Nov 26 2011

Grad student puts homework on ERP and Lean up for bids

Via Scoop.it – lean manufacturing
This student, who is “out of time and juggling many other tasks” is asking freelancers to bid on writing an essay on ERP and Lean Manufacturing for him.   He has so far seven bidders offering to do it for an average of $78.
Via www.freelancer.com

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German-prize-winners-2010

Nov 25 2011

A German prize for Lean in Automotive

The German Automotive Lean Production Awards 2011 were given at BMW World in Munich on 11/23, to Volkswagen in Bratislava , TRW in Koblenz, BMW in Leipzig and Landshut, Continental in Regensburg, and Behr in Mühlacker.

These awards have been given since 2005, based on studies conducted jointly by the German Automobil Produktion magazine and Agamus Consult. These studies are focused on the following questions:

  1. What are the success factors of Lean Production?
  2. Effectiveness and efficiency: how does the Lean methodology work?
  3. Goal of the Lean processes: What are the most important steps?
  4. Who uses Lean methods and strategies, and with what results in quality and costs?
  5. Thinking further: Lean Production as an integral part of the Lean Enterprise.
  6. How does Lean Production develop in Germany and Europe, and who is best in class?

Compared ot the Shingo Prize, the study questionnaire is more focused on tools and performance, and the first few questions are aimed at establishing that the candidate is in the automotive industry. The questionnaires are addressed to the managers responsible for Lean in production, logistics and development, as well as operations managers. A delegation of experts then visits the candidates selected based on the questionnaires. The involvement of one particular consulting firm in the organization of the award process  would in the US be viewed as a conflict of interest. The Shingo Prize is run out of Utah State University, and uses consultants from multiple firms in its audit teams.

The process by which these awards are given otherwise raises the same questions as for the Shingo Prize: how good are they as predictors  of superior long-term performance ?

By • Press clippings • 0

Nov 25 2011

Singaporean academics learn TPS at Toyota in Japan

Via Scoop.it – lean manufacturing

This is first-person account by a Singaporean acadenic of a two-day course culminating in a tour of the Tahara assembly line.
Via blog.nus.edu.sg

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Sushi-whats-in-a-name

Nov 24 2011

Sushi versus Raw Fish: Use foreign words only when you can’t help it

Via Scoop.it – lean manufacturing
James Hereford, COO of the Palo Alto Medical Foundation, prefers to use the original Japanese terms when deploying Lean, arguing that it doesn’t really matter whether words are Japanese or English, and that many Lean terms have no exact translation. While it is true for Kaizen or Kanban, it is not for Gemba, which he gives as an example. Gemba just means “actual place,” nothing more. As a general term, in English, it is not very telling but, in context, it can be replaced with shop floor, lab, operating room, race track, or back office, and there are more urgent things to do to implement Lean than burdening your audience with new, unnecessary words. My main concern in the field is to communicate as effectively and as precisely as possible, and I have found it easier with words my audience already knows, used literally when possible, and metaphorically when not.

People choose words for all sorts of reasons that have nothing to do with conveying a meaning, such as the following:

  1. Avoiding the emotional or historical baggage of a familiar word. Recycling the vocabulary of a past, failed program makes the new one less likely to succeed.
  2. Establishing their credentials as members of a group. Using the right jargon  is more “professional” than using plain, everyday words. The audience  then understands much better the speaker’s position than the meaning of the words.
  3. Leveraging ambiguity. New words are more likely to be taken to mean different things to different people, making the appearance of agreement easier to establish. This is a common practice of sales people.

Foreign words can serve all of these purposes, which I don’t pursue.

I still think foreign words are OK when:

  1. They have no local equivalent
  2. They are short.
  3. They are easy to pronounce. 

Takt is German for musical bar or stroke, as in a four-stroke engine, and I have never seen a reasonable English equivalent to it in takt time. On the other hand, Kevin Hop and I struggled with the Japanese zentenatamadashi, which even Google knows nothing about. Literally, it means “all items sticking out their heads,”  and Honda engineer Ray Sanders translated it as “Single-Piece Presentation.”  We adopted it because it is accurate, descriptive, easy to remember, and no longer than the original.

Via fisher.osu.edu

By • Management, Press clippings • 14 • Tags: , ,

Nov 23 2011

San Antonio’s Nugget Co. goes Lean to reduce water consumption (???)

Via Scoop.it – lean manufacturing
“…Over the next two years, the center will work with The Nugget Co. to improve its wastewater treatment processes and to reduce the amount of water the manufacturer uses to produce its sheep and lambskin products…” (http://t.co/RcyYivMr)   This is a novel application of Lean. I understand why overuse of water may be a problem for the company, but not what part of Lean might conceivably solve it. Assuming that water plays a part in the chemistry of leather making, the amount consumed is a matter of process engineering, and it is difficult to imagine anyone other than experienced process engineers finding how to reduce it without hurting quality.   Lean projects typically improve the way an organization executes its processes, but not the processes themselves.  They affect line and workstation design, operating policies, production control methods, and support activities, but usually not the phyics or chemistry of the processes.      
Via story.manufacturingmirror.com

By • Press clippings • 2

Shape sorter

Nov 22 2011

Key details on Poka-Yoke/Mistake-Proofing

The following are  my inputs to a discussion on AME’s LinkedIn group initiated last August by Xola Qhogwana, which also  included contributions from Steve Bathe, Richard Foster, Karen Wilhelm, Steven Wade, Wesley Bushby, Ron Turkett, and Trevor Krawchyk.

When to use Poka-Yoke

Poka-Yokes prevent human error, and are therefore relevant when and only when human error is the main cause of your quality problems.

If you have process capability issues, focus on resolving them, not on preventing human error. What you need is deep understanding of your technology combined with statistical tools to enable your process to consistently hold tolerances.

If your process is capable but you are still producing in batches, focus on converting to flow to prevent your defectives being buried in WIP. Your problem is that it takes you too long to detect problems, not human error.

If your process is capable and you practice one-piece flow, then the defects you still produce are due to human error. At this point, and not before, Poka-Yoke is the relevant technique.

For details, see When to use statistics, one-piece flow, or mistake-proofing to improve quality.

Poka-Yokes do not require extensive a-priori analysis

Poka-Yokes are usually small devices, such as a permanent magnet to suck up a panel already containing a metal bracket, or a hole in a container to prevent overfill.

Doing an FMEA do decide whether to design and implement a Poka-Yoke is more expensive than just doing it. If you sort of think a process might need a Poka-Yoke and you have an idea of what it might be, just go ahead, try it, and document it in your company-specific Poka-Yoke library to inspire others. Don’t over-analyze it upfront. On the other hand, if you are building a spacecraft, you should definitely do an FMEA.

If it adds labor, it’s not a Poka-Yoke

By definition, also a Poka-Yoke device adds no labor. Manually scanned barcodes on parts to validate picks, for example, do not qualify as a Poka-Yokes because they add labor. A barcode that is automatically read or an RFID tag , on the other hand, would qualify. A Poka-Yoke has to become part of the process in the long run. If you look at the old big red book of Poka-Yoke from Productivity Press, you will notice that none of the examples adds labor, and there is a reason: any device that adds labor is likely to be bypassed under pressure.

This even happens with safety. Take, for example, the traditional approach of requiring the pressing of two buttons to start a press. How many times to you see plants where one button is taped down so that you can start the press with just the other one? By contrast, safety light curtains add no labor, and are not bypassed.

Using bar codes reading for data acquisition effectively eliminates the errors due to keyboarding because it is faster. If it weren’t, operators would revert to keyboarding and typos would creep back in. This is exactly what you see happening after two or three failed attempts at scanning a code. A barcode on a workpiece that is automatically read can be a Poka-Yoke. The workpiece passes under a reader in the proper orientation and under good lighting conditions and the barcode is reliably read. Under these conditions, it can even drive the lighting of the proper bins in a pick-to-light system. It does not work as a Poka-Yoke s if an operator has to wave a bar code gun in front of a part for pick validation.

Just because you use a device with the intent of preventing mistakes doesn’t mean it works. You have to make sure it does, and not just at the time you implement it. If you don’t pay attention, Poka-Yokes tend to deteriorate and to be set aside, for example when new operators are assigned to the station.

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