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1 – 10 of 396Flavio Cesar Faria Fernandes, Moacir Godinho Filho and Maurice Bonney
The purpose of this paper is to present a practical proposal for integrating production control (PC) and quality control (QC) at the shop floor level.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to present a practical proposal for integrating production control (PC) and quality control (QC) at the shop floor level.
Design/methodology/approach
The proposed method is based on three principles which relate PC and QC at the shop floor level. The proposal is applied successfully at the world's largest pencil factory.
Findings
The results show that the proposed method contributes to improve four performance indicators related to PC and QC at the company studied: increase the average throughput in about 28.9 per cent; reduce the average value of work in process (WIP) in about 35.6 per cent, reduce the average lead time by about 45.4 per cent, and reduce the average defect rate by about 71.4 per cent.
Research limitations/implications
The proposal (mainly because of principle III) is developed to be applied in repetitive production (RP) systems, i.e. environments characterized by low production volume and low product variety.
Practical implications
Some practical implications for industrial managers arises from this study: managers must consider the importance of integrated PC and QC functions in order to get better results concerning performance indicators such as throughput, WIP, lead time, and rejection rate; the materials flow simplification is a prerequisite for a lot of improvement initiatives at the shop floor level; the adequate choice of the production control system (PCS) is vital in order to get positive results regarding the performance indicators related to PC; the determination of the production pace (or rate) for a RP system must take account capacity restrictions and the influence of defect rate on production rate.
Originality/value
The paper is original in that it shows that the performance of the shop floor level can be improved by means of integrating PC and QC, by discussing and implementing a method which simplifies the material flow in the shop floor level, chooses the most adequate PCS and shows how the production rate influence on the rejection rate. Therefore, the paper is important for those which practice industrial management, more specifically on PC and QC functions.
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Kimmo Keskiniva, Arto Saari and Juha-Matti Junnonen
This study aims to provide a foundation for the development of subcontracts that suit takt production in construction.
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to provide a foundation for the development of subcontracts that suit takt production in construction.
Design/methodology/approach
This is a non-empiric conceptual study, which integrates takt production and general construction literature into new proposals for subcontract clauses suitable for takt production in construction. This study uses literature reviews, from which proposals regarding takt production viable subcontract clauses are conducted via logical reasoning.
Findings
A total of 13 proposals for takt production applicable subcontracts are provided in this study. The proposals emphasize detailed and collaborative planning, suitable payment methods and flexibility for takt plan modification.
Originality/value
Previous takt literature has not properly addressed the development of subcontracts for takt production, despite regular attempts to use subcontracting in takt production. This study aims to aid main contractors to create fair and suitable subcontracts, so that adhering to takt schedules could be more viable in practice. This study also acts as a foundation for further empirical studies regarding the subject.
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David Simons and Keivan Zokaei
Lean is a well‐established industrial paradigm and has proved to be of significant benefit in different sectors of the manufacturing industry (e.g. automotive and aerospace). This…
Abstract
Purpose
Lean is a well‐established industrial paradigm and has proved to be of significant benefit in different sectors of the manufacturing industry (e.g. automotive and aerospace). This paper aims to report on the introduction of lean to a new sector – the “UK red meat industry”. It highlights the benefits of lean production in one specific manufacturing area, the “cutting room”, where meat is split down from a carcass into retail cuts of meat.
Design/methodology/approach
A multiple case study approach is adopted in this paper. As part of the Red Meat Industry Forum's Value Chain Analysis Initiative, five cutting plants are presented as case studies in this paper.
Findings
This paper identifies two “traditional” and three “advanced” cutting rooms and reports a typical 25 per cent productivity gap. The paper tentatively concludes this is due to the advanced cases practicing lean techniques, such as “Takt‐time” and “work standardization”.
Originality/value
The literature review identifies a gap in previous research on the applications of logistics and operations management concepts and practices into the red meat industry. Particularly, lean techniques have been overlooked in the red meat industry.
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The purpose of this paper is to investigate a lean manufacturing metric called Takt time as a benchmark evaluation measure to evaluate a public hospital’s service quality. Lean…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate a lean manufacturing metric called Takt time as a benchmark evaluation measure to evaluate a public hospital’s service quality. Lean manufacturing is an established managerial philosophy with a proven track record in industry. A lean metric called Takt time is applied as a measure to compare the relative efficiency between two emergency departments (EDs) belonging to the same public hospital. Outcomes guide managers to improve patient services and increase hospital performances.
Design/methodology/approach
The patient treatment lead time within the hospital’s two EDs (one department serves male and the other female patients) are the study’s focus. A lean metric called Takt time is used to find the service’s relative efficiency.
Findings
Findings show that the lean manufacturing metric called Takt time can be used as an effective way to measure service efficiency by analyzing relative efficiency and identifies bottlenecks in different departments providing the same services.
Originality/value
The paper presents a new procedure to compare relative efficiency between two EDs. It can be applied to any healthcare facility.
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A lean manufacturing metric called Takt time is used as a benchmark evaluation measure to evaluate service quality at fast food restaurants. The metric is applied to find the…
Abstract
Purpose
A lean manufacturing metric called Takt time is used as a benchmark evaluation measure to evaluate service quality at fast food restaurants. The metric is applied to find the relative efficiency between three fast food restaurants belonging to different chains. The purpose of this paper is to help guide management through ways to improve customer service and increase performance.
Design/methodology/approach
The customer lead time (the time taken by a customer from arrival at the service queue until their order is fulfilled) is the focus of this study. Takt time is used to find the relative efficiency of service time between three fast food restaurants.
Findings
It is shown that Takt time can be used effectively to measure the level of efficiency of the services provided. It measures the relative efficiency and identifies bottlenecks among different entities providing the same services.
Practical implications
The results can be used as a guide to rank the efficiency of the length of service time of different entities by taking the whole system into consideration rather than just measuring and comparing the service time itself between the entities. The results show the effectiveness of using lean manufacturing practices in pinpointing the relative inefficiencies between different service provider facilities.
Originality/value
This research presents a procedure to measure relative efficiency between different service providers to enhance their services. It can be applied to any service management systems that deal directly with walk-in customers.
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Patrick Pujo, Ilham El Khabous and Fouzia Ounnar
The aim of this research is to discuss the benefits of U-shaped layout for production cell operating in variable takt time. Different experiments were conducted using benchmarks…
Abstract
Purpose
The aim of this research is to discuss the benefits of U-shaped layout for production cell operating in variable takt time. Different experiments were conducted using benchmarks to highlight the performance gap between a linear cell and a U-Cell.
Design/methodology/approach
The implementation of the production cell, either in a U-shaped or in a straight line layout, is optimized through linear programming based on the number of operators. The two corresponding programs, in Mosel language, use the same approach to not introduce bias in the comparison of results. The study used the authors’ own datasets and other well-known academic benchmarks.
Findings
A comparison was conducted between the obtained takt times, with equivalent operating conditions, in both U-Cell and linear cell. A significant increase of the production rate was observed. This increase has often exceeded 10 per cent, reaching 32 per cent. All the experiments show that, with the same number of operators, a cell in a U-shaped layout is always at least as efficient, in terms of attainable production rates, than an equivalent linear cell. Ninety-six per cent of the studied cases give an improvement of production rate. Moreover, the dispersion of the U-Cell results is weaker, which suggests that the U-shaped layout gives better performances in more robust manner.
Research limitations/implications
Results were obtained through a study of various academic benchmarks. The results must be validated on industrial situations.
Practical implications
This paper will be very useful for researchers and practitioners to understand lean implementations and their derived benefits. This paper will allow them to evaluate and analyze the expected benefits of the implementation of the production cell in the U-shaped layout (operating in variable takt time).
Originality/value
U-Cells constitute an appropriate solution for a layout of any kind of production cells with a variable structure (variability of the number of operators, of the organization of the cell, of the takt time […]). When facing a significant variation in the demand, the response consists of adjusting the number of operators assigned to the cell. This study jointly addresses the problem of the U-shaped layout and the operation in variable takt time.
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Abdelhakim Abdelhadi and Mwafak Shakoor
The purpose of this paper is to present a new approach to measure the service quality provided by a public health-care service provider using the lean manufacturing concept. The…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to present a new approach to measure the service quality provided by a public health-care service provider using the lean manufacturing concept. The research shows that the adoption of lean manufacturing principles and methodologies may be used as a measure for efficiency. The relative efficiency measure concept is introduced.
Design/methodology/approach
The inpatient and outpatient pharmacies providing medicines to the public at a large regional hospital in the southern part of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia were the focus of this study. The lean manufacturing concept is used as a method to improve the service quality and reduce the time needed to deliver the medicine by comparing the efficiency between these two pharmacies based on a metric used in lean manufacturing called takt time. A team was formed to study the current situation, and recommendations based on lean manufacturing were suggested for implementations.
Findings
The research shows that the adoption of lean manufacturing principles and methodologies may be used as an efficiency measure to compare between different departments working under the same managerial system.
Originality/value
The results presented in this paper are reliable, objective and may be generalized for measuring the relative performance efficiency between several departments providing the same type of services.
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The purpose of this paper is twofold: first, a case study on applying lean principles in manufacturing operations to redesign and optimize an electronic device assembly process…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is twofold: first, a case study on applying lean principles in manufacturing operations to redesign and optimize an electronic device assembly process and its impact on performance and second, introducing cardboard prototyping as a Kaizen tool offering a novel approach to testing and simulating improvement scenarios.
Design/methodology/approach
The study employs value stream mapping, root cause analysis, and brainstorming tools to identify root causes of poor performance, followed by deploying a Kaizen event to redesign and optimize an electronic device assembly process. Using physical models, bottlenecks and opportunities for improvement were identified by the Kaizen approach at the workstations and assembly lines, enabling the testing of various scenarios and ideas. Changes in lead times, throughput, work in process inventory and assembly performance were analyzed and documented.
Findings
Pre- and post-improvement measures are provided to demonstrate the impact of the Kaizen event on the performance of the assembly cell. The study reveals that implementing lean tools and techniques reduced costs and increased throughput by reducing assembly cycle times, manufacturing lead time, space utilization, labor overtime and work-in-process inventory requirements.
Originality/value
This paper adds a new dimension to applying the Kaizen methodology in manufacturing processes by introducing cardboard prototyping, which offers a novel way of testing and simulating different scenarios for improvement. The paper describes the process implementation in detail, including the techniques and data utilized to improve the process.
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Sunil Kumar, Ashwani Dhingra and Bhim Singh
The purpose of this paper is to present a road map to implement Lean-Kaizen concept using value stream mapping (VSM) to identify hidden continuous improvement opportunities in a…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to present a road map to implement Lean-Kaizen concept using value stream mapping (VSM) to identify hidden continuous improvement opportunities in a small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) located at the non-capital region of India.
Design/methodology/approach
From the collected data, a current state map was prepared that indicated the current operating situation of selected SME. The takt time was calculated and those processes which attained higher cycle time (C/T) than takt time were identified. The continuous flow processing was achieved by adjusting C/T of each process and supermarket pull system was developed to control the production at the workstations. Finally, a future state map was developed that served as a guide for future lean activities. Few problems were identified to realize the future state. The “5-why” analysis was used for identifying root causes of these problems and Kaizen events were proposed as solutions. In this case study, one Kaizen event was identified in which brainstorming technique was used to control the variation caused by unorthodox fixture design for clamping and de-clamping of case product and thus eliminated non-value-added activities performed by the operator on a milling machine.
Findings
Before and after implementation of value stream map, the data obtained were analyzed and eliminated rework time, reduced inventory level, reduced lead time and C/T, improved productivity and product quality are presented as finding. Lean-Kaizen provides a better chance for every individual of the industry to have a hand in achieving organization’s goals to attain continuous progress in productivity and quality of the product. Even good understanding of the concept of lean tools and techniques by SMEs, the employee willingness and motivation to identify and eliminate wastes are found feeble.
Originality/value
This study is among best practices to identify hidden improvement opportunities in the regular production of the product to increase productivity and improve quality using value stream map. The research paper gives useful understandings to the lean implementers, Kaizen identifiers, consultants and researchers.
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Ashkan Ayough, Farbod Farhadi and Mostafa Zandieh
This paper aims to unfold the role that job rotation plays in a lean cell. Unlike many studies, the authors consider heterogeneous operators with dynamic performance factor that…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to unfold the role that job rotation plays in a lean cell. Unlike many studies, the authors consider heterogeneous operators with dynamic performance factor that is impacted by the assignment and scheduling decisions. The purpose is to derive an understanding of the underlying effects of job rotations on performance metrics in a lean cell. The authors use an optimization framework and an experimental design methodology for sensitivity analysis of the input parameters.
Design/methodology/approach
The approach is an integration of three stages. The authors propose a set-based optimization model that considers human behavior parameters. They also solve the problem with two meta-heuristic algorithms and an efficient local search algorithm. Further, the authors run a post-optimality analysis by conducting a design of experiments using the response surface methodology (RSM).
Findings
The results of the optimization model reveal that the job rotation schedules and the human cognitive metrics influence the performance of the lean cell. The results of the sensitivity analysis further show that the objective function and the job rotation frequencies are highly sensitive to the other input parameters. Based on the findings from the RSM, the authors derive general rules for the job rotations in a lean cell given the ranges in other input variables.
Originality/value
The authors integrate the job rotation scheduling model with human behavioral and cognitive parameters and formulate the problem in a lean cell for the first time in the literature. In addition, they use the RSM for the first time in this context and offer a post-optimality analysis that reveals important information about the impact of the job rotations on the performance of operators and the entire working cell.
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