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ABSTRACT
The literature studies showed lean manufacturing started at Toyota car
manufacturing plant, Japan, which is known as Toyota Production System (TPS).
The main pillars in TPS are Just in time and automation which main objective is to
identify and eliminate waste in an organization. Lean manufacturing can be
applied successfully in all industries providing a full understanding on lean
ingredients i.e. concept, principles and practices. There are numerous practices
being highlighted by academicians and practitioners which are compulsory to be
implemented in order to gain full benefits of lean. As small and medium
enterprises (SMEs) are resources constraints, facing difficulties to adopt all lean
principles. To compete in global competitive marketplace, the SMEs have to strive
for world class performance through implementation of lean manufacturing. The
main objective of this paper is to carry out a critical review on the lean
manufacturing practices. Previous studies showed total lean manufacturing
practices could help manufacturing organization to gain full benefits i.e. reduction
in inventory, lead time, set up time, and etc., provided theyre adopting all
practices. As the resources constraint to SMEs, the selected practices should be
feasible to the company problem and low investment.
Keywords: Lean manufacturing, TPS, Small and Medium Enterprises (SME)
INTRODUCTION
The global industry in 21st century has forced most of the leaders in several sectors
to implement more competitive manufacturing system. The best answer as found
in the journals is lean manufacturing. Initially its started at Toyota plant, Japan,
which is known Toyota Production System (TPS). It has been widely known and
implemented since 1960. According to (Rineheart et al 1997) lean manufacturing
LITERATURE REVIEW
The importance of small manufacturer (SME) to take part in lean implementation is
align with large manufacturer which implementing new management system i.e.
lean manufacturing, as to improve their performance. Therefore, it will affect the
small and medium enterprises (SMEs) that are the suppliers to the large
than control
More responsive to market needs and Lack of skills, time and resources; no
customers demand
specified training budget
Loose
and
informal
working Formation of strategy process is
relationships
and
absence
of intuitive rather than analytical
standardization
involvement and clearly highlight on vision and mission. Lean is not an easy task
as seen.
Lean concept/philosophy
Lean principles
Lean
practices/techniques/tools
Lean outcomes/benefits
Then, Womack & Jones (1996) in their book, had highlighted five key
principles should be viewed and practiced in conjunction to success in lean,
namely;
i)
Value the end customers perspectives on product/service
capabilities, price, performance and availability
ii)
Elimination of waste through value streamline, that is, all activities
that do not add value and for which the end customer is unwilling to
pay
iii)
Managing continuous flow of product, information through the
system on a just-in-time basis avoiding batches, waiting, and down
time between activities
iv)
Using pull/kanban, producing only what customers needs
v)
Continual improvement, striving for perfection.
They stressed that the lean is not mainly focus in the production line, but also
relates to activities from product development, procurement and manufacturing
over to distribution.
According to (Karlsson & Ahlstrom 1996), there are nine principles which are
necessary in assessing lean performance, namely
i)
Elimination of waste
ii)
Continuous improvement
iii)
Zero defects
iv)
JIT deliveries
v)
Pull of materials
vi)
Multifunction teams
vii)
Decentralization
viii)
Integration of functions
ix)
Vertical information
Based on the above principles, organization has to implement all activities in order
to gain full benefits of lean.
LEAN PRACTICES
There are number of lean practices explained by academicians and practitioners in
the previous publications. Table 2 is the list of lean practices (Mclachlin 1997;
Shah & Ward 2006). Do SMEs need to apply all practices in the organization?
Among the highest highlighted practices are quick changeover, kanban, continuous
flow, lot size reduction, total quality management and continuous improvement
program.
Researchers found large organisation do not have any difficulties on adopting
lean practices and are likely to implement all practices compared to small
organisation (White et al. 1999; Shah & Ward 2003). The Engineering Employers
(2001) final report mentioned that to enjoy full benefits of lean, organizations
should utilize a package of four or five tools and was supported by Bhasin (2006),
the organization should implement most of lean practices in order to fruitful the
greater benefits of lean. Another view from researcher, that if the management uses
a few of the lean techniques only, then, the real potential benefits and continuous
improvement is usually less effective (Spann et al. 1999). However, Bhasin (2006),
has stressing the organisation should implement most of the highlighted practices
as in the Table 3. Through lean practices, it will be able to discover any abnormal
process in the system, and if not solve, it will cause high implication to the system
(Bhasin 2006). The true benefit of lean is able to strengthening the overall system
(Meier & Forrester 2001).
Due to SMEs limited budget, Lee (1997) suggested small manufacturer should
strive to apply the feasible practices only, not all tools at once. It was supported by
White (1999) in his publication. There are four practices which are similarly
suggested in small and large organization namely; set up time reduction, preventive
maintenance, kanban and total quality control as shown in Table 3.
The finding shows that, numerous practices can be applied in the organization
depending on the suitability of organization. Therefore, lack of skill and
knowledge on lean practices will cause wrong interpretation, as a result it cause
inaccurate findings. Four categories of misapplications were highlighted by
Pavnaskar et al. (2003) and Herron & Braiden (2007) are:
i)
use the wrong tool to solve a problem
ii)
use one tool to solve all problems
iii)
use the same set/group of tools to solve all problems.
iv)
lack of understanding
The misapplication of using lean tools or techniques will cause low confident
among employees on lean system (Pavnaskar et al. 2003).
Table 2. Lean practices and their appearance in key references (adapted from McLachlin, 1997; Shah & Ward 2003)
Practices
Chan
et al.
(1990
)
Shingo
Prize
Guideline
s (1996)
Flynn
et al.
(1999)
Sakakibar
a et al.
(1997)
Koufteros
et al.
(1998)
White
et al.
(1999)
White
(1993)
Wantu
ck
(1983)
Voss and
Robinson
(1987)
Hay
(1988)
Biche
no
(1989)
Piper
and
McLa
chlin
(1990)
Suzaki
(1985)
Finch and
Cox
(1986)
Lee &
Ebrahimp
our
(1984)
Sugimori
et al.
(1977),
Monden(
1981) &
Pegels
(1984)
Quick
changeover
techniques
Pull system/kanban
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
JIT/continuous
flow
production
Lot size reductions
Total
quality
management
Continuous
improvement programs
Preventive
maintenance
Cross-functional work
force
Self-directed
work
teams
Focused
factory
production
Cellular manufacturing
Cycle time reductions
Process
capability
measurements
New
process
equipment/technologies
Safety
improvement
programs
*
*
Mclahlin (1997)
and Shah &
Ward (2003)
i) Set up time
reduction
ii) Kanban
iii) JIT/continu
ous
flow
production
iv) Small lot
v) Total
quality
managemen
t
vi) Continuous
improveme
nt programs
vii) TPM
viii) Multifuncti
on
employee
ix) Selfdirected
work teams
x) Focused
factory
Large organization
Bhasin 2006
i)
Set up time
reduction
ii) Kanban
iii) Continuous
improvement
iv) Group
technology
v) Process
mapping
exercise
vi) Step
change/kaika
ku
vii) 5S and visual
management
viii) Value
and
seven waste
ix) Supplier
development
x) Supplier base
reduction
xi) TPM
Small organisation
Lee, 1997
White, 1999
White, 1999
i)
ii)
iii)
iv)
v)
vi)
vii)
viii)
ix)
x)
Set up
time
reduction
Kanban
Total
Quality
Control
Group
Technolo
gy
JIT
Purchasin
g
Multifunc
tion
Employee
Quality
Circles
Uniform
workload
TPM
Focused
Factory
i)
Set-up time
reduction
ii) Kanban
iii) Total
Quality
Control
iv) Small lot
v) Multifuncti
on
Employee
vi) Group
Technology
vii) JIT
purchasing
viii) Uniform
Workload
ix) TPM
x) Focused
Factory
i)
ii)
iii)
iv)
v)
vi)
vii)
viii)
ix)
x)
Set up time
reduction
Kanban
Total
Quality
Control
Group
technology
Multifuncti
on
Employee
JIT
Purchasing
Quality
Circles
Uniform
Workload
TPM
Focus
factory
such as, they are more agile, it is much easier to get management support and
commitment, as opposed to large organizations. Other advantages on small
organisation as listed in Table 1.
No difference was found between small and large organizations related to
workforce management practices (Doolen & Hacker 2005). Supported by (Shah &
Ward 2003), that the small organisation shows similar with large organisation
implementation on cross functional workforce and quality management programs.
It shows that the small organisation are also aware on the importance of these two
practices in order to sustain in global competitive market. Small organisation are
likely to implement multifunction employees compared to large organisation,
whereas quality circles, quality controls, TPM, set-up time reduction and kanban
were higher implemented in large organisation (White et al. 1999). Hence, the
employees are flexible enough to move around to different jobs as needed.
Lee (1997) and Bonavia (2006) found that large and small companies have the
right opportunity to implement lean manufacturing. But to SMEs, to implement all
elements at one time is impossible since the factors of financial constraint and lack
of management commitment (Achanga 2006).
BENEFITS OF LEAN
The previous publications have highlighted various benefits of lean implementation
in Table 4.
Table 4. Lean benefits
Benefits
Stocks reduction
Authors
Billesbach (1994), Fullerton and McWatters (2001),
Lee (1997), Sanchez and Perez (2001), Sakakibara
et al. (1997), White et al. (1999) and Womack et al.
(1990)
Quality
improvements
Productivity
(direct labour)
On-time delivery
Smaller batches
Delivery time
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