New Manufacturing Challenge: Techniques for Continuous Improvement - Hardcover

Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Kiyoshi Suzaki is president of The Eucalyptus Group in Pacific Palisades, California and an internationally recognized consultant on manufacturing competitiveness in various industries in the United States, Europe, and the Far East. Besides consulting, he lectures in major universities, serves on the board of directors of several U.S. companies and as an advisor to Japan Technology Transfer Association. Mr. Suzaki is author and co-author of two books on manufacturing published in Japan and France.

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Chapter 1

Eliminating Waste

Unfortunately there is too much waste in our work environment. While we talk constantly about the difficulties in making money, we tend to ignore the waste that surrounds us and to overlook opportunities for improvement.

We tend to look at time as something that adds value. Job experience, for example, is considered a function of time based on accumulated experiences or hours spent in producing goods. Instead, we should view time as something that erodes value when it is misspent. We should take specific actions to accelerate the improvement of operations and thereby run our workplaces more efficiently -- so that we can move forward.

Scenes in the Factory

Before talking about what we can or should do to improve our workplaces, let us first get a few comments from the people in the factory:

Shop foreman: "Most of our people are working very hard. We are doing everything possible to improve our practice here. It just takes time for us to get to where we want to be."

Plant manager: "We have many things going on in our factory. We are doing SPC [statistical process control] training and quality circle activities. We have implemented a suggestion program. We have MRP [material requirements planning]. We have even introduced robotics and an automated warehouse. But somehow, I have a feeling that things are not going well. For example, the number of suggestions is low, machines are still breaking down, quality level is not as high as I want to see it, sudden schedule changes are still common, and so on. Because of these things, I spend too much time chasing fires and attending daily meetings."

Chief executive officer: "I don't know what's going wrong. I have attended seminars and conferences; I have looked around and hired consultants for help. But what I have accumulated so far are lots of documents, papers, fragments of thoughts, and so on. Somehow I haven't been able to integrate them into a plan of action yet."

These are comments I hear quite often. People are concerned about day-to-day problems, fires in the factory, and the like. They are attending seminars and reading about new management techniques. But they are missing something they need to know, and they feel confused. Perhaps there is even feeling of resignation (or satisfaction) that people have done their best and cannot do better.

While developing an integrated understanding and setting priorities are important processes in our work, a fundamental question is whether we have spent enough time finding out what's really happening on the factory floor. So, let us spend some time here to review some typical operations found in the factory.

In one area, we see an operator carrying a heavy workpiece by hand. In another area, we see people working frantically to stay on schedule after finding that an entire batch produced a few hours earlier was out of tolerance. We also see people watching a machine run, sorting good parts and bad parts, waiting for the delivery of material, stacking up inventory, and fixing machine breakdowns. When we check the way people are producing, we find they may be working just because materials are there to work on, rather than following certain prescribed procedures or disciplines (see Exhibit 1.1).

We need to ask ourselves "How many of these activities are absolutely necessary for our production activities?" and "How many of these activities are adding value to the product -- rather than cost?" Or we might ask ourselves, "how many of these activities are related to things the customer sees and cares about?"

Waste

Fujio Cho of Toyota defines waste as "anything other than the minimum amount of equipment, materials, parts, space, and worker's time, which are absolutely essential to add value to the product." As early as the 1920s Henry Ford was concerned with the problem of waste. He discussed it specifically in his book Today and Tomorrow, which Toyota people diligently studied later. To put it in simple terms, "If it doesn't add value, it's waste."

When we review the time people spend in the factory, for example, we often find that more than 95 percent of an operator's time is not being utilized to add value to the product. Rather, it is adding cost to the product. When we measure the material being processed in the factory, we may also find that, during more than 95 percent of the time, that material is in storage, waiting to be transferred, processed, or inspected. Similarly, a machine may be producing unnecessary or defective products, or it may be broken down or require maintenance. In either case, it is obviously not being used to add value to the product. Exhibit 1.2 is a graphic representation of the problem.

People may say, "We know all of that." But the questions we should ask ourselves are, "Then what are we actually doing to reduce this waste?" "How much of our time is spent on eliminating this waste?" "Do we really know how much of this waste can be eliminated?" "Do we really know how much dollar savings can be achieved through such efforts?"

Unfortunately, most of us cannot answer these questions. One thing we should remember is that a lot of our work requires immediate action. The urgency of such matters can keep us from analyzing and planning our work. We may feel we have accomplished more when we spend time on urgent work and exhaust ourselves. But is it really a productive way of using our time? The following portion of this chapter is devoted to answering these questions.

Seven Wastes

What we are talking about here is the need to introduce production improvement practices where the action is taking place, that is, on the shop floor. By diligently practicing problem solving with as many people as possible, many of our current problems will disappear.

While each person's ideas will be used to facilitate the improvement of factory operations, the most powerful results can be obtained by implementing improvement activities in the most integrative fashion so that each island of improvement can be tied together with the others. Also, we want to develop certain approaches to facilitate these improvements so that the improvement process becomes effective. In order to achieve such goals, we need to understand more about waste in the factory.

While products made in each factory may be different, the typical wastes found in factories are very similar. After years of improvement activities, Toyota identified the following seven types of waste as the most prominent ones.

Waste from overproduction. Toyota concluded that overproduction is one of the worst wastes commonly found in factories. This waste is created by producing goods over and above the amount required by the market. When the market is in an upswing, this waste may not be prominent. However, when market demand slows, the effects of overproduction are compounded and companies often get into trouble carrying unsold goods as extra inventory.

Overproduction waste is typically created by getting ahead of the work. When this happens, more raw materials are consumed and wages are paid for unneeded work, thereby creating unnecessary inventory. This in turn requires additional handling of materials, additional space to hold inventories, and additional interest paid to the bank for money used to carry the inventories. It may also require additional people to monitor inventories, additional paperwork, extra computers, more forklifts or warehouse space, and so on.

Furthermore, excessive inventory leads to confusion about what needs to be done first. It also distracts people and prevents them from focusing on immediate objectives or tasks. As a result, additional production control people are required. Since operators seem busy and machines are occupied...