Manufacturing Products

The real purpose of 5S is more than just cleaning up once. The 5S method helps to make standards that show problems, keep things stable so we can make small improvements, reduce waste, make a focused and organized workplace, and work together to keep getting better. Visual Thinking describes the 5S system as creating a work environment that is easy to understand, organized, and always getting better.

Many kaizen programs aim to have a continuous flow, which means processes are constantly moving without interruptions. This is also the ultimate goal of lean production. A "cell" is a group of devices that perform tasks in a certain order, but it is not often to find a smooth and uninterrupted process, which is what makes a cell. In an ideal world, the product would flow smoothly from the beginning to the end, reaching the customer through all the stages of its production. But that would be too much to handle all at once. We need a place where we can focus. That place uses a system called a...

Conquer the Fabrication and Precision Assembly Field: Your Guide to a Career Building Finished Products and the Parts That Go into Them is your comprehensive resource for mastering a career in one of the most dynamic and rewarding sectors of modern manufacturing. This guide explores the essential skills, tools, and techniques needed to thrive as an assembler or fabricator, whether you’re building intricate electronic components or assembling large structural elements. From interpreting blueprints and operating CNC machines to understanding automation and robotics, the book provides ...

We live in a world of seemingly limitless consumer choice. Yet, as every shopper knows without thinking about it, many everyday goods—from beds to batteries to printer paper—are available in a finite number of "standard sizes." What makes these sizes "standard" is an agreement among competing firms to make or sell products with the same limited dimensions. But how did firms—often hotly competing firms—reach such collective agreements?

Toyota Motor Corporation made a system to make good products, save money, and make things faster by using less waste. TPS has two main parts, just-in-time and jidoka. It is often shown as a "house" image. To improve TPS and keep it running well, we use a process called PDCA or the scientific method. We do this by doing the same tasks over and over again and making small improvements called kaizen. TPS was created by Taiichi Ohno, who managed production at Toyota after World War II. Ohno began using TPS at Toyota in the 1950s and 1960s, starting with machining work. Then, he started using it...

Yes, people called the Toyota Production System an inventory reduction program when they first heard of it. “Just in time” is one of the main pillars in the TPS. “Just in time” ideally means “one-piece flow.” Inventory is the greatest waste in the process, and it hides many problems, such as quality problems, breakdown times, waiting waste, and more. Let’s get back to history. Prior to the 1970 oil crisis, very few people in the world know what Toyota was up to. The fact that it emerged stronger than ever while many of its competitors were quite battered made people take ...

Today the market entry for new ideas and entrepreneurs is easier than ever as the digital age is reshaping how business is done. Through digitalization, the business environment has become highly open and widely connected. The combinations of digital technologies like edge computing and artificial intelligence, AI, enable new business model opportunities. In this fast-changing environment, the most important thing is to learn as fast as possible what to do next and what is worth doing at all.

Using lean metrics in non-manufacturing processes can help make things work better and make customers happier. The ideas of lean thinking, like finding what's valuable, getting rid of waste, and always trying to get better, work for all kinds of businesses. This book has lots of examples to show how lean principles can be used in non-manufacturing areas like healthcare, accounting, and maintenance.

Heijunka, which means "production smoothing or leveling" in Japanese, is a method that helps balance production in all areas and with suppliers over time. It aims to make Just-In-Time (JIT) production easier. Heijunka is an important part of Just-in-Time (JIT) production. It means finding and keeping a consistent level of production. The main purpose of using the Heijunka technique is to provide goods at a consistent pace, which allows other operationsto also run smoothly and predictably. This helps decrease wastes and the amount of inventory.

Poka-yoke is a Japanese word that means "error-proofing". It involves using simple and cheap tools to help workers avoid making mistakes in their work. These devices prevent errors like using the wrong parts, forgetting to put in a part, or installing a part the wrong way. In simpler words, in Japanese, "poka" means making a mistake by accident, and "yoke" means stopping or avoiding the mistake. Have you ever wondered why Japanese cars are known for being reliable. Even cars that are 20 years old can still run well and keep up with the newest and top cars in the automobile industry. This is...

In recent years, financial professionals have been using outdated ideas and methods to judge how well companies are doing and give feedback to the bosses. This helps the executives and CEOs figure out what changes they need to make and make important choices. The boss wants assistance in locating the means to finance a new project. He wants to find areas where we can reduce costs in our products and services, as well as determine if changes made have led to making more money. The CEO wants assistance in understanding how the company has gotten better or worse and what the future will be ...

A way to control production where activities that come after in the process communicate what they need to activities that come before. Pull production aims to reduce or remove excessive production and is one of the three key elements of a complete just-in-time production system. In pull production, a step that comes after another step, either in the same place or somewhere else, tells the step before it what stuff or materials are required, how much is needed, and when and where it should be delivered. The supplier doesn't make anything until the customer asks for it. This means the ...

Giving machines and operators the power to notice when something is wrong and quickly pause their work. This helps companies to increase quality at every step of the process and to have workers and machines work separately for better efficiency. Jidoka is a fundamental concept in the Toyota Production System, which is an important way of doing things in Toyota factories. It is one of the two main principles, along with just-in-time. Jidoka is a system that helps identify problems quickly because if a problem happens, work immediately stops. This helps make things better and prevents ...

The most important thing in standardized work is finding a balance between giving employees strict rules to follow and allowing them to be creative and come up with new ideas to consistently meet difficult goals like cost, quality, and delivery. The secret to finding the right balance depends on how standards are written and who helps create them.

The act of changing a line or machine from making one product to making another is called changeover. Changeover is when we switch from making one product (product A) to making a different product (product B). This involves getting the machines ready and getting everything prepared for the new process. It is considered a waste of time because you are not using the machine at that time, which means you are not producing anything. Additionally, you are still paying the operators and workers even though they are not being productive during that time. When automobile companies need to make new ...

Andon is a system that alerts people to problems before they happen, in order to make the process more efficient and prevent issues. In manufacturing, an andon is a system that tells managers, maintenance workers, and other employees about a problem with quality or the manufacturing process. But is this all that Andon being?Andon is a system that alerts people to problems before they happen, in order to make the process more efficient and prevent issues. In manufacturing, an andon is a system that tells managers, maintenance workers, and other employees about a problem with quality or the ...

Takt is a German word that means the speed or rhythm of something. Takt time is a number that helps make sure that the pace of making pacemakers matches the pace of selling them. One of the most important things to consider in lean manufacturing is takt time. This is the rate at which customers want a certain group of products to be produced by one step in the manufacturing process. Takt time is a number that tells us how much time we have to make each item that the customer wants. Takt time is the time available for manufacturing divided by the number of orders. In the 1930s, the German ...

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Heijunka (Japanese for "production smoothing or leveling"): It is a technique used to smooth out production in all departments as well as that of the supplier over time in order to facilitate Just-In-Time (JIT) production. It means production leveling (finding and maintaining average production volumes). The fundamental goal of using the Heijunka technique is to supply goods at a steady rate so that upstream and downstream operations can likewise run at a steady and predictable rate, hence lowering the inventory. The heijunka technique works by leveling both the production volume and the ...

Production kanban, which translates to "sign" or "signboard" in Japanese, instructs an upstream process on the kind and number of goods to produce for a downstream process. In a pull system, a kanban is a signalling tool that provides approval and instructions for the manufacture or withdrawal (conveyance) of products. The conveyance used by the downstream process is referred to as the "withdrawal." The assembly process and the client, the assembly process and the supplier process, and the supplier process and the vendor all benefit from kanban. The Toyota production system is founded on ...