Lean Manufacturing &

JIT Production
 Just-in-time
- A philosophy for optimizing performance of a
manufacturing system.

- Originated from work of Taiichi Ohno at Toyota.

- After WWII, U.S needed large mass production to

satisfy demand for products.

- Japanese market was much smaller, so more

flexible systems were needed to produce smaller
quantities of different items in the same equipment.
 Just-in-time
After many years, Toyota established the following
strategy:

1.      Kanban based pull production.

2.      Waste elimination is guide philosophy.
3.      Faith in importance and value of quality.
4.      “Kaizen” or continuous improvement as a daily
strategy.
5.      Emphasis on setup reduction on all machines.
6.      Integrate suppliers and material acquisition into the
planning process.
7. Cellular layouts with balanced flow.
 Comments about Kanban - JIT
 Note that Kanban systems are not the same as JIT.
 The pull approach is only one aspect of the JIT
philosophy.
 The combination of the above factors transforms the
shop into a lean facility.
 They factors depend on one another.
 A Kanban system without high quality or low setups
will not achieve expected benefits.
 Basic Tenets of Lean, JIT Production

Categories
 Improving Production Environment

 Quality Engineering

 Improving Material Flow

 I. Improving Production Environment

1. Eliminate Waste
2. Employee Cross-Training and Job Rotation
3. Employee Empowerment and Involvement
4. JIT Purchasing
5. Reduction of Variability
6. Mistake-Proof Processes
7. Reduce Setup Times
 Some Terminology
 Muda: Japanese term for any human activity which
abosrbs resources but creates no real value.
 Kaizen: process of continuous incremental
improvement through the identification
/elimination of muda.
 Kaizen blitz: an event where a team of managers,
engineers and line workers coordinated by a
facilitator come together for three days to focus on
improvements on an area of a plant.
 Some Terminology
 Typical strategy in Kaizen Event is asking “why”
five times until the root cause or motivation for an
action is discovered.

 Golden Rule: Use everyone’s knowledge to identify

and implement improvements quickly and cost
effectively.
 1. Eliminate Waste
 Original scientific approach was to dissect a large
system into small pieces and make each piece
optimal.

 Japanese approach: develop a system that connects

the pieces.
 
 Ex. Instead of tracking production statistics and
inspecting “out” defective products, eliminate any
production of defective items.
 Seven Types of Waste
commonly found in industry.

A. Waste from Overproduction

 Why make products that won’t be sold?

 Before, supervisors were evaluated through quotas.

 Machine utilization needed to be maximized.

 New idea: machines and humans should only be

busy when they have useful tasks to accomplish.

 Seven Types of Waste
commonly found in industry.

B. Waste of Motion

 Eliminate motions that do not add value.

 Look at workplace design, process planning,

detailed job procedures, material handling.

 Seven Types of Waste
commonly found in industry.

C. Transportation Waste

 Position work and storage areas such that

material moves are short.

 Keep tooling near its point-of use.

 Seven Types of Waste
commonly found in industry.

D. Processing Waste

 Eliminate non-value added operations.

 May need to go back to product design and

revise features and tolerances.

 Seven Types of Waste
commonly found in industry.

E. Wasted Time (queuing)

 Plan for:

 Small lot sizes

 Ordered production and release of dependent

Items

 Good coordination will achieve small WIP and

throughput time.
 Seven Types of Waste
commonly found in industry.

F. Defective Products…

 Cost money

 Deplete resources

 Negatively impact customer perception

 Seven Types of Waste
commonly found in industry.

G. Excess Inventory yields added costs due to…

 Space, obsolescence, opportunity costs, handling,

among others.

 Avoid excess inventory.

 Can achieve via modular components.

 Negotiate long term contracts with suppliers to

ensure a steady stream of high-quality parts.

 2. Employee Cross-Training and Job
Rotation
 Can train over time to do variety of tasks in their
work area.
 Can then rotate through different positions.
Benefits:
 Enhances worker flexibility and enthusiasm.
 Prevents boredom, fresh perspectives and ideas for
improvements.
 Gives context of communication between workers
on same team.
 2. Employee Cross-Training and Job
Rotation

Benefits (continued):

 Minimizes fatigue and repetitive stress injuries.

 Can move workers around to eliminate temporary

bottlenecks.

 In U-shaped cells, workers can operate more than

one machine at a time.

 3. Employee Empowerment and
Involvement

 Why hire a body when it comes with a brain?

 Employees are a great source of ideas for
improvement.
 Employees must be allowed and encouraged to
do so.
 This includes authority to stop production and
correct a problem in production.
 The goal is to identify problems early.
 3. Employee Empowerment and
Involvement

 A usual approach to empower is via a switch to

stop production.

 This warning system is called Jikoda.

 The warning light system is called andon.

 Usually a bank of three lights is used: green, yellow

and red.
 3. Employee Empowerment and
Involvement

 One light is always on, indicating station status.

 Red light signals a line stoppage and location of
problem to other workers.
 Nearby workers assist with the problem, get
additional help if necessary.
 Identifier and solver of problem
are rewarded.
 3. Employee Empowerment and
Involvement

 Employees should be involved in developing

procedures.
 Workers take pride in job if they know they are
helping meet customer expectations.
 3. Employee Empowerment and
Involvement
 Worker area should also be kept clean and organized.
 This helps in pride and dedication.

 5S’s:
Sort, Straighten, Sanitize, Sweep and Sustain.
 Organized workplace reduces:
 Misplacing
 Contamination
 Brightens up atmosphere
 Gives feeling system is under control.
 Conveys that sloppiness is not tolerated.
 4. JIT Purchasing

Changes that can be implemented

1.  Sole source vs. multiple supply sources.
- Idea: better negotiate long-term contracts with
single supplier.
- This encourages cooperation instead of competing
over terms.
- Supplier’s long term interest is now to provide
high quality on time at a fair price to ensure
customer’s success.
 4. JIT Purchasing

Changes that can be implemented

2. Frequent delivery of small lots vs quantity
discounts.
- Traditional approach: occasional deliveries of
large quantities of parts.
- Parts were inspected via sampling.
-Now, no inspection is needed since vendor
product quality has been certified and meets
requirements. (If not, get a new supplier).
 4. JIT Purchasing

Changes that can be implemented

3. Flexible ordering vs. paperwork.
- Contracts usually call for steady flow of product
+/- 10%
- Customer can change order quantity on short
notice with little hassle.
- Requires some reserve capacity by vendor.
 4. JIT Purchasing

Changes that can be implemented

4. Vendor owns and manages inventories.

-Vendor can hold inventory on customer’s site.

- Customer gets billed only when extracting parts.

- Supplier has responsibility to keep enough

inventory level.
 5. Reduction of Variability

 Variability reduces efficiency.

 If supplies, yields or machine availability are

unpredictable, the tendency is to have large safety

stocks of inventory.

 Idea:

Eliminate variability from production processes.

 6. Mistake-Proof Processes

 This involves eliminating opportunities for errors.

 Idea:
Design processes to avoid producing defective
items.

 Be able to detect defects before more production

steps are done.

Poka-Yoke: “mistake proofing a process.”

 6. Mistake-Proof Processes

Basic ideas:
 100% of units should be inspected.
 Identify defects as close to the source as possible.
 Stop production immediately and take corrective
action right after a defect is detected.
 Design processes to avoid producing defects.
 6. Mistake-Proof Processes

Some Poka-Yoke Techniques

 Checklists and worker source inspection.
 Worker checks his own work.
 Problem: humans tend to approve their own
work.
 Checklists help ensure all steps have been
completed in station.
 6. Mistake-Proof Processes

Some Poka-Yoke Techniques

 Successive check systems
 Worker checks incoming parts from previous
station before starting his own operation.

 Worker must approve work by previous worker

or defects must be communicated to previous
worker right away.
 6. Mistake-Proof Processes

Some Poka-Yoke Techniques

 Mistake-proof part and fixture design.
 Design parts so that they can only fit in a tooling
fixture in proper orientation.

 Reshape symmetrical parts to exaggerate

asymmetries – easier to detect misalignments.
 7. Reduce Setup Times
Usually the MOST productive investment that can be made
to improve production system performance.
  Techniques (*):
  - Design parts for manufacturability
- Design parts for standard tools.
-  Develop standard methods for setups.
- Divide setup activities into external/internal tasks.
-  Design procedures to perform setup tasks in parallel.
- Modular fixturing
- Eliminate adjustments.
- Use power clamps.
 Transitioning from Traditional to Lean

 1900’s Philosophy
 Worker was immigrant, uneducated, spoke little English.
 Worker is like a machine designed to perform a limited
set of tasks well.
 Product customization was not an issue for customers (all
model T’s were the same).

  2000 Lean Philosophy

 Worker: most flexible machine.
 If properly educated, worker can solve problems and
adapt to new situation.
 The customer expects customization.
 Transitioning from Traditional to Lean

 Old Production Mentality:

 Process-Based Organization

 Economic Order Quantities

 Large Unit Handling Loads

 Receiving Inspection

 Maximize Equipment Use

 Transitioning from Traditional to Lean

 New Lean Thinking

 Product Cell Layouts
 Single-Unit mixed model production
 Continuous material flow
 Mistake proofing
 Balanced production line
 Problems in Implementing Lean
 Cannot make it happen without the support of
floor operators.
 Culture change needs to happen.
 Old philosophy: run large batches to amortize setup costs
of the largest number of parts and products.
 New philosophy: demand based production.

 Management not fully involved.

 Loss of interest by top management and workers.
 After initial implementation, no hard benefits seen in
bottom line.
 Might have implemented Lean in wrong areas.
 Pros & Cons of Cell Manufacturing
 Pros
 Shorter Lead times
 Reduced WIP
 Space Savings
 Higher Quality End Product
 Better team
communications
 Employee “ownership” and
“can do” attitude
 Supports “pull operation”
 Cons
 Lower equipment utilization of
non-bottleneck cells.
 One piece of the cell breaks
down, the whole cell is out (no
redundancy of equipment
within a cell)
 Loss of employee dedicated
expertise
 If demand falls and cell output
is below cell capacity, per unit
costs are higher.
 Multi-product cells may not be
suitable for higher volume
orders, becoming the
bottleneck.
 Transition Stages in Lean Thinking
(Ford Motor Company)

 Phase 1: Process Stabilization

Improve production environment; predictable/reliable processes;
total productive maintenance, total quality, poka-yoke, setup
time reduction, standard procedures, clean & organize the
workplace. Train employees in lean thinking.

 Phase 2: Continuous Flow

Reduce WIP and batch sizes. No need to run machines at full
capacity. Unit parts can plow in small or single quantities
between workstations.
 Transition Stages in Lean Thinking
(Ford Motor Company)
 Phase 3: Synchronous production.
Follow weekly production schedules.

 Phase 4: Pull authorization

To authorize production, parts must be “pulled” by successive
workstations. Kanbans dictate production.

 Phase 5: Balanced production

All process produce at a constant level and continuous rate.
Every part type is made daily; parts flow continuously.
 Short Articles on Lean Implementations

 www.sme.org
Manufacturing Engineering Magazine
September 2003 Issue
“Lean by Design – and by Necessity”
http://www.sme.org/cgi-bin/get-mag.pl?&&03sem002&000007&2003/0
3sem002&ARTME&SME&

“Lean pays Off at Ariens”

 
http://www.sme.org/cgi-bin/get-mag.pl?&&03sem005&000007&2003
/03sem005&ARTME&SME&