The role of lean training in lean implementation

[Excerpt] Lean thinking was proposed by Womack & Jones (1996) as an interpretation of the way Toyota was successfully approaching its production system. The body of knowledge around the lean philosophy has been built over the years by practitioners and scholars from around the world and an interesting example of a conceptual model of lean tools and principles was proposed by Hodge et al (2011). The implementation of lean principles, concepts and tools is quite popular in many types of organization around the world but not always with success (Negrão, et al, 2017). Lean training is referred to frequently in the literature as playing an important role in the success of lean implementation and in continuous improvement programmes. Shrimali & Soni (2017) reported that one of the limitations observed for successful implementations of lean in SMEs was the poor training. Another study (Netland, 2016) shows that after management commitment and involvement comes training, and education as the most commonly reported critical success factor in the improvement programme literature. Similar results were also reported by Yamchello et al (2014). Lean in education and training can be divided into two distinctive areas of knowledge and work. One area can be called Lean Teaching and the other area can be called Teaching Lean. The Teaching Lean area can be described as the way students and professionals can be effectively trained on Lean principles, concepts and tools so they can apply Lean in real contexts such as factories and other organizations. This area is quite a large subject with fast growing interest in recent years. The other area, Lean Teaching, can be described as how lean principles and concepts can be effectively applied in learning/training activities. There is a very interesting book on the subject published by Emiliani (2015) but this subject remains little explored by academic authors with very few articles published. Another closely-related area sometimes with confusing interpretation as Lean Teaching is the use of lean in schools and universities. In these cases the use of Lean is mainly applied in offices and other service areas that exist in academic organizations. [...]This work was supported by Fundacao para a Ciencia e a Tecnologia [UIDB/00319/2020]

Continuous improvement system: team members’ perceptions

The complexity, competition and fast changing of the global market requires the companies to seek excellence, if they crave for good performance and success. To reach this purpose, it is mandatory the existence of a Continuous Improvement (CI) culture within the companies. This concept, also known as Kaizen, mean “change for the better” and it defends that a very large of small improvements applied and sustained over the time, brings more value than a few big improvements. The objective of this paper is to evaluate the effect of lean teamwork after a Continuous Improvement system had been implemented in Lipor, a Public Organization based in Oporto that treats the municipal waste. The CI system implemented a few years ago, was possible to maintain and adapt over the years through the creation of a Kaizen Team, Natural Teams, Project Teams and the cooperation between them, cultivating this Continuous Improvement culture in the company’s core. The results of the survey done to the workers regarding the CI system demonstrated that the majority consider that their work process has improved significantly with Kaizen and highlighted the importance for them to be involved in improving team’s processesFCT –Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia within the Project Scope: UID/CEC/00319/201

Waste identification diagrams

CLME'2011 / IIICEM – 6º Congresso Luso-Moçambicano de Engenharia - 3º Congresso de Engenharia de Moçambique Maputo, 29Ago - 2Set 2011 - Edições INEGI 2011, (ISBN: 978-972-8826-24-6), Ref: CLME’2011_0912AThe most popular and perhaps the most effective way to represent the material flow in production units is the diagram known as Value Stream Map (VSM). Moreover these maps are also used to help in the identification of waste as well as a tool to support continuous improvement. Nevertheless, many of VSM limitations are known and thus there is room for the creation of other more effective ways to represent productive units as well as helping the identification of production waste. This paper presents a new graphic representation model for production units, as a tool to identify three forms of waste, designated as Waste Identification Diagram (WID), which aims to provide information to top managers in a much more effective format. The WID is a network of blocks and arrows, showing visually the throughput times, idle capacity, transport effort, changeover times and work-in-process levels. To illustrate the main features of this new tool, the paper includes a WID of a real production unity

Shame Memories and Depression Symptoms: The Role of Cognitive Fusion and Experiential Avoidance

Previous studies have suggested that shame memories can have a pervasive impact on depression symptoms, and avoidant-focused processes may play a mediating role. In addition, it is stated in Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) literature that experiential avoidance is a consequence of cognitive fusion. This study aims to explore the role of cognitive fusion and experiential avoidance in the relationship between shame memories (with caregivers and traumatic shame memories with others) and depression symptoms. In order to do that, we used Structural Equation Modeling to conduct a path analysis in a sample of 181 subjects of the general population. Our results add new information on the processes through which shame memories impacts on both experiential avoidance and depression symptoms. It is suggested that shame memories are not itself pervasive, but the entanglement with painful internal experiences (cognitive fusion) and/or the attempts to control them (experiential avoidance). This suggests the importance of planning an intervention that targets these processes when dealing with shame memories, particularly in patients with depression symptoms

A student team project in real context: The team view

In the Industrial Engineering and Management Integrated Master course the projects in real industrial context are assumed to play a crucial role in the development of key technical and professional skills in students. In the 7 th semester of this integrated master course the students are involved in a large real context project integrating many different subjects covered in 5 different curricular units. Student teams must analyze and diagnose a production unit in a company, identify improving opportunities, design solutions and implement them if possible. These experiences are very demanding to students since many different uncontrollable variables are influencing their performance as team and as individuals. In this article the students will describe the experience from different perspectives, such as: personal interaction, group and project management, technical challenges, communication issues, as well as the challenges in meeting teachers and company staff expectations.(undefined)info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Improving the performance of student teams in project-based learning with Scrum

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the effectiveness of Scrum for project and team management in PBL teams in higher education. To attain this goal, a study was carried out to analyze students’ perceptions about Scrum as an effective method for PBL teams. Based on two different editions of PBL that used the Scrum method with different characteristics in each approach, this paper aims to identify the best practices for effective team and project management and draw recommendations for successful use of scrum in PBL approaches. The authors used an exploratory case study carried out within an engineering program at the University of Minho, Portugal. The research design was based on an explorative quantitative and qualitative approach. Implementing Scrum in PBL teams helps students to keep the project running smoothly and draws greater awareness on how to manage the project and teams in a more effective way. Findings show that task assignment, performance monitoring, visual management and regular feedback were considered the main advantages of using Scrum in PBL teams, which had a positive impact on student performance. However, for the success of Scrum, students recognize the role of the Scrum Master and Project Owner as vital to guide the teams in a sustainable way. Research on the application of Scrum in Education is scarce and mostly exploratory. This paper is among the very few empirical studies consolidating knowledge on the implementation of Scrum approaches to improve learning in higher education. More specifically, it brings a valuable contribution on how to improve specifically team performance in PBL teams with the use of agile approaches such as Scrum

Implementation of lean principles for performance improvement: Use of VSM+WID for waste identification

This article demonstrates the implementation of lean principles for performance improvement in a manufacturing firm. Value stream mapping and waste identification diagrams (VSM+WID) are integrated to assess the level of currently existing waste and the overall current status of the manufacturing flow. The VSM+WID enables an increase in the awareness of relative waste distribution among different processes in the selected case study manufacturing unit. This manuscript demonstrates how to use VSM+WID to understand the current status of the manufacturing flow related challenges such as: overproduction, work-in-process, inefficient use of man-hours (e.g. unbalanced work distribution), etc. It also demonstrates the effectiveness of visualization of the performance gap between the current and future state. The aforementioned type of performance assessment enables effective identification of waste present in a manufacturing flow in order for future improvement initiatives to be taken.This work has been supported by COMPETE: POCI-01-0145-FEDER-007043 and FCT – Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia within the Project Scope: UID/CEC/00319/2013

Making PBL teams more effective with Scrum

Scrum is a project management methodology very popular in the software industry with good results in terms of team work effectiveness. Scrum is based on important team work values such as commitment, courage, focus, openness and respect and can be described in three different dimensions: Scrum team; Scrum Events; and Scrum artefacts. This paper aims to analyse the implementation of scrum approach in a project based learning context in higher education. The scrum approach was applied in the fourth year of the Industrial Engineering and Management (IEM) degree program, where teams of students developed a PBL project in an industrial context during the first semester. The research methodology focused on a qualitative approach. Semi-structured interviews were carried out to the Scrum Team (scrum master, product owner and the student team). Scrum Events were analysed through direct observation and Scrum Artefacts (Product Backlog, Sprint Backlog and Increment) were analysed based on a document analysis. The results of this study contribute to understand the effectiveness of the application of Scrum to complex PBL learning environments. The results presented in the study provided important inputs to improve the way PBL student teams manage themselves as well as their projects.This work has been partially supported by projects COMPETE-POCI-01-0145-FEDER-007043 and FCT-UID-CEC-00319-2013, from Portugal

Improving hospital operations management to reduce ineffective medical appointments

The main objective of this study is to meet management aspirations by promoting waste reduction and consequently improving patients` experience in a Portuguese public hospital. These aspirations include increasing hospital service quality in a continuous and efficient way. This management mindset uncovered divergences between medical appointment and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) exam scheduling that were generating waste for both the hospital and patients. The main aspects considered in this study were the patients’ medical expectations, the quality, and cost of service provided. One-year retroactive encrypted data from medical appointments and MRI requisitions were provided for the algorithm development. Outcomes obtained from the algorithm revealed a high percentage of medical appointments occurring without the respective MRI exam results. These outcomes exposed waste existence that was hitherto unknown by the administration. Thus, the main algorithm function is to analyze future data to previously alert ineffective medical appointments. This progress contributes to reducing wasted medical and patient time. In summary, the main contribution of this article is to allow hospital managers to cross-check data from different sectors to identify divergences in future medical consultations that require exams or results of clinical analysis.This work was supported by the Fundacao para a Ciencia e a Tecnologia [POCI-01-0145-FEDER-030299]; Fundacao para a Ciencia e a Tecnologia [UIDB/00319/2020]