Enablers and Constraints in Implementing Lean Manufacturing: evidence from Brazilian SMEs

Lean Manufacturing has revolutionized the global manufacturing environment at an unprecedented rate. In scholarly and managerial literature, many works have reported that Lean Manufacturing is a very efficient approach and a straightforward way towards process improvements, in terms of productivity and value adding activities ratio. However, many studies on Lean Manufacturing have highlighted many problems in its implementation. The analysis carried out within the research project is aimed to the factors enabling or constraining the Lean Transformation of a firm’s production system, along with the most relevant tools or practices to be applied. The research methodology used is the so-called “Normative Delphi” with a panel formed by 32 experts coming from 16 Brazilian SMEs. Our results are partially consistent with what has already been discussed in the literature and we found that the most relevant tools/practices are: value stream mapping, 5S methodology, and Kaizen (Gemba walks); the top three enabling factors are: knowledge and sponsorship of senior management, focus on continuous improvement, and employee development fostered by the company; finally, the main critical constraints are: little support from the top management, resistance to change by middle management, and poor or non-qualified Lean training activities

Lean Thinking: Theory, Application and Dissemination

This book was written and compiled by the University of Huddersfield to share the learnings and experiences of seven years of Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) and Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) funded projects with the National Health Service (NHS). The focus of these projects was the implementation of Lean thinking and optimising strategic decision making processes. Each of these projects led to major local improvements and this book explains how they were achieved and compiles the lessons learnt. The book is split into three chapters; Lean Thinking Theory, Lean Thinking Applied and Lean Thinking Dissemination

Value, Kaizen and Knowledge Management: Developing a Knowledge Management Strategy for Southampton Solent University

The process of development of the strategic plan for Southampton Solent University offered a vehicle for the development of kaizen and knowledge management (KM) activities within the institution. The essential overlap between the methods offers clear benefits in the HE environment. In consideration of the aspects of KM and kaizen, various potential opportunities were identified as targets for improvement, and clarified by knowledge audit as to value and viability. The derived outcomes are listed along with some of the principal factors and perceived barriers in the practical implementation of the outcomes. Knowledge audit applied here focused on the identification of where value arises within the business. Resource constraints and the practicalities of a people-centred system limit the permissible rate of innovation, so precise focus on the areas of business activity of most significance to the mission and client base is crucial. The fundamental question of whether such a strategy should be developed as a separate strand or embedded into existing strategies is discussed. In practice, Solent has chosen to embed, principally for reasons of maintenance of ownership and commitment. Confidence in the process has been built through prior success with trialled activities around retention, where an activity-based pedagogic framework was adopted to address issues with an access course. Other areas of early intervention include the development and reengineering of recruitment and admissions processes, and the development of activities and pedagogy based on the virtual learning environment as exemplars of the importance of cyclical feedback in continuous improvement. The inherent complexity of processes running across the university as an organisation offers opportunities for benefits from the through-process approach implicit in kaizen. The business value of the institution is in the skills of its employees and its deployed intellectual property, and thus the importance of the enhancement of both tangible assets and intangible processes is critical to future success

A Synergistic Approach to Process Innovation

With the continuing globalisation of the economy comes increasing number of competitors. Consequently, products lifecycles has continued to fall as companies strive to out-manoeuvre one another by introducing product and service innovations to meet the needs of increasingly choosy customers. This has created a business environment where change has become widespread and persistent. As processes are the engines that power organisations to deliver the values required by customers, it becomes imperative that to have competitive edge, or even survive in this sort of business environment, these processes need to be not only adaptable to the changes but also be capable of inducing the changes that would benefit the organisations. To investigate the feasibility of adaptable and change inducing processes, the research presented in this paper explores the synergies amongst three techniques for problems solving and process improvement: Theory of Inventive Problem Solving, which is more commonly known by its Russian acronym, TRIZ; Theory of Constraints (TOC); and Lean Manufacturing.N/

Systemic lean intervention: enhancing lean with community operational research

This paper discusses how the theory and methodology of Community OR can enhance Lean initiatives. We argue that Lean practice can benefit from going beyond just the involvement of organizational stakeholders: local communities can be swept into the process too, with the aim of achieving an environment that is (as far as possible) pollution-free, for the benefit of organizations and their local communities. Our only proviso is that, in the spirit of Community OR, such an initiative must facilitate the meaningful involvement of community representatives, so change is agreed through stakeholder engagements that respect the inputs and framings of these representatives. Organizations should not impose ‘solutions’ on communities. An example of an intervention with a food production company in the Niger Delta Region of Nigeria is provided. The paper ends with some reflections on the added value that Community OR can offer Lean practitioners

Study of the Applicability of the Restriction Theory and the Value Stream Mapping in the Management of Processes of the Legal Practice Nucleus of a Law Faculty in Rondônia, Brazil

This article aims to discuss, based on the researcher’s observation during the years 2017 to 2019, about the flow of lawsuits from a Legal Practice Nucleus of a law faculty, in the city of Porto Velho, Rondônia, Brazil, highlighting the lawsuits of the family court, because these processes need urgency and usually take time in the elaboration of their pieces. This research will present a study on how the Value Stream Mapping and the Restriction Theory help to decrease or eliminate time losses in the process of this NPJ. For the development, used an analytical literature review methodology on the Restriction Theory and Value Stream Mapping. The research subjects were the agents involved in the activities of the NPJ and the data collected by the participant’s observation method

A Preliminary Study of Applying Lean Six Sigma Methods to Machine Tool Measurement

Many manufacturers aim to increase their levels of high-quality production in order to improve their market competitiveness. Continuous improvement of maintenance strategies is a key factor to be capable of delivering high quality products and services on-time with minimal operating costs. However, the cost of maintaining quality is often perceived as a non-added-value task. Improving the efficiency and effectiveness of the measurement procedures necessary to guarantee accuracy of production is a more complex task than many other maintenance functions and so deserves particular analysis. This paper investigates the feasibility of producing a concise yet effective framework that will provide a preliminary approach for integrating Lean and Six Sigma philosophies to the specific goal of reducing unnecessary downtime on manufacturing machines while maintaining its ability to machine to the required tolerance. The purpose of this study is to show how a Six Sigma infrastructure is used to investigate the root causes of complication occurring during the machine tool measurement. This work recognises issues of the uncertainty of data, and the measurement procedures in parallel with the main tools of Six Sigma’s Define-Measure-Analyse-Improve-Control (DMAIC). The significance of this work is that machine tool accuracy is critical for high value manufacturing. Over-measuring the machine to ensure accuracy potentially reduces production volume. However, not measuring them or ignoring accuracy aspects possibly lead to production waste. This piece of work aims to present a lean guidance to lessen measurement uncertainties and optimise the machine tool benchmarking procedures, while adopting the DMAIC strategy to reduce unnecessary downtime

Evidence-Based Dialogue Maps as a research tool to evaluate the quality of school pupils’ scientific argumentation

This pilot study focuses on the potential of Evidence-based Dialogue Mapping as a participatory action research tool to investigate young teenagers’ scientific argumentation. Evidence-based Dialogue Mapping is a technique for representing graphically an argumentative dialogue through Questions, Ideas, Pros, Cons and Data. Our research objective is to better understand the usage of Compendium, a Dialogue Mapping software tool, as both (1) a learning strategy to scaffold school pupils’ argumentation and (2) as a method to investigate the quality of their argumentative essays. The participants were a science teacher-researcher, a knowledge mapping researcher and 20 pupils, 12-13 years old, in a summer science course for “gifted and talented” children in the UK. This study draws on multiple data sources: discussion forum, science teacher-researcher’s and pupils’ Dialogue Maps, pupil essays, and reflective comments about the uses of mapping for writing. Through qualitative analysis of two case studies, we examine the role of Evidence-based Dialogue Maps as a mediating tool in scientific reasoning: as conceptual bridges for linking and making knowledge intelligible; as support for the linearisation task of generating a coherent document outline; as a reflective aid to rethinking reasoning in response to teacher feedback; and as a visual language for making arguments tangible via cartographic conventions