Manufacturing Improvement : Traditional Manufacturing Vs Lean Manufacturing

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When we think about lean manufacturing we think about work cells, kanban cards, TQM and so on. But many people do a basic mistake. That is the mistake of not understanding the concepts on which lean manufacturing built on. Many people who copied lean manufacturing failed because they did not understood the concepts behind lean manufacturing.

We shall give a simple definition to lean manufacturing before we go further. Lean manufacturing can be defined as a systematic approach to continuously identify and remove the wastes from the system. All the tools and techniques are based on fulfillment of this simple requirement.

To identify the conceptual difference between lean manufacturing and conventional manufacturing, we will have a look at the definition given above. There is a very important word to note. That is “Removing”. Removing of waste from the system might not sound very different to minimization of wastes in the system, what we talk in conventional manufacturing. But think carefully. These two words are very different in the context of manufacturing (or even services).

When you think about minimizing of waste, you are thinking about the current system where you have wastes. You think about minimizing those wastes by fine tuning the system. When you think about eliminating or removing wastes from the system, you will have to find the causes for the wastes and remove them from the system. This means that you will have to redefine the process in a way that there are no wastes generated. So in the first case you live in the system where there are wastes, and struggle to get some improvement. In the later, you change the system so that system itself will not have the wastes. Aren’t they really different?

I will give you one more example to clarify the conceptual difference between lean manufacturing and traditional manufacturing. Think about Work In Progress (WIP). In a traditional manufacturing process WIP is treated as an asset which helps to run the process smoothly. Lean manufacturing though, treats WIP as a waste itself. Further, lean manufacturing treats WIP as a mirror which reflects the imperfection of the system.
I can go on and on explaining conceptual differences these systems have. But it is very important to understand one thing about lean manufacturing. Lean manufacturing is not a fine tuning to the traditional manufacturing system you had. It is a completely different system. To be able to implement lean manufacturing correctly, understand the conceptual differences between lean manufacturing and traditional manufacturing.

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Manufacturing Improvement : Increase Your Manufacturing Risk by Producing 'Acceptable' Part

There is alot of area in the manufacturing company especially those running below than 2 sigma to produce part that we can say it is a 'acceptable' part. Acceptable part mean part that the specification (dimensional and cosmetic) may still can be accept by customer.

Customer (Quality Inspector) may accept that condition base on thier personnel judgement. What happend once that Quality Inspector resign? and end customer start to make complaint on the goods. Are they going to use the buffer stock? Are they going to accept your previous and current lot? Aha....??? Now the problem will return back to you..

I believe that we may sometimes or frequentlly do this to our customer. This acceptable part may generate because of lack of communication between external parties; suplier and customer, or internal parties ; interdepartment personnel, miss inspection, miss look, process change with out approval or notification, running without follow Standard Operation Procedure (SOP), lack of manpower training, and alot of thousand ceative reason.

In this issue, all of the parties must work together and make the unclear thing to be clear and ensure everybody get the same information.

There is no customer place any part order without drawing or dimensional specification. The best thing is, follow whatevet stated in the drawing / blue print. And as customer, don forget to put important information (no hiden information) in the drawing / blue print.

As a supplier, please ask whatever unclear information, get as much as you can information form customer, ask your capacity, either you can produce that part according your customer requirement before you start your mass production. If you has work on that field for couple of year, utilize your experience to help your company achieve the goal / objective.

As a employee, are you ready to make one step ahead to reduce your company risk? Ask your self...

Manufacturing Improvement : Importance of Improvement

Thinking about how you can improve your company? In order to increase profit margins and develop better customer satisfaction, small businesses must embrace the idea of continuous improvement.

The basic idea behind continuous improvement is that there's always a better way, and never a best way.

By seeking out the "better way", small businesses can make significant improvements to quality, efficiency, employee satisfaction, customer service and ultimately the bottom line.
Whether you are in a service or manufacturing industry, the cost of materials and labor used in your operation is likely to increase over time.

As a result, any improvements that can be made in your process will result in savings necessary to offset increasing material costs. If your small business is to stay viable in the long run, you are going to need to embrace continuous improvement.

When Do You Try to Improve Your Business?

In many cases, the hardest time to implement continuous improvement techniques is when things are going well.

Profit margins are acceptable, waste is perceived as minimal, employees are happy and sales are strong. The problem arises when you're not seeking to improve your process, and you're simply treading water.

Even when things are going well, there is plenty of room for improvement. There are always opportunities to eliminate defects, bolster employee knowledge, increase cleanliness, and improve overall organization. Everyone in your company needs to feel they must improve on a monthly, weekly and even daily basis.

Improvement Can Be Difficult

One major enemy of continuous improvement is ego and self-perception. When I consult for small businesses and discuss the concept of continuous improvement, many managers are reluctant to make changes.

As with anything, change can be difficult. Moreover, when you tell an employee there may be a better way to complete a task, the employee may take this as a personal slight. For effective continuous improvement standards, all staff members need to understand how change and improvement are fundamental principles of any successful team.

There is no room for egos when it comes to building a successful business. Don't let emotional attachments get in the way of improving your processes.

Advantages Over Your Competitor

Companies that accept continuous improvement as part of their operations, maintain significant advantages over competitors.

For the small business, where many of the processes are being tried for the first time, continuous improvement standards can be of tremendous help.

When thinking about continuous improvement, I often use the example of a cook in the kitchen. Imagine a restaurant-sized kitchen where the idea is to produce two fancy pasta dishes.

The first time the chef walks into the kitchen and prepares the dish, he does not have the benefit of previous trials in that same kitchen. As a result, you would expect his process to have plenty of flaws. Rather than duplicate that first preparation for future orders, the chef will continually make incremental changes (for example, moving ingredients closer together for convenience) in order to reduce the overall cycle time for the dish preparation.

Make sure your processes aren't a duplication of the initial run. Remember there's always a better — and never a best — way to run things

Manufacturing Improvement : The Imprtance Of Research And Development

In the economic literature R&D plays an important role in at least two different ways. First, in the theory of industrial organization and also in the theory of international trade R&D is seen as a strategic variable by which firms conquer, or at the least preserve, market shares, and governments give their domestic firms a competitive edge in international trade, either through cost reductions (in the case of process R&D) or through product differentiation (in the case of product R&D). Second, in growth theory and in the management literature R&D is seen as an investment in knowledge or in absorptive capacity and hence indirectly as a contributor to economic growth. I want to concentrate on the second aspect.

How can R&D contribute to economic growth? Remember Robinson Crusoe. He is stranded on his island and has to find ways to survive. First he uses his own labor to grow fruits and vegetables and to catch fish. Economists would call this the labor input. Then, he figures out that by devoting some of his time to make better fishing rods and agricultural tools he is able to raise his productivity: grow more vegetables and catch more fish with the same amount of effort. The equipment used to produce other commodities is what economists call the capital input. So far Robinson has spent 20% of his time producing capital equipment and 80% of his time fishing and harvesting. Now that he produces enough to survive, he starts spending some time away from production, thinking about producing ever more performing production equipment or new varieties of crop. Robinson Crusoe has discovered the power of research. From now on he spends 20% of his time producing capital equipment, 10% of his time thinking and 70% of his time fishing and harvesting. We could complicate the story but let’s leave it at that and remember from this simple story that production has been obtained by using three inputs: labor, capital and R&D.

R&D plays a central role in the new theory of economic growth, called endogenous growth theory, which is based on the idea that growth does not fall like manna from heaven but can be explained by R&D efforts leading to new products (consumer goods or investment goods) and new knowledge (see the work by Romer (1990), Arrow (1962), Grossman and Helpman (1991), and Aghion and Howitt (1998)). R&D has two properties that set it apart from ordinary investment in machines, namely the fact that the knowledge derived from R&D is non-rival and partly non-excludable, which means that knowledge can be used simultaneously by two different persons without losing any of its content, and that it cannot always be prevented from being used by others. Hence the innovator cannot appropriate all the benefits from his new ideas. Part of it leaks out to others. In practice R&D has two effects. It can lead to new commodities, on which the innovator gains temporary monopoly profits (i.e. profits derived from the fact that he is the own producer, without competitors driving the profit down to zero), and it can lead to new knowledge (in the form of theorems, algorithms, models), which can facilitate subsequent innovations. Because of the impossibility of perfect price discrimination, a part of the monopoly rents get transferred to other producers or the consumers. For instance, we all seem to derive a benefit from using computers which is greater than the price that we paid for acquiring them. Zvi Griliches (1979) called this first R&D spillover “rent spillover” to distinguish it from the second one, which has to do with the free transmission of knowledge and which he called “knowledge spillover”. The non-appropriability of the entire benefits from R&D and the intertemporal externalities of R&D keep the benefits of R&D from dropping below the discount rate and hence maintain the incentives to invest in R&D, and therefore assure sustained growth.

Manufacturing Improvement : Train Your Personnel

As much as we hear about it, talk about it, and even meet about it, most of us are guilty of not focusing enough on employee training. This is usually true for all company levels— from the entry-level worker to the top strata of management. And while there are several options for training outside of your organization, the successful companies are those that have excellent training programs within their own companies.

Organization and structureIf your goal is to develop a truly successful training program in your operation, begin by formalizing it. This should include training curriculum from top to bottom—for your managers as well as your newest hires.

All too often we discuss the importance of training with our managers and then send them out with the mandate that they need to "train your people." The problem with this scenario is we have never trained our managers in the first place! Whether your supervisors are managing three people or 30, if you expect them to properly train their people you must first train them. Then move down your organization.

You also need to make certain that your training programs are structured—not only in their format but also as to their schedule. Whether sessions are held daily, weekly, or monthly, they should be held at the same time in order to create consistency. And once you set the schedule, stick with it. If your training is held regularly, you'll find that your employees will take it seriously, and attendance at these training sessions will be much higher. On the other hand, if your classes are held haphazardly, you will likely find that your personnel will begin regarding them as somewhat optional, rather than mandatory.

Mix it upIn my own company's training curriculum, we use a variety of instructors to keep the training fresh. Sometimes we will have our president lead the session, while other times it may be one of our department heads.

But we also have gone out-of-house, utilizing outside resources as "guest speakers" at some of our training sessions. Often, people outside of your organization will provide a unique view on a subject that otherwise may be received as "the same old stuff" if taught by someone within the organization. For example, you could bring in someone with extensive sales experience to share his or her perspective on how to interact with their customers, how to develop sales leads, how to retain customers, etc. While you may be able to tackle these subjects within your own management group, utilizing a variety of resources can be a very effective approach to your training.

Another way to invigorate a training program is to intermingle personnel from all your departments into a training session. This works particularly well with general subject matter: If you have a training topic that a large group or all of your employees need, divide the training up into smaller groups and organize the groups with representatives from every company department. This ensures that your employees have a chance to mingle with various people in your organization and to do so in a different setting from the standard one.

Who do you train?One of the challenges of training is deciding who exactly do you train in your organization and when you train them. The answers are: a) everyone, and, b) all the time.

Let's begin at the top of the ladder: Your philosophy should be that every manager must be in the process of training his or her replacement. This may seem threatening to some, but it's the only way people within your organization can grow. How many times have you had a key employee quit, only to find that you have no one even close to being qualified to replace them? That is a direct reflection on your training program.

Nor can your sales force ever have enough training. In addition to training them in sales skills, make certain they are trained in the technical aspects of your business. In our industry, the most successful sales reps are the ones that have the technical expertise to "talk the talk." Your customers demand it—and if they don't get it from your sales rep, they will find someone else who does.

Establishing successful training programs at the management and sales levels will make it easier to get additional training programs off the ground and running. Remember, every employee at every level needs some training.