Leveraging lean in the office: Lean office needs a novel and differentiated approach

Lean Six Sigma tools have been increasingly employed also in the service industry, however with different success as field studies have shown. The reason not only has to be attributed to a poor Change Management, but can also be attributed to the intrinsic characteristics of the Lean techniques, which have been tailored to sustain a stable customer-takted pull-manufacturing principle. An office workplace shows significant differences to a procedural shop floor environment, as it comprises both, procedural and relational processes. The office environment, therefore, cannot be described by a purely transactional shop floor model—it necessitates a separate model, with a differenciated approach, which covers the procedural as well as the relational aspects of office tasks. Also the different characteristics of the transaction object as well as the operation transformation and process governance do not allow an un-adapted application of Toyota’s comprehensive Lean toolset. The approach of Lean for the office environment needs a reinterpretation of the Lean logic and TPS Lean tools for the procedural part as well. Therefore, different and adapted approaches and tools are clearly necessary. The paper shows the objectives and principles of Lean and why Lean manufacturing is also interesting to be applied in the office environment. The differences between office and production jobs are detailed and introduce the problem of lean application in the office. The particular characteristics of the office environment are discussed and enable to enter into the Relational Office Model. Furthermore, we explain the paradigm shift which is necessary to take full benefit of the Lean approach in the office environment, however without presenting the reinterpreted office Lean toolset due to space reasons. This will be the topic of a next paper.ISSN:1940-9893ISSN:1940-990

Going beyond Triviality: The Toyota Production System-Lean Manufacturing beyond Muda and Kaizen

Abstract Personal consulting experience has been showing that even many proven managers responsible for Lean Six Sigma Operational Excellence (OPEX) techniques have not fully understood the profound and comprehensive significance of Lean. Apart from the idealized interpretation of Lean boiled down to the limited concepts of Muda and Kaizen, the classical "temple" representation of the Toyota Production System (TPS) often leads to the interpretation that Lean is a toolbox from which one can select supposedly independent tools. By picking just some tools, however, the full potential of the TPS certainly cannot be exploited and-in the worst case-it may even cause production disruption. This essay criticizes the wide-spread ultra-simplification of concepts and, as a consequence, the distorted interpretation leads to an inappropriate use of the Lean tools. It presents two additional representations of the classical TPS temple model stressing the intrinsic systemic effects as well as the underlying theory concepts of the TPS to allow a flawless Just-inTime (JIT) production. In fact, the original TPS is not a toolbox, but a comprehensive synergic tool system

Exploiting Virtual Elasticity of Production Systems to Respect OTD—Part 3: Basic Considerations for Modelling CPPS Characterized by Non-Ergodic Order Entry and Non-Deterministic Product-Mix for Fully Flexible Addressable Workstations

The recently experienced hype concerning the so-called “4th Industrial Revolution” of production systems has prompted several papers of various subtopics regarding Cyber-Phdysical Production Systems (CPPS). However, important aspects such as the modelling of CPPS to understand the theory regarding the performance of highly non-ergodic and non-deterministic flexible manufacturing systems in terms of Exit Rate (ER), Manufacturing Lead Time (MLT), and On-Time Delivery (OTD) have not yet been examined systematically and even less modeled analytically. To develop the topic, in this paper, the prerequisites for modelling such systems are defined in order to be able to derive an explicit and dedicated production mathematics-based understanding of CPPS and its dynamics: switching from explorative simulation to rational modelling of the manufacturing “physics” led to an own and specific manufacturing theory. The findings have led to enouncing, among others, the Theorem of Non-Ergodicity as well as the Batch Cycle Time Deviation Function giving important insights to model digital twin-based CPPS for complying with the mandatory OTD

Abstracts of the 6th FECS Conference 1998 Lectures

International audienc