Lean Supply Chains and Mass Production

Lean Supply Chains

• Lean supply chains aim to eliminate waste and maximize efficiency in designing, ordering, and delivering products or services.
• Lean production, a key component, is an integrated system of activities designed to achieve high-volume production with minimal inventory.
• Lean production is also known as JIT (Just-In-Time) production and Toyota Production.
• Value stream mapping is a tool for analyzing where value is added or not during a process.
• Crucial parts of Lean production include waste elimination, careful timing, and focusing on customer value.

Mass Production Characteristics

• Mass production is often in conflict with lean concepts due to:
  • Large, specialized equipment
  • Production in large lot sizes
  • Push systems (products moved through the process without immediate customer demand)

The Toyota Production System

• Based on two philosophies: Elimination of waste and Respect for people.
• Global Modular Assembly is a critical part of the system to design vehicles and increase shared components.
• Waste is defined as anything that does not add value from the customer's perspective. Examples include overproduction, waiting, transportation, inventory, processing waste, motion, and defects.

Respect for People

• Companies using lean principles often value:
  • Level payrolls
  • Lifetime employment
  • Cooperative employee unions
  • Quality circles (Teams)
• NUMMI (New United Motor Manufacturing, Inc.) is a significant case study used to illustrate respect for employees.

Value Mapping

• A special type of flowcharting used to analyze where value is and is not added in a process.
• Understanding production processes, material flows, and information flows is necessary for developing lean processes.
• Kaizen is the concept of continuous improvement (a key aspect of Lean thinking). It's often part of the value stream mapping process.

Manufacturing Process Map (AS-IS) & Improved (To-Be) - Manufacturing Process Map

• Examples of visual representations of manufacturing processes before and after lean implementations, helping to identify areas for improvement. Numerical data on time, cycle time, lot sizes, and other metrics are often included.

Lean Principles and Concepts

• Lean principles focus on streamlining processes and efficiency throughout the entire supply chain. This includes layout, production scheduling, supply chain management, and customer relationships.

Lean Supply Chain Design Principles

• Key principles, used to build a lean supply system, include:
  • Group technology
  • Quality at the Source
  • JIT production
  • Uniform plant loading
  • Kanban production control systems
  • Specialized plants
  • Working with suppliers.

Group Technology

• Similar parts are grouped into families.
• Processes to make similar parts are arranged in a manufacturing cell to reduce movement and queue times between operations. Resulting in reduced inventory costs and fewer employees required.

Lean Concepts

• Plant layout is designed to ensure balanced workflow with minimal WIP (Work-in-Process).
• Preventative maintenance is prioritized to avoid downtime and increase reliability.
• Operators handle much of the maintenance procedures.
• Quality at the Source stresses worker accountability for the quality of their output.

Quality at the Source

• Factory workers are personally responsible for the quality of their work.
• Workers are empowered to do their own maintenance.
• Poka-yoke devices assist workers by preventing mistakes.

Just-in-Time (JIT) Production

• A production method where only needed parts are produced or obtained when needed.
• Minimizes Inventory and waste.
• Vendors often deliver several times daily.
• Exposes potential problems that might be hidden by higher inventory levels in traditional processes

Inventory Hides Problems

• Inventory can mask underlying problems such as machinery downtime, vendor issues, or process inefficiencies.
• A lean supply chain identifies the issues and seeks to eliminate them rather than hide them through storing materials or components.

Uniform Plant Loading (heijunka)

• Smoothing production flow to reduce waste due to schedule variations.
• Aim for a consistent, steady production rate.

Lean Production Schedules

• Uniform plant loading
• Level schedule
• Freeze windows

Minimizing Waste; Focused Factory Networks

• Small, specialized plants concentrated on specific products can lead to better coordination and efficiency.

Opportunities in an Integrated Supply Chain

• Collaborative planning, forecasting, and replenishment (CPFR).
• Standardizing processes & data.
• Vendor managed inventory (VMI).
• Efficient logistics (drop-shipping, blanket orders).
• Lot size reduction & inventory tracking (RFID)

Collaborate with Suppliers through CPFR

• Reduce lead times
• Frequent deliveries
• Project usage requirements to schedule production
• Communicate quality expectations

Components of a Lean Focused Supply Chain

• Lean suppliers
• Higher quality
• Lean procurement automation
• Lean warehousing elimination of non-value added steps and waste

Lean Logistics

• Choosing the best transport methods and strategies; orders are pooled, combined, and streamlined.

Lean Customers

• Customers must work with supply chain partners to understand processes and demands, and to build successful partnerships.

Lean Services

• Lean service principles can be applied to improve service quality and reduce waste in facilities and systems. (Ex: organizing groups, upgrading housekeeping & processes)
• Recognizing that service operations can be affected by uncertainties in task times, demand, and customer production roles.

Minimized Setup Time

• Single Minute Exchange of Die (SMED) which breaks down setup procedures into internal and external operations. Aimed at reducing production setup times.

This quiz explores the principles of lean supply chains, focusing on waste elimination, efficiency maximization, and the characteristics of mass production. It also discusses the Toyota Production System and its underlying philosophies. Test your knowledge on these critical production methodologies.