MTA English The Goal is Lean Eliyahu Goldratt s novel, The Goal, was a landmark book in the field of manufacturing management and is considered by many to be the book that sparked the Lean Manufacturing movement in the U.S. One definition of Lean Manufacturing is a manufacturing philosophy that demands short lead times to deliver high-quality, low-cost products. It is achieved by eliminating waste in the manufacturing process, not by simply eliminating people or demanding more from workers without providing the tools and strategies to achieve more. This definition is in accord with Jonah s prioritization of the three measurements in the following order: increasing Throughput, then reducing Inventory, and lastly reducing Operational Expense. For this assignment, you ll be reviewing the Lean Manufacturing concepts we ve discussed in tech class and relating them to examples from your reading of The Goal. Below is a chart of the 8 Wastes that are impediments to the implementation of a lean system (and toward the ultimate goal of making money.) Waste is a symptom of a problem, not a root cause of a problem; waste points to problems within a system. The 8 Wastes: D = Defects O = Overproduction W = Waiting N = Non-Utilized Talent T = Transportation I = Inventory M = Motion E = Extra processing (Pneumonic Acronym = DOWNTIME ) Definition Money and time wasted to find and fix mistakes Making products, faster, sooner, and in excess Time lost when people, material or machines are waiting When people doing the work are not consulted for their ideas or utilized in positions below their abilities or outside their expertise Moving of people and materials unnecessarily Any material (raw, in-process, and finished) in excess of one piece required for production Movement of people or machines that does not add value to the product Doing more that the minimum required to meet customer requirements Your assignment consists of 3 parts. Part 1 is done in a small group, and Parts 2 and 3 are done individually. Part 1: Group Gleaning (Done in Class) For this part, you ll be working in a small group to search for examples of any of the 8 wastes that Alex s team addressed in the novel. Write them down on the accompanying Group Gleaning Chart and note the page they are located on. Then discuss them briefly within your group. Turn this chart in with the rest of your work on Friday, 11/30/12 by 11:20am. Each person completes his or her own chart.
Group Gleaning Chart name Waste Location Notes/Description Pg. 164 Alex moves Quality Control in front of heat treat so that time is not wasted running bad parts. Defects Overproduction Pg. 210-211 When Jonah visits the plant he shows the team that the non-bottlenecks are making more than the bottlenecks can keep up with. Waiting Pg.144 The team discovers their bottlenecks that are holding up production and causing the machines behind them to wait for parts Non-Utilized Talent Transportation Pg.191-192 Pg. 42-43 Mike Haley, the 3 rd shift foreman for heat treat suggests modifying some carts to load and unload the oven faster and running some separate batches together. Alex finds three men not working and after yelling at their supervisor, finds them moving boxes for no reason to stay busy. Inventory Pg. 40 Alex thinks about the warehouses that are costing him money to store their extra product and raw material. Motion Extra Processing Pg. 9 Pg. 193 The machinist that broke the NCX-10 had spent a lot of time (and motion) setting up a machine and he is told by an expeditor to waste it and run a different part. There were some popular parts that really didn t have to go through heat treat but, later found that they have been so that some non-bottlenecks can work faster.
Part 2: Individual Interpretation Chart (Homework) Next, choose your best four examples and fill in the accompanying Individual Interpretation Chart with the following: a) Name of the waste your example applies to, b) A brief description of the example and page number, and c) An explanation of how each example fits the definition in the 8 Wastes chart on the previous page. Include the solution imposed by Alex s team. d) This chart is due Friday, 11/30/12, start of class. e) Charts must be legible; electronic copies are available on Moodle for students with legibility issues. Part 3: Implementation of a Solution (Homework) The final component is to choose one of the scenarios you ve been studying and write a short essay that includes the following a) Name the character that is eliminating the waste and tell his or her position in the company, b) Briefly summarize the situation, the waste being addressed, and the solution being implemented, c) Describe the personality of the character, and d) Analyze the work ethic of the character using the terminology in terms of his or her dependability, attitude and initiative, providing examples (positive or negative) of each component. This essay should be about 1 page in length, be double-spaced, use 12-point font, include a Header with Name and Date on the left, include an introduction and a conclusion, and should address each of the bullet points above. First draft is due Friday, 11/30/12, start of class.
Individual Interpretation Chart name Non-Utilized Talent Waste Description of Example Explanation The 3 rd shift foreman of heat treat had some good ideas to make the process more efficient. (192) Extra Processing Some Commonly make parts had been unnecessarily going through heat treat to make a nonbottleneck more productive (193) Transportation Overproduction Alex finds 3 men sitting around and yells at them and then they go move boxes just to look busy (42) Jonah visits the plant and shows Alex that the nonbottlenecks are making more than the bottlenecks (210) This example fits the definition of Non-utilized Talent because in this section of the book, Alex goes down into the plant to visit the heat-treat department. There he talks to the 3 rd shift Foreman, a man named Mike Haley who had been 10% more efficient than the other shifts. Mike shows Alex the way he is combining batches and getting them ready to go in while another batch is running. He also recommends to Alex that they retrofit some tables so that the oven can be leaded in less than a minute rather than almost half an hour. This fits the definition perfectly because Alex is getting ideas on how to make his plant better from someone doing the work and who would normally not have the chance to give his ideas. In this part of the book Alex is eliminating his waste of Non-utilized Talent. This example fits the definition of Extra Processing because in chapter 23 Bob Donovan tells Alex that three of their high demand parts had been initially designed to not require heat treating were changed so that a nonbottleneck machine could make bigger curs and be more efficient in making the part. This however was way before Alex and his team realized that heat-treat was a bottleneck. This fits the definition because they were putting the part through and extra process that wasn t adding any value to the part itself. This example fits the definition of Transportation because in this part of the book, Alex goes into the plant and sees three workers just sitting around reading a newspaper. Alex then tells their supervisor that they need to work so the supervisor has the guys move some boxes from one side of the aisle to the other just to appear busy. This fits the definition perfectly because the three workers were moving boxes but it was not helping any process and completely unnecessary. This example fits the definition of overproduction because in chapter 25, Jonah visits Alex s plant and meets with the team for the first time. There he is taken to the NCX-10 bottleneck where there is a huge pile of inventory in front of it. Jonah then explains that because the non-bottlenecks work faster than the bottleneck they produce more product faster and in excess, and it builds up in front of the bottlenecks, increasing inventory. This is an example of overproduction because they were making too many parts too fast and it was building up and creating a lot of work in progress.
The Goal is Lean Part: 3 Essay Eliyahu Goldratt s novel The Goal is about a manufacturing plant manager named Alex whose plant is going to be closed, and the only way he can save it is to implement Lean production and eliminate the eight DOWNTIME wastes from his plant. The book gives multiple examples of all of the eight wastes and how Alex and his team address, solve, and eliminate them. On page 192 of the book there is a fantastic example of the non-utilized talent waste and how it is solved. Alex, the plant manager and main character of the story, is visiting the plant floor to check on some recently-discovered constraints on the manufacturing process he calls bottlenecks. While he is visiting the heat-treating department, which is one of his biggest bottlenecks, he talks to the third shift foreman who is in charge of the department at the time. The man s name is Mike Haley and has recently been running the department 10% more productively than the other two shifts. He is a large muscular black man who is understanding and level-headed. He is clever and makes good use of his common sense. He is the perfect man for the job. Haley goes on to tell Alex about how he has been having his workers fill extra space in the furnaces with parts from other batches that need to be run at the same temperature. By doing this, more parts can go through the heat-treat department faster. Haley is also doing sorting and stacking of the parts for the next batch while a batch is being fired in the furnace so that he and his workers can load them faster.
After hearing these ideas Alex is already impressed, but Mike still has one more big idea to make the department more efficient. Mike tells Alex about how it takes a long time to put all the parts on the table in the furnace by hand and recommends that they retrofit some extra tables so that the parts could be put on them while another batch is running and then using a forklift they could put all the parts in at once saving a lot of time that could be used to run more parts. Alex immediately puts all of Mikes ideas into effect on all shifts of the heat-treat department, thus making use of this non-utilized talent. To make sure that Mike knows his help is appreciated Alex gives him the next day off and moves him to the day shift and also gives him a raise. Alex has no problem doing all this stuff for Mike because he has such a good work ethic. He is dependable in that he more than meets his deadlines, shows up each day on time even though he has the undesirable night shift, and is prepared to work as hard as he can. His good attitude can be seen in the way he works well with his team to get the parts out, works flexibly and multitasks, and takes pride in his ideas and accomplishments. The strongest part of his work ethic is his initiative in how he motivates himself to work hard, accepts the responsibility of running his department, uses the tools at his disposal to their full ability, and keeps his process organized to stay ahead and move the company towards its goal.