Basic Stability is Basic to Lean Manufacturing Success英文资料.pdfVIP

Basic Stability is Basic to Lean Manufacturing Success By Art Smalley Introduction Lean production has dramatically lifted the competitiveness of many manufacturing companies and the value they deliver to customers. What’s more, encouraging news surfaces almost daily about firms embracing the central tenants of lean and driving them into nonproduction areas of the enterprise such as product development, purchasing, value-chain management, and engineering. Despite these triumphs, many firms I visit are stuck in first gear on their initial lean efforts. They are trying to create flow but can’t get traction. There are many reasons for this lack of progress. Insufficient leadership, resources, or commitment are a few of the most common. But an overlooked and recurring pitfall that I’m seeing more often is a lack of “basic stability” in manufacturing operations. Quite simply, processes can’t flow because key pieces of equipment are broken down. Toyota’s Early Struggles Taiichi Ohno, the chief architect of lean manufacturing, developed its core elements at Toyota Motor Corporation in Japan in the period between 1950 and 1955. During this five-year learning period, Ohno made experiments in the machine-intensive production shops that he managed. Key concepts such as takt time, process flow, standardized work, single minute exchange of die, and basic pull system mechanics were all tested and worked out under his supervision. Unfortunately very little was written down about what Ohno did. Today we only hear of the success stories about lean and the impressive nature of the Toyota Production System (TPS). From interviews and conversations I’ve had with retired Toyota executives, I get a different perspective about how difficult it was to establish the basic tenants of lean. These comments are typical reflections: • “Our die changeover process was terrible, and took anywhere from one to two shift