Design for lean manufacturing

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Design for lean manufacturing is a process for applying lean concepts to the design phase of a system, such as a complex product or process. The term describes methods of design in lean manufacturing companies as part of the study of Japanese industry by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. At the time of the study, the Japanese automakers were outperforming the American counterparts in speed, resources used in design, and design quality. [1] Conventional mass-production design focuses primarily on product functions and manufacturing costs; however, design for lean manufacturing systematically widens the design equation to include all factors that will determine a product's success across its entire value stream and life-cycle. One goal is to reduce waste and maximize value, and other goals include improving the quality of the design and the reducing the time to achieve the final solution. The method has been used in architecture, [2] healthcare, [3] product development, processes design, information technology systems, and even to create lean business models. [4] It relies on the definition and optimization of values coupled with the prevention of wastes before they enter the system. Design for lean manufacturing is system design. [5]

Contents

History

Not to be confused with "Lean Design" (copyrighted and patented by Munro & Associates, of Michigan), design for lean manufacturing builds on the set of principles that emerged from design for the customer value and design for manufacturability. Since some lean tools are used in the practice of design for lean manufacturing, it borrows the first word in its name from lean manufacturing as exemplified by the Toyota Production System. [6] Design for lean manufacturing was first coined by Womack, Jones, and Roos after studying the differences between conventional development at American automotive companies and lean methods at Japanese automobile producers. [7] While lean manufacturing focuses on optimization of the production stream and removal of wastes (commonly referred to as muda, mura, and muri) once the value stream has been created, Lean Design ® (Munro & Associates) concerns itself with methods and techniques to create a lean solution from the start, resulting in more value and fewer wastes across the value stream. [8] Lean design ® seeks to optimize the development process through rapid learning cycles to build and test multiple concepts early. [9] Managing the knowledge value stream, systematic problem solving with analysis of the trade-offs between various design options, [10] and solutions generated from ideas filtered by systematic innovation methods [11] are viewed as methods within the lean design process.

Design for lean manufacturing overview

Design for lean manufacturing is based on the premise that product and process design is an ongoing activity and not a one-time activity; therefore design for lean manufacturing should be viewed as a long-term strategy for an organization. [12] Design for lean manufacturing must be sustainable and holistic unlike other lean manufacturing or Six Sigma approaches that either tackle only a part of the problem or tackle the problem for a short period of time. Design for lean manufacturing also relates to system thinking as it considers all aspects (or the full circle) and takes the system conditions into consideration when designing products and services, delivering them according to customer needs. ® (Munro & Associates) drives prevention of waste by adopting a systematic process to improve the design phase during development. An organizational focus is required for the implementation of Lean Design ® principles, which includes efficient and sustainable design team. Initial studies of the Japanese approach to design for lean manufacturing noted four principles; leadership of projects by a shusa (or project boss), tightly knit teams, communication on all of the difficult design trade-offs, and simultaneous development between engineering and manufacturing. [13] Further study showed additional depth to the principles, citing 13 principles specific to the Toyota design for lean manufacturing methods in product and process development in the areas of process, skilled people, and tools and technology. [14] As the practice of design for lean manufacturing has expanded in its depth and breadth of application, additional principles have been integrated into the method.

Design for lean manufacturing and development principles

The dimensions of lean in design and development

To be successful, a corporate wide design for lean manufacturing implementation typically includes the following dimensions:

  1. Optimization of product value for the operational value stream. [28]
  2. Prevention of waste. [29]
  3. Real-time or predictive measurements [30]
  4. Product and process accountability throughout the value stream
  5. Systematic innovation and problem solving [31]
  6. Stakeholder collaboration between functions
  7. Team leadership by a chief engineer or entrepreneurial system designer [32]
  8. Senior management support

When the dimensions are fully deployed in an organization, design for lean manufacturing enhances the performance levels with respect to design and innovation. Shingo assessments measure lean implementations in all parts of the organization, including the design methodology. The Shingo Prize for Excellence in Manufacturing is given annually for operational excellence in North America. Using design for lean manufacturing practices helps organizations move toward Shingo [33] excellence.

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lean manufacturing</span> Methodology used to improve production

Lean manufacturing is a production method aimed primarily at reducing times within the production system as well as response times from suppliers and to customers. It is closely related to another concept called just-in-time manufacturing. Just-in-time manufacturing tries to match production to demand by only supplying goods which have been ordered and focuses on efficiency, productivity, and reduction of "wastes" for the producer and supplier of goods. Lean manufacturing adopts the just-in-time approach and additionally focuses on reducing cycle, flow, and throughput times by further eliminating activities which do not add any value for the customer. Lean manufacturing also involves people who work outside of the manufacturing process, such as in marketing and customer service.

Six Sigma (6σ) is a set of techniques and tools for process improvement. It was introduced by American engineer Bill Smith while working at Motorola in 1986.

Kaizen is a concept referring to business activities that continuously improve all functions and involve all employees from the CEO to the assembly line workers. Kaizen also applies to processes, such as purchasing and logistics, that cross organizational boundaries into the supply chain. It has been applied in healthcare, psychotherapy, life coaching, government, manufacturing, and banking.

The Toyota Production System (TPS) is an integrated socio-technical system, developed by Toyota, that comprises its management philosophy and practices. The TPS is a management system that organizes manufacturing and logistics for the automobile manufacturer, including interaction with suppliers and customers. The system is a major precursor of the more generic "lean manufacturing". Taiichi Ohno and Eiji Toyoda, Japanese industrial engineers, developed the system between 1948 and 1975.

PDCA or plan–do–check–act is an iterative design and management method used in business for the control and continual improvement of processes and products. It is also known as the Shewhart cycle, or the control circle/cycle. Another version of this PDCA cycle is OPDCA. The added "O" stands for observation or as some versions say: "Observe the current condition." This emphasis on observation and current condition has currency with the literature on lean manufacturing and the Toyota Production System. The PDCA cycle, with Ishikawa's changes, can be traced back to S. Mizuno of the Tokyo Institute of Technology in 1959.

Lean software development is a translation of lean manufacturing principles and practices to the software development domain. Adapted from the Toyota Production System, it is emerging with the support of a pro-lean subculture within the agile community. Lean offers a solid conceptual framework, values and principles, as well as good practices, derived from experience, that support agile organizations.

Muda is a Japanese word meaning "futility", "uselessness", or "wastefulness", and is a key concept in lean process thinking such as in the Toyota Production System (TPS), denoting one of three types of deviation from optimal allocation of resources. The other types are known by the Japanese terms mura ("unevenness") and muri ("overload"). Waste in this context refers to the wasting of time or resources rather than wasteful by-products and should not be confused with waste reduction.

Genba is a Japanese term meaning "the actual place". Japanese detectives call the crime scene genba, and Japanese TV reporters may refer to themselves as reporting from genba. In business, genba refers to the place where value is created; in manufacturing, the genba is the factory floor. It can be any "site" such as a construction site, sales floor or where the service provider interacts directly with the customer.

Takt time, or simply takt, is a manufacturing term to describe the required product assembly duration that is needed to match the demand. Often confused with cycle time, takt time is a tool used to design work and it measures the average time interval between the start of production of one unit and the start of production of the next unit when items are produced sequentially. For calculations, it is the time to produce parts divided by the number of parts demanded in that time interval. The takt time is based on customer demand; if a process or a production line are unable to produce at takt time, either demand leveling, additional resources, or process re-engineering is needed to ensure on-time delivery.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Value-stream mapping</span> Lean-management method for analyzing the current state and designing a future state

Value-stream mapping, also known as material- and information-flow mapping, is a lean-management method for analyzing the current state and designing a future state for the series of events that take a product or service from the beginning of the specific process until it reaches the customer. A value stream map is a visual tool that displays all critical steps in a specific process and easily quantifies the time and volume taken at each stage. Value stream maps show the flow of both materials and information as they progress through the process.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Norman Bodek</span> American teacher and consultant

Norman Bodek was a teacher, consultant, author and publisher who published over 100 Japanese management books in English, including the works of Taiichi Ohno and Dr. Shigeo Shingo. He taught a course on "The Best of Japanese Management Practices" at Portland State University. Bodek created the Shingo Prize with Dr. Vern Beuhler at Utah State University. He was elected to Industry Week's Manufacturing Hall of Fame and founded Productivity Press. He was also the President of PCS Press. He died on December 9, 2020, at the age of 88.

Lean dynamics is a business management practice that emphasizes the same primary outcome as lean manufacturing or lean production of eliminating wasteful expenditure of resources. However, it is distinguished by its different focus of creating a structure for accommodating the dynamic business conditions that cause these wastes to accumulate in the first place.

Lean IT is the extension of lean manufacturing and lean services principles to the development and management of information technology (IT) products and services. Its central concern, applied in the context of IT, is the elimination of waste, where waste is work that adds no value to a product or service.

Lean services is the application of lean manufacturing production methods in the service industry. Lean services have among others been applied to US health care providers and the UK HMRC.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Industrial engineering</span> Branch of engineering which deals with the optimization of complex processes or systems

Industrial engineering is an engineering profession that is concerned with the optimization of complex processes, systems, or organizations by developing, improving and implementing integrated systems of people, money, knowledge, information and equipment. Industrial engineering is central to manufacturing operations.

Lean startup is a methodology for developing businesses and products that aims to shorten product development cycles and rapidly discover if a proposed business model is viable; this is achieved by adopting a combination of business-hypothesis-driven experimentation, iterative product releases, and validated learning. Lean startup emphasizes customer feedback over intuition and flexibility over planning. This methodology enables recovery from failures more often than traditional ways of product development.

Lean enterprise is a practice focused on value creation for the end customer with minimal waste and processes. The term has historically been associated with lean manufacturing and Six Sigma due to lean principles being popularized by Toyota in the automobile manufacturing industry and subsequently the electronics and internet software industries.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kanban (development)</span> Software development methodology

Kanban is a lean method to manage and improve work across human systems. This approach aims to manage work by balancing demands with available capacity, and by improving the handling of system-level bottlenecks.

Lean product development (LPD) is an approach to product development.

Learning factories represent a realistic manufacturing environment for education, training, and research. In the last decades, numerous learning factories have been built in academia and industry.

References

  1. ↑ Womack, James; Jones, Daniel T.; Roos, Daniel (1990). The Machine That Changed the World: The Story of Lean Production, Toyota's Secret Weapon in the Global Car Wars That Is Now Revolutionizing World Industry. New York, NY: Free Press: Simon and Schuster, Inc. p. 112. ISBN   978-0-7432-9979-4.
  2. ↑ Czap, Michael F. "Lean Architecture: The pursuit of Excellence in Project Delivery". The American Institute of Architects. AIA. Retrieved 16 April 2013.
  3. ↑ Stouffer, Jeffery (9 April 2013). "Lean Design: What's it All About". Health Care Design Magazine. Vendome Healthcare Media. Retrieved 9 April 2013.
  4. ↑ Ries, Eric (2011). The Lean Startup: How Today's Entrepreneurs Use Continuous Innovation to Create Radically Successful Businesses. New York, NY: Crown Publishing Group, Random House. ISBN   978-0-307-88789-4.
  5. ↑ Ward, Allen, C. PhD (2009). Lean Product and Process Development. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The Lean Enterprise Institute. pp. 66–67. ISBN   978-1-934109-13-7.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  6. ↑ Liker, Jeffery (2004). The Toyota Way: 14 Management Principles from the World's Greatest Manufacturer . New York, NY: McGraw Hill. ISBN   9780071392310.
  7. ↑ Womack, James (1990). The Machine That Changed the World: The Story of Lean Production, Toyota's Secret Weapon in the Global Car Wars That Is Now Revolutionizing World Industry. New York, NY: Free Press: Simon and Schuster, Inc. pp. 112–130. ISBN   978-0-7432-9979-4.
  8. ↑ Huthwaite, Bart Sr. (2007). The Rules of Innovation. Mackinac Island, MI: Huthwaite Innovation Institute. ISBN   978-0-9712210-4-8.
  9. ↑ Schipper, Timothy & Swets, Mark (2010). Innovative Lean Development: How to Create, Implement, and Maintain a Learning Culture Using Fast Learning Cycles. New York, NY: Taylor and Francis, LLC. ISBN   978-1-4200-9298-1.
  10. ↑ Ward, Allen (2007). Lean Product and Process Development. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Lean Enterprise Institute. ISBN   978-1-934109-13-7.
  11. ↑ Huthwaite, Bart Sr. (2004). The Lean Design Solution: A Practical Guide to Streamlining Design and Development. Mackinac Island, MI: Huthwaite Innovation Institute. ISBN   978-0-9712210-3-1.
  12. ↑ Schipper, Timothy & Swets, Mark (2010). Innovative Lean Development: How to Create, Implement, and Maintain a Learning Culture Using Fast Learning Cycles. New York, NY: Taylor and Francis, LLC. pp. 136–137. ISBN   978-1-4200-9298-1.
  13. ↑ Womack, James; Jones, Daniel T.; Roos, Daniel (1991). The Machine that Changed the World. New York, NY: 1st HarperPerennial. pp. 112–117. ISBN   0-06-097417-6.
  14. ↑ Morgan, James; Liker, Jeffery (2006). The Toyota Product Development System. New York, NY: Productivity Press. p. 18. ISBN   1-56327-282-2.
  15. ↑ Radeka, Katherine (2013). The Mastery of Innovation. Boca Raton, Florida: CRC Press, Taylor and Francis. p. 20. ISBN   978-1-4398-7702-9.
  16. ↑ Huthwaite, Bart (2004). The Lean Design Solution. Mackinac Island, MI: Institute of Lean Innovation. p. 34. ISBN   0-9712210-3-0.
  17. ↑ Huthwaite, Bart (2004). The Lean Design Solution. Mackinac Island, MI: Institute of Lean Innovation. pp. 27–40. ISBN   0-9712210-3-0.
  18. ↑ Radeka, Katherine (2013). The Mastery of Innovation. Boca Raton, Florida: CRC Press, Taylor and Francis. p. 5. ISBN   978-1-4398-7702-9.
  19. ↑ Huthwaite, Bart (2004). The Lean Design Solution. Mackinac Island, MI: Institute of Lean Innovation. pp. 58–84. ISBN   0-9712210-3-0.
  20. ↑ Huthwaite, Bart (2004). The Lean Design Solution. Mackinac Island, MI: Institute of Lean Innovation. pp. 31–33. ISBN   0-9712210-3-0.
  21. ↑ Morgan, James; Liker, Jeffery (2006). The Toyota Product Development System. New York, NY: Productivity Press. pp. 142–143. ISBN   1-56327-282-2.
  22. ↑ Huthwaite, Bart (2004). The Lean Design Solution. Mackinac Island, MI: Institute of Lean Innovation. pp. 182–193. ISBN   0-9712210-3-0.
  23. ↑ Schipper, Timothy & Swets, Mark (2010). Innovative Lean Development: How to Create, Implement, and Maintain a Learning Culture Using Fast Learning Cycles. New York, NY: Taylor and Francis, LLC. pp. 31–52. ISBN   978-1-4200-9298-1.
  24. ↑ Schipper, Timothy & Swets, Mark (2010). Innovative Lean Development: How to Create, Implement, and Maintain a Learning Culture Using Fast Learning Cycles. New York, NY: Taylor and Francis, LLC. pp. 61–64. ISBN   978-1-4200-9298-1.
  25. ↑ Huthwaite, Bart Sr. (2004). The Lean Design Solution: A Practical Guide to Streamlining Design and Development. Mackinac Island, MI: Huthwaite Innovation Institute. pp. 253–262. ISBN   978-0-9712210-3-1.
  26. ↑ Radeka, Katherine (2013). The Mastery of Innovation. Boca Raton, Florida: CRC Press, Taylor and Fracis. pp. 50–51. ISBN   978-1-4398-7702-9.
  27. ↑ Ward, Allen, C. PhD (2009). Lean Product and Process Development. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The Lean Enterprise Institute. pp. 76–77. ISBN   978-1-934109-13-7.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  28. ↑ Ward, Allen, C. PhD (2009). Lean Product and Process Development. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The Lean Enterprise Institute. pp. 10–11. ISBN   978-1-934109-13-7.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  29. ↑ Ward, Allen, C. PhD (2009). Lean Product and Process Development. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The Lean Enterprise Institute. pp. 40–54. ISBN   978-1-934109-13-7.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  30. ↑ Huthwaite, Bart (2004). The Lean Design Solution. Mackinac Island, MI: Institute of Lean Innovation. p. 243. ISBN   0-9712210-3-0.
  31. ↑ Radeka, Katherine (2013). The Mastery of Innovation. Boca Raton, Florida: CRC Press, Taylor and Fracis. pp. 177–178. ISBN   978-1-4398-7702-9.
  32. ↑ Ward, Allen, C. PhD (2009). Lean Product and Process Development. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The Lean Enterprise Institute. pp. 85–86. ISBN   978-1-934109-13-7.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  33. ↑ "And the Shingo Goes to ...". Business Week: 38b. 15 May 2000.
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