A Review of Problem Solving Capabilities in Lean Process Management

Human factor plays an important role in ensuring lean process management to be successful and provides good proposition for the success of the organization in the long run. One of the main elements of people is their problem solving capability in identifying and eliminating wastages. The purpose of this paper was to review problem solving capabilities in lean process management; and identifying the important factors and needs for lean process management. Beside that the paper also proposed the conceptual framework of people development system which can help organizations to enhance employees’ capability in identifying and eliminating wastages continuously and effectively

Lean behavior in implementing lean process management

Lean is one of the popular concept has been practiced in most company. However, there are a lot of companies who implement lean are not realized whether lean level of company is improve or relegate. Thus, it is important to inspect the lean result after implementation of lean. So, this study presents to make the result comparison for lean behavior after implement lean for one year thru People development system which improves problem solving capabilities of people in eliminating wastages. Furthermore, the importance of problem solving capabilities of people in implementing lean process management also will be discussed. The survey was conduct in an aero composite manufacturer kitting department. Self-administered questionnaire has been selected to be the survey instrument. These questionnaires were distributed to 45 employees work in the kitting department. Results of feedback are collected and analyzed by using the Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) software version 13. The outputs of the analysis were in the form of index values, percentages and hypothesis testing.The result showed the improvement on lean behavior with the help of people development system implementation which enhance the people capabilities in eliminating wastages. These are supported by comparing the survey results on lean behavior for beginning and end of the year with the monitoring of real life data on the case study

ESUPPLIER APPROVAL PROCESS ON COMPOSITES’ PRODUCT-BASED MANUFACTURERS

The supplier is one of the keys to success in an organization and can also be the cause of the collapse of the company in which the supplier is able to introduce a number of problems such as supply of poor raw materials, shipping delays, poor services and failure to comply the requirement. Hence, approved supplier list has been used as a reference and a guide to the purchasing department to sourcing a trusted supplier. Therefore the development of process flow for approved supplier list must be done right for the effectiveness of this system. This paper analyzed supplier approval process on four selected companies specializing in composite product and manufacturing. The data collection consists of a series of semi-structured interview with supply chain personnel, documentation review and observation. These findings indicated that the same concept such as system audit, questionnaire and supplier assessment was used in a process of selecting potential suppliers prior to being inserted in the approved supplier list. Besides, the study identified that different companies (same business nature, but different product) had their distinctive ways in developing the process flow of the approved supplier list. The results can be used as reference to other companies to restructure their process flow for approved supplier list; focusing on their business goal and objective

Hybrid RSM-fuzzy modeling for hardness prediction of TiAlN coatings

In this paper, a new approach in predicting the hardness of Titanium Aluminum Nitrite (TiAlN) coatings using hybrid RSM-fuzzy model is implemented. TiAlN coatings are usually used in high-speed machining due to its excellent surface hardness and wear resistance. The TiAlN coatings were produced using Physical Vapor Deposition (PVD) magnetron sputtering process. A statistical design of experiment called Response Surface Methodology (RSM) was used in collecting optimized data. The fuzzy rules were constructed using actual experimental data. Meanwhile, the hardness values were generated using the RSM hardness model. Triangular shape of membership functions were used for inputs as well as output. The substrate sputtering power, bias voltage and temperature were selected as the input parameters and the coating hardness as an output of the process. The results of hybrid RSM-fuzzy model were compared against the experimental result and fuzzy single model based on the percentage error, mean square error (MSE), co-efficient determination (R2) and model accuracy. The result indicated that the hybrid RSM-fuzzy model obtained the better result compared to the fuzzy single model. The hybrid model with seven triangular membership functions gave an excellent result with respective average percentage error, MSE, R2 and model accuracy were 11.5%, 1.09, 0.989 and 88.49%. The good performance of the hybrid model showed that the RSM hardness model could be embedded in fuzzy rule-based model to assist in generating more fuzzy rules in order to obtain better prediction result

Intellectual giftedness for leadership: how robust is the crime reducing effect of intellectual class?

This paper aims to reassess Burhan et al.'s (2014) findings on the crime-reducing impact of intelligence at a cross-country level. The cognitive level of the intellectual group, defined as those with IQ at the 95th percentile of the normal distribution, was found to have a stronger impact in terms of crime rate reduction than the average level (50th percentile). This was demonstrated using ordinary least squares (OLS). The cognitive level of the non-intellectual class (5 th percentile IQ) was found to be least important in reducing crime. However, in their study, many independent variables were stated as not significantly related to the crime rates, which contradicts other literature. The question arises whether the presence of serious outliers in the samples causes the inconsistent findings. In this study, we analyzed the impact of IQ classes on the rates of eight different types of crime, namely homicide, rape, kidnapping, robbery, assault, burglary, property crimes, and vehicle theft. In addition to OLS we use Tukey's Bisquare robust M-estimator, which mitigates the effects of outliers in the samples. We conclude that those from the intellectual class play a more significant role than people of average ability and those of the non-intellectual class in reducing crime rates. Thus, educational policies for the gifted are recommended in order for them to become active participants in the future transformation of their societies, enhancing the functionality and quality of institutions and thereby reducing crime

Feasibility Study of Natural Fiber Composite Material for Engineering Application

This paper presents a feasibility study of natural fiber-tin lead alloy composite material for engineering application. The specimen aluminum mold plate was made using a laser cutting machine. Rice husk was selected for introduction to the tin-lead alloy composite. Sand casting techniques and a hot press molding machine were used to produce the specimen. Three types of testing were used in these studies: tensile test, flexural test and hardness test. A new technique for preparing a natural fiber and metal matrix composite material using a manual mixer has been developed to stir the mixture uniformly during the solidification phase. The SiC particulate and rice husk as a natural fiber were introduced to the tin-lead alloy for engineering applications to maintain the hardness of the material. It was found that the mechanical properties of the fabricated composites increased through reinforcement with SiC and rice husk in the material matrix of Sn, particularly for flexural and hardness properties. However, the result shows the tensile strength not significantly improved as the tensile strength for the composite is lower than that for tin-lead alloy (60-40). The experiment also obtained better performance for the tensile modulus and flexural modulus. There is potential to use rice husk in Sn composite material for engineering applications

A Review of Cloud Manufacturing: Issues and Opportunities

Cloud Manufacturing (CM) is the latest manufacturing paradigm that enables manufacturing to be looked upon as a service industry. The aim is to offer manufacturing as a service so that an individual or organization is willing to manufacture products and utilize this service without having to make capital investment. However, industry adoption of CM paradigm is still limited.  This paper compared the current adoption of CM by the industry with the ideal CM environment.  The gaps between the two were identified and related research topics were reviewed.  This paper also outlined research areas to be pursued to facilitate CM adoption by the manufacturing industry.  This will also improve manufacturing resource utilization efficiencies not only within an organization but globally.  At the end, the cost benefits will be passed down to end customer

The application of quality function deployment principles in manufacturing system design

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Multi-phase structured silicon carbon nitride thin films prepared by hot-wire chemical vapour deposition

In this work, Silicon Carbon Nitride (Si-C-N) thin films were deposited by Hot Wire Chemical Vapour Deposition (HWCVD) technique from a gas mixture of silane (SiH4), methane (CH4) and nitrogen (N-2). Six sets of Si-C-N thin films were produced and studied. The component gas flow rate ratio (SiH4:CH4:N-2) was kept constant for all film samples. The total gas flow-rate (SiH4 + CH4 + N-2) was changed for each set of films resulting in different total gas pressure which represented the deposition pressure for each of these films ranging from 40 to 100 Pa. The effects of deposition pressure on the chemical bonding, elemental composition and optical properties of the Si-C-N were studied using Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, Auger Electron Spectroscopy (AES) and optical transmission spectroscopy respectively. This work shows that the films are silicon rich and multi-phase in structure showing significant presence of hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) phase, amorphous silicon carbide (a-SiC), and amorphous silicon nitride (a-SiN) phases with Si-C being the most dominant. Below 85 Pa, carbon content is low, and the films are more a-Si:H like. At 85 Pa and above, the films become more Si-C like as carbon content is much higher and carbon incorporation influences the optical properties of the films. The properties clearly indicated that the films underwent a transition between two dominant phases and were dependent on pressure. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved

Effects of gold catalysts and thermal evaporation method modifications on the growth process of Zn1-xMgxO nanowires

In this paper, we investigate the roles of gold catalysts and thermal evaporation method modifications in the growth process of Zn1-xMgxO nanowires. Zn1-xMgxO nanowires are fabricated on silicon substrates with and without using a gold catalyst. Characterizations reveal that Mg acts in a self-catalyst role during the growth process of Zn1-xMgxO nanowires grown on catalyst-free substrate. The optical properties and crystalline quality of the Zn1-xMgxO nanowires are characterized by room temperature photoluminescence (PL) measurements and Raman spectroscopy, respectively. The Raman and PL studies demonstrate that the Zn1-xMgxO nanowires grown using the catalyst-free method have good crystallinity with excellent optical properties and have a larger band-gap in comparison to those grown with the assistance of gold. (C) 2010 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved