UNIVERSITI MALAYSIA PERLIS

SCHOOL OF MANUFACTURING ENGINEERING

MASTER OF SCIENCE IN
MANUFACTURING SYSTEMS ENGINEERING

ASSIGNMENT 2
Critically Argue; Why 5 Elements are Important in
Transforming from Conventional Manufacturing Practice to
Lean Transformation

Student Name : Wan Mohd Akmal Bin Wan Makhdzar

Matric No. : 1432421304
Lecturer Name : Dr. Lee Chang Chuan
Course Name : Lean Transformations
Course Code : EPT 502
Submit Date : 06 April 2014
Introduction

Generally, lean transformation is a concept for the improvement of conventional

manufacturing practise. The objective is to emphasize the reduction or elimination of a waste in a
process. To facilitate the practical implementation of lean manufacturing transformation from
conventional manufacturing depends on a number of large and important elements. These elements
are divided into 5 main sections as organization, manufacturing flow, process control, metrics and
logistics. These elements are the backbone and requirement of a successful execution of the lean
transformation. A lean manufacturing implementation cannot survive within an old culture that does
not support a new operating environment.

1) Organization Element

The first element is the organization element. Organizational basically used as a place or
platform where people get together, work together in a rational and systematic, guided and
restrained, the use of a resource. An element of the organization consists of small sub-sub elements
such as communication planning, product-focused-responsibility, leadership development,
operational roles and responsibilities and workforce preparation. Communication planning is very
important to someone who wants to do something big changes (lean manufacturing) to an
organization. Communication planning should involve from the top to the bottom level. This is
because some people think, can manufacture transformation undermining the position of a
subordinate employee, especially where they would feel disturbed and threatened. Indirect impact to
the employee such fear and emotional distress.

Therefore, management must develop a communication plan that focuses on three levels of
the organization, and to customize the content and subject matter of each. Thus, by using various
forms of media to distribute messages and provide a clear understanding to all employees.
Executive management requires to understanding and the ability to approve. Middle management
needs a significant amount of education and training. The masses require validation and assurances
that they are included in the project’s deployment. With the advent of two-way communication
between employees and management indirectly they have given a transparent explanation of the
implementation of lean transformation. Communication planning is also to support the delivery of
all information accessible to all members of the organization.

Product focus-responsibility is aimed at establishing the nature of the sub element

ownerships to the product owner. The problems of the customer product continues to refer to the
team (especially operators) are given the responsibility to improve or solve problems. Compared to
conventional practice when problems arise it will go through to the upper levels prior to the lower
level. This has led to a waste of time, energy and not systematic. Product focus responsibility also is
an attempt to empower the workforce and obtain continuous quality improvement without a sound
underlying system of support is doomed to failure. It formed in a cell consisting of a leader and his
subordinates. The cell team has responsibility, accountability, and authority (RAA) for product
quality, delivery, cost, and any other element or aspect of that product that is assigned to the cell
level.
 There are many advantages when implemented this element very clear understanding of the
objectives by the cell, less interruption from others, permission is given to facilitate, quick and clear
feedback, feel the challenge and improve the skills of team members in facing the tasks. When
management creates this environment and nurtures these conditions, empowered, self-directed
teams can flourish.

Leader development is refers to the development of personnel in a group where it is

responsible to control, supervise and administer the group. Features that should be there by a leader
is excellent in planning, leadership, problem-solving Ability, team building, technical competency,
and interpersonal communication and even have the ability to solve a problem. Leader development
should be practiced to form new members as a replacement if the subordinate leaders to stopped or
resign. When this highly motivated person, with leadership and team-building skills, is empowered
to organize his team and set a course for continuous improvement, there will be no limit to what this
team can accomplish.

With increasing the speed of workflow through the cell is one of the primary objectives for
lean manufacturing; therefore, those individuals who actually touch the product (shape it, mold it,
machine it, assemble it, etc.) are truly the only value-adding activity from the customer’s
perspective and need to be effectively deployed when producing the product. This is called
workforce preparation and it is a set of lean principles. Development and implementation of
employee skill matrix card is a very effective action to ensure that the employee in terms of the
expertise of each field is recognized. Normally skill matrix facilitates the management identify
capability and skill level of an employee of a process, and from time to time it can be used as a
reference for making improvements.

2) Manufacturing Flow Element

Manufacturing flow is stresses to a series cell design techniques that it will be used in the
development of lean practice. It is so important as the techniques are to be used When Assessing
products and their Associated that's process flow and translating data into Usable information for
generating a cell design The annual product / quantity (P / Q) analysis (product Grouping), process
mapping, routing analysis (process, work content, the volume of matrices), takt time, workload
balancing and one-piece flow, cell design guidelines, cell layout and kanban sizing.

The P/Q (Product / Quantity) refers to Pareto analysis to determine the 60/40 rule of the top
products or services that make up 80% of work volume. The PR (Process Routing) refers to the
Parts-Process Matrix analysis to determine product families by grouping of products with similar
process flows. The result of a correct PQPR results in a definition of value streams and sufficient
process flow data to begin designing one-piece flow cells. Process mapping is very important
element because it was provides an opportunity to learn about work that is being performed. Process
mapping are used to document processes that provide a reference to discuss how things get done.
Others, its also was used to describe and understand the work we do. Process mapping also help us
to analyze and improve on processes. So identify of areas of complexity and re-work can be do
easier. Additional is to generate ideas for improvement and illustrate process improvements also can
be done if process mapping is used in lean practice.
 Integrating the use of takt time into your manufacturing operations will help you to achieve
a steady and continuous flow of production, eliminate the waste of overproduction by producing to
actual customer demand. Takt time also encouraging the development of standardized work
instructions, promoting quality and efficiency. Addition, takt time enable you to set real-time targets
for production that show operators exactly where their work output should be at any given point of
time. Takt time is a key concept in lean manufacturing. It is the heartbeat of a lean organization
matching actual production to customer demand. There are two different yet related ways to use
takt time. Both are valid and useful where they simply look at customer demand from different
perspectives. For planning perspective: Use takt time to set goals for kaizen activities that focus on
making improvements to your production process to ensure that it can meet customer demand. In a
manufacturing perspective, they are use a takt time to drive a real-time target for production.

One-piece flow is key concepts are used in lean practice. There are many important why
these concepts are very familiar. By achieving one-piece flow helps manufacturers to achieve true
just-in-time manufacturing. That is, the right parts can be made available when they are needed in
the quantity they are needed. In the simplest of terms, one-piece flow means that parts are moved
through operations from step to step with no work-in-process (WIP) in between either one piece at a
time or a small batch at a time. This system works best in combination with a cellular layout in
which all necessary equipment is located within a cell in the sequence in which it is used.

The important by developing a cell is to set their objectives or criteria more successful.
Others the material flow in cell will be in one direction, their operator and material can will be
minimize or eliminate because all the parts location are very closely with the operator during
working. Indirectly, the operator repetitive motion is reduced. This purpose is to ensure the distance
of all tools and parts short, easy reach and the times (waiting) are eliminated. Additional, with the
better arrangement of machines and storages can less the space. All operators should involve in
development a cell in order to create “incorporate economies of motion”.

3) Process Control Element

In process control element are focuses on stabilizing the process, institutionalizing the
change, and driving continuous improvement activities. There are 6 important activities relative to
process control such as Single-minute exchange of dies (SMED), Total productive maintenance
(TPM), Poka-yoke, 5S, Visual controls and Graphic work instructions. All this 6 activities is very
helpful and important in order to transforming the conventional to lean manufacturing.

The importance of Total Productive Maintenance (TPM) cannot be overlooked because it

plays such an important role in the effectiveness of Lean manufacturing. As in personal health care
insurance, TPM may be considered the heath care of our manufacturing machine and tools that are
required to effectively reduce waste and run an efficient, continuous manufacturing operation,
business, or service operation. The cost of regular TPM is very small when it is compared to the
cost of a major breakdown. The main purpose of TPM is to ensure that all equipment required for
production is operating at 100% efficiency at all times. Through short daily inspections, cleaning,
lubricating, and making minor adjustments, minor problems can be detected and corrected before
they become a major problem that can shut down a production line.
 TPM requires company-wide participation and support by everyone ranging from the top
executive to the shop floor personnel. TPM program is to increase production and at the same time
increase employee morale and job satisfaction. It brings maintenance into focus as a necessary and
vitally important part of any business or manufacturing operation. It is no longer regarded as a non-
profit activity. Down time for maintenance is scheduled as a part of the manufacturing day and, in
some cases, as an integral part of the manufacturing process.

In today’s competitive world any organization has to manufacture high quality, defect free
products at optimum cost. The new culture of total quality management, total productive
management in the manufacturing as well as service sector gave birth to new ways to improve
quality of products. In process control element, Poka-yoke is a improvement strategy for mistake-
proofing to prevent defects (or nonconformities) from arising during production processes. Poka-
yoke is a preventive action that focuses on identifying and eliminating the special causes of
variation in production processes, which inevitably lead to product nonconformities or defects.
These solutions are not only cost-effective but also easy to understand and apply. It is one of the
important tools to add to any organization’s Continuous improvement. The basic concept behind
poka-yoke is that it is not acceptable and allowed to produce even a small amount of
nonconforming product. To stay in market and to become a world-class competitor, an organization
must go with new philosophy and technology along with side-by-side practice of producing zero
defects. Poka-yoke methods are the very easy and simple concepts for achieving this goal and are a
key component of the continual improvement strategies in many leading Japanese companies on
this moment.

Poka-yoke is one of the presentations of “good kaizen”, or superior continual improvement

because of its preventive nature. A poka-yoke device or solution is any mechanism or idea that
either avoids the mistake from being made or makes the mistake easily detected at a glance. When
any organization decides to implement the lean manufacturing then one of the objectives is to
reduce scrap because no one is interested to compensate extra inventory on account of scrap. As per
philosophy of lean manufacturing it focuses on speed of production and productivity also. In order
to follow this concept of speed we should prevail against defects and rework. To increase profit
percentage the cost pressures always become headache for top management so they never accept
continued mistakes like scrap, rework, lateness etc out of tolerance instead they are aiming to
achieve value of zero in this segment. When customers of any company buys product they rightfully
expect defect free products and conventional 100% inspection or statistical process control don’t
insure 100% defect-free products. Hence we are going to root cause of any problem and avoiding it,
which gives us defect free product. The above discussion concludes that to get defect free products
one should go with the concept of Poka Yoke.

Others important in process control element to transforming from conventional to lean

practice is a Single minute exchange of die (SMED). The SMED system is theory and set of
techniques that make it possible to perform equipment set up and changeover operations in under 10
minute. So, its was developed to improve die press and machine tool set-ups, but its principles
apply to changeovers in all types of process. It is important to point out that if may not be possible
to reach single minute range for all Set ups, but SMED does dramatically reduce set up times in
almost every case. Customers today want a variety of products in just the quantities they need.
 They expect high quality, a good price, and speedy delivery SMED helps meet these
customer needs with less waste by making it cost effective to produce things in smaller quantities,
or lots. In addition SMED make daily production work go smoother because first the simpler set up
results in safer change over with less physical strain or risk of injury and less inventory means less
clutter in the work place, which makes production easier and safer. Others the set up tools are
standardise and combined which means fewer tools to keep track of.

Visual controls is the most important step in the process control of developing
standardization. It was emphasized the importance of surfacing defects and abnormalities in either
the product or process in such a way as to be visible to the operator or supervisor so that immediate
corrective action could be taken. When implementing visual control in the plant or industry would
help the companies to exposing abnormalities, problems, deviations, waste, unevenness, and
unreason ability to people, thus corrective actions can be taken immediately to correct the problems,
reduce manufacturing costs, reduce possible waste, shorten production lead time and thus keep the
delivery due date, reduce inventory, ensure a safe and comfortable working environment and
increase company's profit. That is the following are the main key, which it is very important in the
formation of lean than conventional practice.

By implementing a 5s workplace organization works on the principle that a workplace full

of clutter is less productive and motivating than a clean and ordered area. Unnecessary items and
dirt get in the way of employees and negatively impact productivity. Unorganized and unneeded
items use up time spent searching, create safety issues due to tripping hazards, and demand extra
movement walking around obstacles to retrieve tools that are needed at hand. Wasted time, wasted
movement, wasted energy, wasted motivation and wasted costs. Overall, s is a very important
element that should be their changes of lean practices. Further, 5s is the first step to be taken and
practiced by the company prior to the implementation of lean transforming.

Compared with conventional practice, there is no graphical work instructions are applied.
This is not good practice because there is no work instruction can cause the manufacturing jobs in
the industry does not standardize. Therefore, with the implementation instructions graphic work is
in process is very important and useful element. Graphic work instructions should include a step by
step description for the best way to complete a task. These instructions should focus first on the
employee-centric tasks and secondarily on the equipment and material. The instructions should be
written in such a way to minimize variation and be written with the concept that any employee
should be able to understand the task and complete it. The standard work instructions should
explain in detail the most efficient method of completing the task and the estimated time required to
complete this task. In addition, the instructions should also highlight any quality checks to
minimize defects and errors. Despite the concept of standard work instructions being developed in
manufacturing environments, which are often completely, opposite from there are elements of the
concept of standard work instructions that can work for a high mix, low volume shop. When
implementing standard work instructions, focus on those work activities that are consistent
regardless of the type of parts being produced. Then once these standard procedures are well
documented, focus next on consistencies across part families.
 Lastly, as with any continuous improvement or lean manufacturing initiative, provide
opportunities to refine and improve your standard work instructions by allowing a closed-loop
feedback from those employees that are directly involved in the process. Standard work
instructions can benefit any manufacturing shop environment through improved quality, increased
efficiency, and reduction of safety incidents across the job shop.

4) Metrics Element

There are several differences between the other four elements than metric element. Metrics
element is highlighted features empowerment in the cell that leads to improved performance and
profitability. Metrics element is recognized that companies are spending valuable resources
collecting, sorting, analyzing, and displaying these performance data and reporting them on a
monthly, weekly, daily, and sometimes even hourly basis. There are metrics on cycle time, defects
per unit, items shipped on schedule, direct labor cost, return on net assets (RONA), overtime,
percentage of work orders released on time, cost of quality, hours of rework, cash flow, inventory
turnover, etc.

This metric is focuses on how to increase the positive measurement in cell team (shop floor)
along with the desired performance. Therefore, this metric element is very important to ensure that
our company in the highest level. The measurement will be viewed and evaluated from many
different angles as DuPont model, output-based measurement, and infinite continuous improvement,
goal alignment through policy deployment and measurement definition & understanding.

DuPont Model is a tool that used for top-level management about company view analysis to
generate a “what if” analysis utilizing a company’s income statement and the balance sheet.
Important thing about DuPont model is to increase the return of investment (ROI) and company
profit margin. As example, by reducing cost of goods sold (COGS) then total costs will decrease
and net profit will improved. Output-based measurements are used to measure the measures assign
accountability for all the operations contained within the manufacturing process. The product likes a
yield, defect per unit) and product delivery can be measured as an output based measurement.
Infinite continuous improvements mainly focus on product improvement activity where the purpose
is to increase productivity. For example, spending less time reworking defects, replacing scrapped
material, moving assemblies around the shop, and waiting for component parts, then overall
productivity will improved. Indirectly, it will increase total yield output.

The company objectives will be achieved in one direction if all the level division (top and
shop floor) together to establish a strategy that achieves that mission and alignment through
company policy deployment. Understanding the definition of measurement is an important practice
that it should be stressed to everyone in the cell group. This is because a clear and accurate
understanding will helping a cell members not strayed far from the work area and company
objectives. In order cell team measurement system to work, it is necessary that the metric is defined,
owned, controlled, monitored, and understood by those who use the measure.
 Moreover, with the measurement definition and understanding is to guide an organization in
its path to continuous improvement continued. It has been shown how the floor can be linked to the
objectives of the company's operations. It also required emphasizing that the measurement element
requires an understanding of human behavior and its impact on the performance required.

5) Logistic Element

Logistic elements are divided into three main phases such as In-bound, internal and Out-
bound. Inbound logistics is an integral element of business operations for a manufacturing
involving the processes of receiving, storing and distributing raw materials for use in production.
For Internal emphasize and focus on facilitates the flow of work through cell. An engineer, leader,
production control and operator are involved in this phase in order to improve the material flow of
components to, through, and onto the next cell. Items are required to exit from process and arrive to
customer called as Out-bound.

Planning and control is the important and critical element functions where are used to
describe the requirement that specific work rules be utilized during the operation of a cell. Material
resource planning (MRP II) is a sub element where are used into logistic element. There is a
scheduling capability within the heart of the system that concentrates on the resources, i.e. the plant
and equipment required to convert the raw materials into finished goods. The advantages of MRP II
development are that detailed plans can be put to the shop floor and can be reported on by operation,
which offers much tighter control over the plant. Moreover loading by resource means that capacity
is taken into account. The difficulty is that capacity is only considered after the MRP schedule has
been prepared. It may turn out that insufficient time was allowed within the MRP schedule for the
individual operations to be completed.

In order to fulfill the customer satisfaction, capacity planning (workload) are carried out and
this function is to review all aspect involved like a man power and overtime by cell team. This
function also to allows the cell team to determine the own destiny and provide into the decision
process that controls end product performance. Additional, capacity control or workload control is a
production planning and control concept designed to meet the needs of make-to-order
companies. The capacity control is used as a control device to provide the cell team with the
capability to maintain workload visibility and monitor progress to plan. The key principle of
capacity control is input/output control; i.e. the actual output determines the input. This allows the
work-in-process to be stabilized and reduced. Consequently, this function is of special importance
such as allows lead times to be short, predictable and feasible, allows capacity to be controlled and
used effectively, controls work-in-process and inventory, resulting in a lean shop floor. These also
support managers to effectively use the inventory, capacity and lead-time buffer through the
simultaneous control of inventory, capacity and lead time, integrating production and sales into a
hierarchical system of workloads. The hierarchy of workloads consists of the shop floor workload,
the planned workload and the total workload.
 In lean practice and environment will arrange the material handling by controlling the flow
of material and managing inventory. The parts or components can be segregated along an A,B,C
type of classification. Each group are represented with different categorize and level such as high
value, medium value and low value. These service areas are designed to support cells that are
manufacturing products. Their objective is to satisfy the needs of the manufacturing cells and to
provide a predetermined level of service or turnaround for a particular process. Because, as we
learned earlier, manufacturing cells are accountable for the product from cradle to grave, they
become highly dependent on service cells to provide consistent, predictable process turnaround.

As we know that traditionally practice are applied push production system, which a total
demand is forecast, and the producer allocates ("pushes") items to users based on the expected
needs of all users. Finished goods accumulate in inventory. Kanban is a system to control the
logistical chain from a production point of view, and is not an inventory control system. Kanban
cards are a key component of kanban and signal the need to move materials within a manufacturing
or production facility or move materials from an outside supplier in to the production facility. The
kanban card is, in effect, a message that signals that there is a depletion of product, parts, or
inventory that, when received, the kanban will trigger the replenishment of that product, part, or
inventory. Following is an advantage of Kanban over the traditional push system such as a simple
and understandable process, provides quick and precise information, low costs associated with the
transfer of information, provides quick response to changes, limit of over-capacity in processes,
avoids overproduction, minimizing waste, control can be maintained, delegates responsibility to line
workers.

About 4 types of kanban that it will be categorized and used such as kanban container,
kanban card, table kanban and Kanban signal for unusual materials. Kanban container, It is an
alternative to kanban cards. In kanban container should be the same information as on the
kanban. The production companies are the most commonly used systems of two containers. On the
shelf kanban is a place for the two containers. In the event that one of the containers will be emptied
should be sent to bed to uplift. In order to avoid unnecessary transportation costs should adjust the
batch size and the size of the container. Kanban cad is usually a cardboard / plastic fiche which
contains information such as lot size, storage location, the index of the material, the name of the
material, the number of kanban cards. A detailed description of the kanban cards. Kanban boards
can perform many functions in the control circuits. Kanban boards are seen as variations on the
traditional kanban cards. First, they are used to carry out the second production orders can be used
for capacity planning. Instead of kanban cards representing demand or capacity, used magnets,
plastic chips, colorful sticky pads or to represent the elements of the work. Each of these objects is
part of the production process and moving the array.

Table kanban is usually divided into three sections such as “to achieve”, “work in progress”
and “completed the work in progress.” For kanban signal for unusual material is a variation of the
card kanban kanban and containers. The material is controlled by visually monitoring the buffer
stocks, which are stored in specific locations within the production. The material can be placed on
pallets, euro pallets, special, on a shelf. This method works well for materials that can not be placed
in standard containers. Kanban signal will use half the material in the buffer. When you reach this
level, move inventory kanban card (located near the material) to the unit in charge of replenishing
stock.
 If we can see and understand the conventional method, there is no proper preparation done
for each process which would then delay the process due to lack of preparation as the provision of
tooling, expertise and so on. By following the workable work the lean practice it will help this
situation to eliminating the delays and wait times. Workable work concept are functionally is to sets
awareness in motion a process that verifies the availability of those critical elements required by
manufacturing, before committing a job to the shop floor.