The Business Behind Lean Manufacturing

Just-In-Time and Kanban systems are interlocking and significant for lean manufacturing to be successful. Just-In-Time is defined as "the right component at the correct time in the appropriate amount" (Rao, 1999, 2). Kanban is often a corollary procedure with Just-In-Time that helps facilitate the process. A Kanban is a card that is certainly assigned to parts as they move through the manufacturing process. After the component is utilized the car is taken off the component and sent back towards the supplier. This prompts production of an additional good deal of parts that are then given Kanban cards. This procedure helps retain inventories at the lowest levels possible even though increasing the overall efficiency of manufacturing.

In his book In the Stories of U.S. Manufacturers, Jeffrey K. Liker argues that "The adoption of lean manufacturing techniques would benefit a firm, regardless with the item the company produces" (Rao, 1999, 3). However, despite such rosy sentiments and the accomplishment of numerous organizations who have adopted lean manufacturing, quite a few companies that have tried to restructure their manufacturing processes according to its principles have failed. U.S. Manufacturing processes focus on manufacturing resource planning (MRP) which is backed up by enterprise-resource-planning (ERP). In lean manufacturing, manufacturers ties production flow to genuine levels of buyer demand. With MRP-ERP, manufacturers base production flows on sales forecasts.

Quite a few corporations fail to attain the rewards of adopting lean manufacturing mainly because they merely overlay lean manufacturing processes onto wasteful manufacturing processes. Numerous argue the Large 3 automobile manufacturers inside U.S. merely pay lip service on the processes of lean manufacturing. This can be why, critics contend, that all 3 even now discover themselves involved in huge vehicle recalls as a result of manufacturing mistakes.

Those corporations that have efficiently adopted lean manufacturing, like Greencastle Metal Works, Inc. and Maytag Co., have abandoned ERP systems as non-value adding systems. ERP systems focus on numbers at the expense of manufacturing quality and processes. ERP provides data but doesn't add importance like lean manufacturing does. No shop-floor productivity is had inside the use of ERP, especially as reports are usually unreliable and viewed with skepticism.

Instituting Kaizan principles of training and engineering top quality control, corporations like Greencastle and Maytag have changed attitudes and engineering processes by adopting lean manufacturing like a holistic approach. As Tom Bratico of Maytag Co. notes, "I believe ERP is really a waste of money. We're staying away from ERP. We would like to eli9minate MRP as it does not work. You would like to fix the process ? spend all your time there. To try and do each ERP and lean jeopardizes the accomplishment rate of either" (Bartholomew, 1999, 2).

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