Universidad Autonoma De Nuevo Leon

Facultad de Contaduria Publica y

Administracion

Operations Management

Chapter 12: Lean

Production

Arturo Alejandro Flores Quiones

1551427
Group 4Ei
Teacher Armando Escamilla

18/04/2016

Lean Logic
Lean production is an integrated set of activities designed to achieve highvolume production using minimal inventories of raw materials, work-inprocess, and finished goods. Parts arrieve the next worksation just in time
and are completed and move through the process quickly. Lean is also based
on the logic that nothing will be produced until it is needed.

The Toyota Production System

The Toyota Production System was developed to improve quality and ductivity and is
predicated upon two philosophies that are central to the Japanese culture elimination of
waste and respect for people; Elimination of Waste and Respect for People.
Waste, as defined by Toyotas president is anything other than the minimum amount of
equipment, materials, parts, and workers which are absolutely essential to production.
Respect for People: is a key to the Toyota Production System. They have traditionally
strived to assure lifetime employment for permanent positions and to maintain level
payrolls even when business conditions deteriorate.

Lean Implementation Requirements

Lean requires the plant layout to be designed to ensure balanced work flow with a
minimum of work-in-process inventory. Each workstation is part of a production line,
whether or not a physical line actually exists. Capacity is balanced using the same logic
for an assembly line, and operations are linked through a pull system.
Preventive maintenance is emphasized to ensure that flows are not interrupted by
down-time or malfunctioning equipment. Preventive maintenance involves periodic
inspection and repair designed to keep a machine reliable.

Lean Services
Many lean techniques have been successfully applied by service firms. Just as in
manufacturing, the suitability of each technique and the corresponding work steps
depend on the characteristics of the firms markets, production and equipment

technology, skill sets, and corporate culture. Service firms are not different
in this respect

As we have seen lean production has proven its value to thousands of companies
throughout the world. The Toyota version, however, has been modified successfully by
the other auto producers such as Nissan and Honda, and now is being challenged by
BMW. Lean production is an encompassing philosophy considering product design,
process design, equipment and facilities design supply chain coordination, job design,
and productivity improvement. If there is one key to successful implementation of lean
or its variants its adopting a holistic approach, which according to a study by UKs
McKinsey Production Centre transforms not just technical production system, but also
the companys management system using a comprehensive change management
process

A level schedule is one that requires material to be pulled into final assembly in a
pattern uniform enough to allow the various elements of a production to respond to pull
signals. It does not necessarily mean that the usage of every part on an assembly line is
identified hour by hour for days on end; it does mean that a given production system
equipped with flexible setups and a fixed amount of material in the pipelines can
respond
The term freeze window refers to the period of time during which the schedule is fixed
and no further changes are possible. The concept of backflush measurement is used to
periodically explode an end item0s bill of materials to calculate how many if each went
in to the final product.
Just as customers and employees are key components of lean systems, suppliers are
also important to the process. If a firm shares its projected usage requirements with its
vendors, they have long-run picture of the demands that will be placed on their
production and distribution systems. Some vendors are linked online with a customer to
share production scheduling and input needs data. This permits them to develop level
production systems.
The confidence in the supplier or vendors delivery commitment allows reductions of
buffer inventories, helping to maintain a stock at a lean level requires frequent deliveries
during the day.
Value must be defined jointly for each product family along with a target cost based on
the customers perception of value.
All firms along the value stream must take an adequate return on their investments
related to the value stream
The firms must work together to identify and eliminate the muda or waste to the point
where the overall target cost and return-on-investment targets of each firm are met.
When cost targets are met, the firms along the stream will immediately conduct new
analyses to identify remaining muda and set new targets.

Every participating firm has the right to examine every activity in every firm relevant to
the value stream as part of the joint search for waste.

Discussion Questions
1. What lean principles are being used by Arvin Meritor?
Team production, Just In Time production system, discipline, loyalty, pull system,
Kanban signals, all in the Arvin Total Quality Production System
2. It is possible to achieve zero inventories?
It is possible but the work have to be done efficiently eliminating all the waste and
focused on all the factory networks, with all the group technology and quality
systems the JIT production can achieve a zero inventory with an uniform plant
loading and a Kanban control system minimizing setup times.
3. Discuss lean in a job shop layout and in a line layout
Job shops are characterized by low volume and high variety, lean can be used if
demand can be stabilized to permit repetitive manufacture. Usually easier to
accomplish when the demand is from downstream production stage rather than
an end customer. So factory machining centers, paint shops, and shirt making
are examples of job-shop-type operations that process parts and components
before they reach final production stages.
4. Why must lean have a stable schedule?
Without a schedule the lean wouldnt work as unscheduled processes will
produce a lot of muda or waste for the firm, eliminating all the lean or just in time
production and evolving problems to the workstations
5. Will lean work in service environments?
Probably if it is performed well, service environments are more customer friendly,
and more customized, so a lean system would have to be very specifically, to
make a real innovation to the actual service systems, but it can be performed,
only with a good schedule and the right objectives, and of course the right
people.
6. What objections might a marketing manager have to uniform plant loading?
Uniform plant loading, is good but risky a marketing manager could say that it will
have an impact on sales due to questions about the quality of the product, but

achieving nice standards of quality will forget that problem and help the firm
improve the business.
7. What are the implication for cost accounting of lean production?
Cost accounting in a lean production is essential as it permits know how when
and who used the resources of the firm and in which way, helping the managers
to allocate the resources and reduce loss of inventory, also it implicates a trust
accountability to the firm with the benefit of pure profits.

8. What are the roles of suppliers and customers in a lean system?

Suppliers and customers roles are essential, they have to make the firm keep in
the good way giving them the capabilities to know each other and satisfy the
need of everybody and also having a nice relationship with the suppliers will help
the company gain more respect in the business sight.
9. Why is lean hard to implement or practice
Well lean is hard cause you have to eliminate a lot of processes that implies the
reduction of jobs, reduction of facilities, resources that have been lost from the
company would see the light and a lot of bribes and problems will show, so
implement a lean practice in the firm have to be conscious that problems with
emerge and your goal is to clean all the dirty and create an luminous system
without wastes
10. Explain the relationship between quality and productivity under the lean
philosophy
Quality and productivity have to be hand on hand with the production, as most
quality more productivity, it helps one by one and work together so implementing
both is essential in a lean philosophy, as they are pilars for the system.