Implementation of continuous flow manufacturing in United States industries

Continuous Flow Manufacturing (CFM) is one of the key strategies to enable the United States industries to adapt to any volume increase and rapidly changing requirements of the market place. CFM is an on-going analysis and improvement activity used to optimize the efficiency, effectiveness and flexibility of any process. The two basic goals of CFM are to reduce cycle time to less than customer order leadtime and to eliminate inefficiencies from the overall manufacturing processes. The thesis will describe reasons for the scarcity of CFM in United States industries. The methodology applied was a detailed six page questionnaire sent to over thirty-five industries in United States, using CFM as a part in their manufacturing operations. The research focused on difficulties experienced during preparation and implementation of CFM. The theoretical research and the questionnaire analysis revealed that CFM is indeed partially culture-based, difficult to understand, not easy to accept and hard enough to implement. Although the research was taken from a stratified sample of already known CFM implementors, full scale implementation fell very short. In fact, most industries in United States seemed to be engaged in preparing for CFM. Hopefully, the information presented will help the United States industries to formulate plans and strategies to implement further actions that will lead to more efficiency and effectiveness in their manufacturing operations

Prioritization and integration of lean initiatives with theory of constraints

Thesis (M.B.A.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management; and, (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Mechanical Engineering; in conjunction with the Leaders for Manufacturing Program at MIT, 2004.Includes bibliographical references (leaves 44-45).The principles of lean manufacturing have taken hold in a number of manufacturing firms as a means of achieving operational excellence through continuous improvement. Womack and Jones have suggested a generalized process for lean transformation in their 1996 book, Lean Thinking. A key element of this process is the creation of value stream maps for each product line. Value stream maps are the basis for planning and tracking a firm's lean transformation. Rother and Shook go further in their 1998 work Learning to See as they describe how these maps are created and then integrated into both the transformation process and the regular business planning cycle. The authors note that difficult questions remain, including: "In what order should we implement?" and "Where do we start?" Advice offered by Rother and Shook is helpful but insufficient given the complexity of many business environments and the scarcity of resources in competitive industries. This thesis builds upon Rother and Shook's work in proposing a framework for prioritizing lean initiatives. Specifically, Theory of Constraints (TOC) tools are employed as a basis for selecting programs and projects that provide the greatest system-wide productivity improvement for the least cost. In this manner, application of the proposed prioritization framework results in a more effective and efficient lean transformation. Research at the Eastman Kodak Company illustrates how this framework can be applied in a paper finishing production facility. Results highlight the system constraint in the paper slitting operation and the high leverage of machine changeover time in productivity improvement. We conclude that the Theory of Constraints can provide an effective focusing tool for the lean enterprise.by Kevin D. Schwain.S.M.M.B.A

The just-in-time system and its applicability in South Africa

This thesis discusses the philosophy and techniques of the Japanese Just-in-Time manufacturing system and its applicability in South Africa. The Japanese system consists of two types of procedures and techniques. They pertain to: 1) productivity; (2) quality. The aspect of the system dealing most directly with productivity is known as the just-in-time system. Just-in-Time addresses the material cost component of productivity. The diverse indirect effects are even more pronounced. Just-in-Time partially covers Japanese quality improvements but there are a host of other Japanese quality improvement concepts and procedures. Total quality control describes the set of Japanese quality improvement procedures which in turn encompasses some of the Just-in-Time techniques and improves productivity through the avoidance of waste. The two entities of the Japanese manufacturing system overlap

New manufacturing technologies

"To appear in: Strategic manufacturing : dynamic new directions for the 1990's"--p. 1.Includes bibliographical references.by Charles H. Fine

Manufacturing empowerment? 'Employee involvement' in the labour process after Fordism

Advocates of lean production argue that a work system is truly lean only if a given bundle of practices, including worker empowerment, is implemented in the proper configuration. In contrast, my interviews and observations in six US manufacturing plants demonstrate that substantive empowerment is not a necessary condition for achieving a lean manufacturing system that yields considerable performance improvement. While many configurations I observe appear to be 'lean enough' for satisficing managers, one commonality among the cases observed here is that worker empowerment is limited in depth and breadth. Employee involvement may be limited in depth because substantive empowerment requires a change in organizational routine and authority structure not necessary to achieve the largely technical goals of management. Even when an employer embarks on major technical and social change, pushing beyond lean enough toward world-class organization, substantive empowerment is limited in extent due to the demands of standardization and managerial prerogative, as well as resistance and reticence among workers. © 2007 Oxford University Press