Mar 25 2015
Following is a list of questions by Stjepan Sinko, from Croatia, about 5S implementation, with my answers:
Yes. A clumsy, poorly timed 5S implementation can backfire, hurt management’s credibility with the work force, and make it more difficult to try again later.
Mar 23 2015
Some of the standard charts used in manufacturing for decades don’t meet today’s criteria for effective visualization. But using them is now a tradition; they are taught in school and their value is unchallenged, but it is time to challenge it. If we were to see these charts for the first time in 2015, would we consider the information they provide useful, and would we want to use the classical formats? This post suggests answers in the case of the venerable Pareto chart.
Mar 16 2015
“Potain, a manufacturer and supplier of tower cranes in La Clayette, France, where it made all the mechanical and electrical systems, safety devices and cabs for cranes manufactured in Europe. The diversity of components manufactured was wide and production was in small runs, indeed in single units.
The factory, on a hill, had a handicap in terms of flow as, each time the business grew, a new building had to be built at a different altitude from the others. The organisation was by trade, which penalized production flows.
Mar 9 2015
Source: hohmannchris.wordpress.com
Mar 8 2015
Teaching, training and coaching are overlapping activities. Usually, not much harm is done by using these terms interchangeably, and the distinction made in a number of publications is without much of a difference. You use a personal trainer to sculpt your abs and a voice coach to hone your public speaking. Perhaps these expressions roll of the tongue better than “personal coach” and “voice trainer,” but these alternatives would be equally descriptive.
Mar 28 2015
Toyota Unveils Revamped Manufacturing Process | Yoko Kubota | Wall Street Journal
Source: www.wsj.com
Other than that Toyota has a plan, the article does not directly reveal specifics. As several readers pointed out in their comments, sharing components across models is not a new idea and is not risk-free, even if executed perfectly, as it reduces the differences between your standard and luxury models in ways that customers may notice.
The most revealing parts of the article, to me, are (1) the reference to VW, and (2) the keyword “modular assembly.” I don’t believe that Toyota has borrowed much from VW since the look of the 1947 Toyota SA, a dead-ringer for the already dated but yet to be successful beetle.
Modular assembly sounds self-explanatory but it isn’t. It is a specific approach to assembling cars brought to VW by former GM purchasing executive Jose Ignacio Lopez in the 1990s, in which up to 90% of the work traditionally done in a car assembly plant is done by suppliers and all that remains is the final assembly of large subsystems.
The Porsche plant in Leipzig, for example, does not stamp, weld, or paint car bodies. It receives them ready to assemble, in a spotlessly clean facility that customers are encouraged to visit.
The whole site is in fact dominated by its visitor center, complete with a fine-dining restaurant overlooking the plant and where new buyers can receive an hour’s worth of training on their new cars on the test track. In the same spirit, VW has set up an assembly plant in downtown Dresden, with glass walls to enable passers by to watch cars being assembled.
Modular assembly was used by GM in Lordstown, OH, in 1999, and then by VW in Spain, and by DaimlerBenz for the Smart in Hambach, France . At the time, Toyota evaluated the concept and passed on it. Apparently, Toyota’s production leaders changed their minds.
See on Scoop.it – lean manufacturing
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By Michel Baudin • Management • 2 • Tags: Car Assembly, Modular Assembly, Toyota, VW