardize is prevention preventing accumulation of unneeded items, preventing procedures from breaking down, and preventing equipment and materials from getting dirty. Sustain. Sustain, making a habit of properly maintaining correct procedures, is often the most difficult S to implement and achieve. Sustain focuses on defining a new status quo and standard of work place organization. Without the Sustain pillar the achievements of the other pillars will not last long.

Contd..
Tools for sustaining 5s include signs and posters, newsletters, pocket manuals, team and management check-ins, performance reviews, and department tours.

Value stream mapping

This technique involves flowcharting the steps, activities, material flows, communications, and other process elements that are involved with a process or transformation. Value stream mapping helps an organization identify the non-value-adding elements in a targeted process.

Value Stream Mapping Purpose

Provide optimum value to the customer through a complete value creation process with minimum waste in: Design (concept to customer) Build (order to delivery) Sustain (in-use through life cycle to service)

Just in time
Just in time (JIT) is a production strategy that strives to improve a business return on investment by reducing in-process inventory and associated carrying costs. To meet JIT objectives, the process relies on signals or Kanban between different points in the process, which tell production when to make the next part. Kanban are usually 'tickets' but can be simple visual signals, such as the presence or absence of a part on a shelf

Just In time
JIT leverages the cellular manufacturing layout to reduce significantly inventory and work-inprocess (WIP). JIT enables a company to produce the products its customers want, when they want them, in the amount they want.

Kaizen
Kaizen, or rapid improvement processes, often is considered to be the "building block" of all lean production methods . Kaizen focuses on eliminating waste, improving productivity, and achieving sustained continual improvement in targeted activities and processes of an organization.

Kaizen contd..
During the kaizen event, it is typically necessary to collect information on the targeted process, such as measurements of overall product quality; scrap rate and source of scrap ; total product distance travelled ; total square feet occupied by necessary equipment; number and frequency of changeovers; source of bottlenecks; amount of work-in-progress; and amount of staffing for specific tasks.

Five ys
Five Whys. Toyota developed the practice of asking "why" five times and answering it each time to uncover the root cause of a problem. An example is shown below. Repeating "Why" Five Times Why did the machine stop? There was an overload, and the fuse blew. Why was there an overload? The bearing was not sufficiently lubricated. Why was it not lubricated sufficiently? The lubrication pump was not pumping sufficiently. Why was it not pumping sufficiently? The shaft of the pump was worn and rattling. Why was the shaft worn out? There was no strainer attached, and metal scrap got in.

Contd..
To fully realize the benefits of the kaizen event, team members should observe and record new cycle times, and calculate overall savings from eliminated waste, operator motion, part conveyance, square footage utilized, and throughput time

TPM
Total Productive Maintenance (TPM) seeks to engage all levels and functions in an organization to maximize the overall effectiveness of production equipment. This method further tunes up existing processes and equipment by reducing mistakes and accidents. The ultimate goals of TPM are zero equipment breakdowns and zero product defects, which lead to improved utilization of production assets and plant capacity.

 Efficient Equipment : The best way to increase equipment efficiency is to identify the losses. The amount of time spent on each of the six big losses, and where most attention needs to be focused, can be determined.(Unexpected breakdown losses, Setup and adjustment losses, Stoppage losses, Speed losses, Quality defect losses, Equipment and capital investment losses) Effective Maintenance:Typical daily activities include precision checks, lubrication, parts replacement, simple repairs, and abnormality detection.

 Mistake-Proofing: A prevention device is one that makes it impossible for a machine or machine operator to make a mistake. A detection device signals the user when a mistake has been made, so that the user can quickly correct the problem Safety Management:The fundamental principle behind TMP safety and environmental management activities is addressing potentially dangerous conditions and activities before they cause accidents, damage, and unanticipated costs.

Focus areas include:the development of safety checklists the standardization of operations coordinating non repetitive maintenance tasks

3Ps
3P is viewed as one of the most powerful and transformative advanced manufacturing tools, and it is typically only used by organizations that have experience implementing other lean methods. The Production Preparation Process (3P) focuses on eliminating waste through product and process design.

 Define Product or Process Design Objectives/Needs: The team seeks to understand the core customer needs that need to be met. If a product or product prototype is available, the project team breaks it down into component parts. Diagraming: A fishbone diagram or other type of illustration is created to demonstrate the flow from raw material to finish product. Find and Analyze Examples in Nature: The project team then tries to find examples of each process keyword in the natural world. Here, team members place heavy emphasis on how nature works in the example and why.

 Sketch and Evaluate the Process: Sub-teams are formed and each sub-tea member is required to draw different ways to accomplish the process in question. Each of the sketches is evaluated and the best is chosen for a mock-up. Develop Project Implementation plan: If the project is selected to proceed, the team selects a project implementation leader who helps determine the schedule, process, resource requirements, and distribution of responsibilities for completion.

Types of environmental benefits that result from lean implementation

Apollo Hardwoods Company Uses fewer trees and less energy to produce the same amount of product Designed equipment that can use smaller pieces of wood, which reduces wood scrap and alleviates the need to harvest large-diameter, mature black cherry tree

 Apollo Hardwood's founders and investors saw the wood products manufacturing industry as an industry ripe for the successful application of lean techniques. Wood products manufacturers generally carry large inventories of wood which requires substantial space and can result in damage or spoilage to inventories. The manufacturing processes typically result in significant amounts of wood scrap and waste, which is often burned for energy recovery.

 Apollo Hardwoods recruited a team to assist in a series of 3P events to design a lean veneer slicing and drying process and associated equipment. Team members were carefully selected to ensure that the team did not have too much familiarity with conventional veneer manufacturing methods, which could limit creativity during the 3P events.

General Motors
Kanban Implementation Saved 17 tons per year in air emissions Eliminated 258 tons per year of solid waste Reduced hazardous waste generation from 9.0 pounds per car in 1992 to 3.2 pounds per car in 1996 Fairfax Assembly Paint Booth Cleaning Reduced purge solvent used by 369 tons in the first year Lean Supply Chain Development Eliminated 7 tons per year of volatile organic compound (VOC) emissions, hazardous wastes, and transportationrelated impacts by working with suppliers to eliminate a painting process step

 Saturn Kanban Implementation Saturn's Spring Hill, Tennessee automotive manufacturing plant receives more than 95 percent of its parts in reusable containers. Many of these reusable containers also serve as kanban, or signals for when more parts are needed in a particular process area. This "kanban"-type system eliminates tons of packaging wastes each year and reduces the space, cost, and energy needs of managing such wastes.

Baxter Healthcare Corporation

Over a three-day event, an interdepartmental team developed value stream maps (VSM) that detailed the plants use of water and identified processes with potential for improvement Using the VSMs, the team developed an implementation plan that will save 170,000 gallons of water per day and over $17,000 over three months, with little or no capital investment

Baxters Key Lesson Learned

The targeted aspect (energy, water, materials, etc.) should be linked to facility challenges and the company strategic plan. For example, if the facility has boilers or uses steam or distilled water, it should find opportunities in water and its associated energy. A cross-functional team is essential to successfully identifying and understanding the challenge. Upper management support is critical for the follow-up on implementation.

 If necessary, bring in expertise. If expertise is not available in-house, then use the many free resources that states provide, such as energy experts, water engineers, etc.