OM - Lean production Flashcards
(21 cards)
Define Lean Production
Lean Production aims to remove all elements of waste from the production process to increase productivity and reduce costs
(also include 5 elements of the system)
What are the most important elements of a lean production system?
-JIT
-Kaizen
-Kanban
-Cell Production
-Time-Based Management
Examples of Waste
-Unused raw materials lying around
-Work in progress sat waiting to be used in production
-Finished products in a warehouse waiting to be sent to customers
-Skills/Knowledge of workers not being used by managers
Benefits of Lean Production
- increase productivity
- reduce costs
- not holding stock if use JIT
- reduced no. of defective products
- lead times are cut
- improved reliability
- new products designed quicker
- reduced waste
Define Cell Production
With cell production, the production line is subdivided into a number of cells. These cells are
groups of workers involved in related tasks.
Benefits of cell production
- Workers are trained to fulfill a number of the tasks within the cell allowing job rotation
- The workers skills means they can each play a role in improving quality and also create flexibility in the production process
- Improved communication
- The job enrichment / enlargements parts of this production improves motivation
- It’s possible for cells to be self-managing for many human resource management issues like shift arrangements, breaks and holidays
Define Time-based Management
Emphasis is placed on reducing time-taken in all aspects of the whole production process. It involved concepts such as JIT, CAD ( computer aided design), CAM ( computer aided manufacture), critical path analysis and simultaneous engineering
- With this approach, time is regarded as a key business resource. Speed of development, speed of response and speed of delivery are becoming increasingly important because speed adds value.
What is CAD?
It can be used to increase efficiency as businesses can use technology to create and amend designs instead of doing these manually.
What is CAM?
It is the use of software and computer-controlled machinery to automate a manufacturing process.
What is simultaneous engineering?
Simultaneous engineering is where everyone involved in the project works on it at the same time – engineers, designers etc
This decreases the time taken to get the product to market
Define JIT
It tries to ensure that parts, raw materials and components are received and products are made only when there is demand for the parts and products.
What does JIT focus on?
- Supplier relationships
- Customer relationships
- Employee Involvement
- Kanban
- Management understanding
Advantages of JIT
- improves cash flow as very little stock is held
- waste is reduced as no obsolete or damaged stocks occur
- factory space can be freed up for more productive use
- costs of stock holding are radically reduced
- links with and the control of suppliers
are improved, leading to better quality of components supplied - motivation is improved as workers are given greater responsibility and encouraged to work in teams (as part of the lean production process).
Disadvantages of JIT
- a lot depends on the reliability and flexibility of suppliers
- ordering and administration costs are likely to rise
- bulk buying advantages may be lost
- difficult to cope with sharp, unexpected increases in demand
- reputation can be damaged if customers are let down by late deliveries as no buffer stocks are
held
-extra pressure on staff because of additional responsibility associated with a JIT system - unforeseen interruptions in supply.
Define kaizen
Kaizen is continually making small incremental steps in the improvement of quality, design and waste reduction to increase efficiency.
- Continuous Improvement
Benefits of Kaizen
- improved labour relations
- improved quality
- increased productivity
- improved motivation
- increased competitiveness
- reduction in waste
- less large-scale investment.
The use of Kaizen
The main working element of kaizen is the use of kaizen groups. These are groups of workers who have a common stake in part of the production process. These groups will meet regularly to discuss problems and to suggest improvements. Often improvements can be made at nil or minimal cost. This
means that over time the whole cost base of the business can be reduced, whilst indicators of quality and levels of production increase. All this is achieved with minimal capital investment.
For Kaizen workers must ?
Be trained to have the ability to understand their roles and complete their task efficiently
For Kaizen, why must management have a clear understanding of the production processes ?
So that they can organise, control and plan to enable workers to meet the needs and quality requirements of the
‘customers’ within the organisation
For Kaizen, why do you need effective communication systems ?
Workers must be able to communicate suggestions to superiors and other relevant employees. This can be done through kaizen groups, but other
methods of communication must also be available
Define Kanban
Similar to JIT, this involves ensuring a regular and timely supply of components. It means there will be no time wasted during the production process waiting for components, as they’ll be on the production line ready to be used
