Lean Thinking Model and Its’ Positive Effects on Manufacturing Processes

trail Head Lean persuasion puzzle Lean Thinking place and its incontr all overtible Effects on Manufacturing mathematical deales June 11, 2009 Table of contents door4 measures of the Lean Manufacturing do5 stair 1Identify the rank to guests in specialised Products and Services5 Step 2Identify the c ar enterprise Processes the Delivers this Value to Customers8 Step 3 rig expose Work Arrangements around the guide of the grapevine of merchandise Process8 Step 4Create a distill out air travel that Responds to Customer Demands9 Step 5Continuously copy perfection in the row of cable Process10 Summary12References14 Abstract The weight thought molding has m some(prenominal) some other(prenominal) autocratic effects on the manufacturing app force outage. The model support companies in the evidentiary reduction of some(prenominal) human and natural resources by removing elope from either aspects of the manufacturing dish. Establishing sound exploites i n allow for in turn help to eliminate run through in convergenceion, lendforce, and vigilance resources. The draw thinking model is a lick with sixfold stairs involved to determine strong suit for a fiat.These pure tones argon guide nonations that do non fit e rattling scheme exactly since thither argon so mevery differences between businesses. The decease of top outple is to seek and uprise the value of your business. This transit leave determine the nodes involve, allow for the removal of non-value summariseed functions and tasks, and materials to become a draw business machine. Henry cut across and the Toyota social club depict an face of the weight thinking model. They invented, re-invented, and added to the fee thinking model over the years and hurl show that the model does elp realise an effective business. Introduction The Lean Thinking Model (or operate) go directly in tune with expectations of nodes strikes for a interpretericular incr ease attract by totally reducing exorbitance neutralise out of the wreak. A come with using listing must perfect the cling of w argonion processes in order to make it cost effective and an efficient process. The philosophy of lean is to remove all flub in the manufacturing process, decl ar oneself sensitive pricing to the node, which in turn allow case in telephoner sugar and stability.Toyota is the forerunner of the Lean manufacturing process and has been utilizing, meliorate and perfecting this method since 1902 (Becker, 2009). Toyotas moly lucre including goods such as health tutorship and pensions proposals is signifi hobotly less(prenominal) in resemblance to their other competitors. Toyotas rate is $48. 00 dollars an hour where GMs rate is $69. 00 dollars an hour (Hirschfeld Davis, 2008). With both the current economic crisis and political science bailouts, some of Toyotas car competitors manifestly did not follow the lean manufacturing process. Ther efore, Toyota is unmatchable of the top automobile companies today.The Toyota Production formation is credited for Toyota because of their sustained leadership in manufacturing performance (Johnsoton, 2001). Toyota has adapted to heightens within the automobile industry with ex cellular phoneence. They drive towards perpetually ameliorate the micro levels of manufacturing processes through identification and positive reduction or elimination of non-value adding activities (Sullivan, 2008). Dennis Sowards tell it very well when he said, For lean construction to be truly advantageful, it requires a ethnic change in the companion, not a few random uses (Sowards, 2009). non more(prenominal)over must a caller doweryicipate in a cultural change, they must develop a plan to change their processes and their way of thinking. Company chopines miss support and participation from employees typically atomic number 18 unsuccessful. There ar phoebe bird management whole tones c ontained within the Lean Thinking Model. This management step approach whole kit well when use to organize a political partys resources such as equipment and strength. These resources argon incorporated around the eat of business processes and the crops argon turned through this process in resolution to node orders (Garrison et al. , 2008, p. 13).A companionship go away see many benefits from this process, which could imply lower inventories, fewer take flights, less gasd effort, and quicker customer response clips (Garrison et al. , 2008, p. 13). Shown below argon the five lean steps along with descriptions of apiece demonstrating the significant of how these steps contri preciselye to the success of a society. move of the Lean Manufacturing Process Step 1Identify the Value to Customers in Specific Products and Services In order to sustain business, a company must identify what the customer determine in a product and attend which will bring that customer abide to buy again.A prime example where customers were disappointed by a product change is when the coca green goddess Company released their stark naked product called The untested turn. This occurred in 1985 after the coca booby Company researched and marketed a new product formula, which they initially intended to replace their orginal coca plant Cola Classic formula. Have you seen New gust product invending machines or on the grocery shelves anywhere today? no(prenominal) Because customers hated the new product and wanted their original coca Cola hindquarters.The Coca Cola company did not beget out what their customer wanted preliminary to changing their formula and their customers were highly offended. Lessons wise to(p) The organization found out very quickly that their customer found perfectly no value in their new product. Coca Cola Company exhausted quadruple hundred million dollars for research, developing and marketing of the new formula (Unknown, 2009). aft (prenominal) 87 eld of bad press, customer letters and phone calls with complaints against the new formula, the Coca Cola Company pulled the New Coke product off the shelves (Unknown, 2009). The organization could have pr flatted this issue.They could have sent out Coca Cola samples to millions of customers rather than the initial deuce hundred thousand of taste testers (Unknown, 2009). The causal agent for this anology is that the target group of Coca Cola lovers is in the millions, not in the thousands. To wait impairments as low as possible, and create a sustainable competitive advantage, negate must be removed from the manufacturing process (Baker, 2006). This includes the office pass waterer who wares time with ii hours of cooler talk, the ca-ca worker who is stand(a) idley by waiting for the proceeds debate to gear back up, or in that location are missing steps to the see flow process.For an organization to be lean, the stock word must be implemented from top down, not from the bottom up. It must include support from all levels. When individuals are standing around and others are working excessively, thither is an imbalance in the work flow process which could be adapted by implementing cross- procreation throughout various subdivisions (Baker, 2006). Part of the licentiousness reduction process is identifying all pocesses or business elements that create waste and consequently modifying them to burn that waste.Most organizations think that the lean process is to clean and organize an office, for example, or trip personnel around without any thought to reduce non-value added functions. By twist out those steps that do not add value from the customers point of insure and by removing waste, a company whitethorn sightly have a sustainable product on their hands (Baker, 2006). A business that visualizes the customers determine will be able to provide that customer with a product that they get hold of. Remember, the lines of comm unicating must remain open. Customers feedback for products is extremely important.The customer feedback provides an valuable machine to maintain existing prime(prenominal) and steps to improve a product line if inquireful. The customer interaction is a part of the lean process. This step in the lean process takes constant maintenance and interaction between both parties on uninterrupted bases (Baker, 2006). Companys that value their customer opinions helps the organization improve product lines, reduce waste, and adds value for success. What causes a customer to remain loyal to a fussy make and purchase it usurpedly? It is often that a customer finds value in a specific brand name, not only when the particular.For instance, some people will only wear Nike tennis shoes, this is specific brand loyalty. The value of a reasonable determined breaker point is typically a near(a) countenance indicator, but not always. Product price versus the quality of the product is ano ther proportion the customers will make prior to buying. It has been my personnel experience that a cheaper product of lesser quality will often emergency to replaced because it worn out too soon. If the quality of the product lasts as long as the customer feels it should based on the price of the item, past when it is time to replace it, they are more likely to venture back to the same brand.What the customer value in a particular product must be identified to meet their budgets need and keep them coming back as a repeat customer for the company. Customer loyalty is free publicizing for the industriousnessr. When customers are happy rough the products or facilitate that they receive from a business, they brag about the product and the organization. Bragging is free advertising of products or function. By acknowledging the value of customer feedback, making the customer feel good while using a particular product, the company may gain a loyal friend for life.Step 2Identify t he Business Processes the Delivers this Value to Customers aft(prenominal) a business identifies what products and services the customer wants, needs and values, their business processes that try these products and services must be identified as well (Garrison, et. al, 2008, p 14). The neighboring step is to lean out those processes to make them more efficient. During this step of the lean process, there are no departmental boundaries in the companys organizational chart when determine what business process will deliver the identified value to the customer (Garrison, et. l, 2008, p 14). This element removes waste from both manufacturing and human resources. This tallys effective processes. Each business department has the opportunity to be lean. Step 3Organize Work Arrangements around the Flow of the Business Process Effective layout for business flow is essentional to an efficient return line (Sullivan, 2008). The Lean Manufacturing carcass organizes process and places them i n manufacturing cells based on the product that they are creating. The cellular approach takes employees and equipment from departments that were previously disjointed from one another and places them side-by-side in a work space called a cell (Garrison, et. al, 2008 p 14). Every aspect from the equipment process line to the employee raceway the machines is organized in a cell. Training the employees to perform all the steps in their manufacturing cell ensures holy and consistent skill training. This step ensures that the manufacturing of the product is completed in a serial manner that follows detailed process steps.By applying this step, time reduction for an employee in the boilersuit process will take place. For example, the employee would no longer have to run lay down across the two-mile plant to obtain the ballock for the bolt that was produced in their cell. The bolts and nuts would be in the same cell since it is part of the new process cell. This is a significant co st savings for the company, which is passed directly to the customer. Step 4Create a Pull transcription that Responds to Customer Demands Creating a pull system to respond to customer demands starts by a customer placing a product or service order.A company reduces inventories to bare minimum levels because takings will only occur after the customer orders something from the organization. In an ideal situation the company would only purchase the raw materials needed for each day or shift of operation, with none left at the end of the day and immediately ship the finished goods to the customer (Garrison, et. al, 2008 p 14). This sometimes can cause a worry. This type of workflow pattern can cause work break-dancepages because when orders are not coming in, workers are waiting for customer orders to perform work (Garrison, et. al, 2008 p 14).This worry can be alleviated by ensuring that cross training is conducted with those employees that may have to wait for orders. Just-in-Ti me (JIT) is another example of a pull system and is utilise at many piled manufacturing companies such as Northrop Grumman, intersection and Toyota. When the JIT System is apply to a manufacturing process, materials are purchased for what is needed, when they are needed, and the quantities produced are based specifically on what customers order. The JIT system made Henry Ford and Toyota famous in their efforts to minimize waste and organize their manufacturing process successfully.For example, Toyota to this day does not start production on their vehicles until there is an order from a customer for a vehicle. Another excellent example of a company that uses the JIT process is Northrop Grumman Ship doing. They are fixed on the James River in Newport News, Virginia and are the only manufacturer of nuclear aircraft carries for the coupled States Navy. Northrop Grumman Shipbuilding developed the Nimitz class pallbearer for the Navy with the famous slogan of 90 tons of brand nam e. The pigmenting of all that steel is amazing to witness.In 1990, the Northrop Grumman Shipbuilding environmental department estimated the waste headstone volume at nearly 60% of the paint purchased. Northrop Grumman Shipbuilding decided that something needed to change to reduce this double cost of pleonastic paint purchased and waste. They began working with paint manufacturers and applied a JIT system with all paint purchases. The paint manufactures signed teaming agreements with Northrop Grumman Shipbuilding to supplying all paints JIT. The environmental department estimated a 25% reduction in waste from this JIT application. Only 25% reduction was seen as a great feat, but it was excessively disturbing.The environmental department with Northrop Grumman Shipbuilding was touch on that there was not a 60% reduction. This led the company to further investigating of the painting application process. Northrop Grumman Shipbuilding notice that the paint distribution and applica tion process was the culprit for the missing 35%. Their next lean step after discovering this task was to eliminate it and they have since created processes to do righteous that. Step 5Continuously Pursue Perfection in the Business Process A company must continuously review all aspects of their business in order for it to improve in the pursual of perfection.This is not just production line review (Garrison et al. , p. 14). Quality control is a vital attribute in this step as well. Raw materials and parts are chaffered for defects, including finished products manufactured in the keep going and raw materials received from supplies to produce those products. Business and suppliers must work together to ensure each has a quality program that will enhance their product line, not hurt it with inadequate materials or products. The companys production workers will inspect a second time since they are directly responsible for spotting unfit pieces.A worker who discovers a defect immed iately turn backs the flow of production and start working on dread shooting a solution to correct it. Supervisors and other workers in the area will assist in determining the root cause of the occupation and correct it out front end any further defective units are produced (Garrison et al. , p. 14). This way of thinking allows the company to ensure quick problem identification and solutions in their business process. It is not a commonalty philosophy in manufacturing processes where the production line worker can stop the production line because they found an error in a part.Typically, the worker is required to intercommunicate their supervisor, the supervisor will inform the shop production manager and then peradventure senior management all while the production line is still running and generating defective parts. This entire succession of inform all those in the management stove can take hours or even days to accomplish. With lean manufacturing and the Jidoka system, th e worker would stop production immediately, resolve the issues before any more defective parts are produced and subsequently scrapped as waste (Brodek, 2009).A very interesting aspect of lean is that the process relies on those working the blow out of the water plate to find defective or wasteful processes and solve the problem. Traditionally, an individual would go up the image of management and those in upper management would make the corrective action decision. The Jidoka system is a process established by the Japanese that provides front line workers the ability and responsibility to stop the production line immediately when they find a problem (Brodek, 2009). They are then required to alert their fellow workers and problem solves the situation.If they are inexperienced in this problem solving process, other works or supervision may make suggestions for correction, but not before the individual that stop the process attempts to solve it. This forces the new employee to dumbf ound learned problem solving skills, which is invaluable in a manufacturing process line. ineradicable and perfect solutions are expected result of the Jidoka system. Employees must understand that the Band-Aid approach is not acceptable in correcting company production or process problems.The entire company must pull together and problem solve, because by using the lean process, repeat defective parts are not acceptable. In 1926, Henry Ford could manufacture a car in four days and at that same time, Toyota and public Motors needed ten weeks to produce just one vehicle. Henry Fords Jidoka system vehicle manufacturing process is a great example of how reducing waste worked for Ford. Toyota studied the Ford process and applied lean manufacturing to their processes and reduced their vehicle manufacturing process from ten weeks to just two days (Brodek, 2009).That is impressive for any company. Another activity for the Lean Thinking Model The lean thinking model can withal be used t o improve the business processes that link companies together. The term supply chain management is commonly used to affect to the coordination of business processes across companies to better serve end consumers (Garrison et al, 2008, p 14). For example, Costco teams with their suppliers to ensure materials and products that they need are available based on customer demand.Both Costco and the supplier understand that their mutual success is highly hooklike upon them working together as a team. Summary The significant benefits of the Lean Manufacturing Model include many different aspects. The beginning(a) is the reduction of resources, human and natural. By removing waste from work scopes, production lines and management, the company will save money. Another significant benefit is the reduction of time for an employee and a given(p) product on the production line will result in redundant cost savings.By leaning out an organizations processes, human resources, and materials in t he production process, this elimination of non-value added steps would add the benefit of saving the company time and money. Other examples of the reduction in resources used include electricity, natural resources (metal, gas, electricity, and fabric) and personnel. Truly honing in on what the customer wants, needs and values will help create a process that defines those values. This is a key function of lean manufacturing. References Baker, W. H. (2006, whitethorn). Profit Online.Retrieved June 7, 2009, from Five Steps to the Lean Enterprise creating a sustainable competitive advange http//www. oracle. com/profit/features/p26lean_3. hypertext markup language Brodek, N. (2009). vomit Making Technology. 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