LEAN MANUFACTURING

Operation Management Assignment: Lean Manufacturing

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Operation Management Assignment: Lean Manufacturing

Ohno's Seven Wastes in Operations

Taiichi Ohno often referred as father of TPS or Toyota Production System identified seven categories of wastes generated from non-productive manufacturing practices. These categories also referred as lean production by many, are the integral part of the success of TPS. The seven wastes identified by Taiichi Ohno include (Gerst, 2012; McBride, 2003):

Overproduction

Overproduction has been categorized as waste by Ohno. He claims that the manufacturing of products exceeding the present demand is the waste of space, time, human and capital resources (Gerst, 2012; McBride, 2003).

Waiting

Manufacturing processes are not considered effective if one process has to wait to start till another finished. Moreover, more time is also wasted, thus increasing the cost. Ohno proposed that manufacturing operations should be continuous and smooth (Gerst, 2012; McBride, 2003). Ohno speculate on the basis of his calculation that as much as 99 percent of time is consumed by waiting.

Transportation

Mobility of the product during the manufacturing process is considered of no value because of the cost it incurs along with the risk of damage and deterioration of the product (Gerst, 2012; McBride, 2003).

Inappropriate Processing

In manufacturing, a process is considered inappropriate and wasteful if expensive machinery has been installed for the processes which may work with equal efficiency with simple and less expensive machines (Gerst, 2012; McBride, 2003).

Excessive Inventory

There is a unanimous consensus among business personnel, that excessive inventory in most of the situations are nothing but the waste of space, human and capital resource (Gerst, 2012; McBride, 2003).

Unnecessary Motion

Unnecessary motion is termed to the processes in which workers have to reach, bend or cover distance to perform their distance. In order to design a more effective environment, workplace ergonomics assessment should be carried out (Gerst, 2012; McBride, 2003).

Defects

Quarantining and inspecting inventory require time and cost, which again is the waste of resource (Gerst, 2012; McBride, 2003).

Use 5Ss in Lean Operation

The foundation of lean manufacturing or operations lies in 5S. In lean operation the term 5S is considered very much important due to the fact that it not only helps in improving the operations; but at the same time it helps in transformation of the organizational culture. Evidently many companies who have adopted 5S model demonstrate improvement in their overall organizational performance (Patrick, 2012).

Sort

Sorting is important for operations because everything can be organized and workers are aware about the fact what can be found and where. Companies should sort out their tasks and creates small batches of work, so that it can be easy for them to identify and retrieve required things. In manufacturing industry it is widely believed that employees can find the things as and when they require (Patrick, 2012). However, in reality it consumes times and effort both to find the right thing at the right time, in such cases sorting helps. For instance, a printing press has stacks of paper piles and will require specific sizes ...