Advanced Production Tech
Advanced Production Tech
Advanced Production Tech
OF
AGRICULTURE AND TECHNOLOGY
Figure 1: Workplace-junk
ii. Seiton or Straighten / Set in order
Seiton or Straighten is the process of taking the required items that are remaining after the
removal of clutter and arranging them in an efficient manner through the use of ergonomic
principles and ensuring that every item “has a place and that everything is in its place.”
v. Shitsuke or Sustain
The final stage is Shitsuke or sustain, ensuring that the company continue to continually improve
using the previous stages of 5S, maintain housekeeping, and conduct audits and so forth. 5S
should become part of the culture of the business and the responsibility of everyone in the
organization.
Introduction
The Toyota Production System (TPS) arose out of necessity in response to the circumstances
surrounding the company. Many of the foundational concepts are old and unique to Toyota while
others have their roots in more traditional sources.
The oldest part of the production system is the concept of Jidoka which was created in 1902 by
Toyoda founder Sakichi Toyoda. This concept pertains to notion of building in quality at the
production process as well as enabling separation of man and machine for multi-process
handling. The origins of this notion began in the Toyoda Spinning and Weaving Company which
was started by Sakichi Toyoda. Sakichi invented a loom that automatically stopped whenever it
detected that a thread was broken. This stopped the process from created defective material.
Later on in 1924 he created an automatic loom that allowed one person to operate multiple
machines. The rights to manufacture the loom outside of Japan for were eventually sold to the
Platt Brothers Ltd. in England. This money was then partially used to start an automotive
division that was later spun off in 1937 as a separate business and company under Kiichiro
Toyoda the son of Sakichi.
The most famous element of the TPS is no doubt the Just-in-Time pillar of the production
system. The phrase Just-in-Time was coined by Kiichiro Toyota in 1937 after the start of Toyota
Motor Corporation. The company was quite poor and could not afford to waste money on excess
equipment or materials in production. Everything was expected to be procured just in time and
not too early or too late. Later elements developed in the 1950’s including takt time, standardized
work, kanban, and supermarkets added to the basis for JIT.
After World War II Taiichi Ohno a promising engineer in the Toyoda Spinning and Weaving
Corporation was brought over to the automotive side of the business. He was given the task of
improving operational productivity and driving in the concepts of Just-In-Time and Jidoka. He
was eventually appointed machine shop manager of an engine plant and experimented with many
concepts in production between the years of 1945-1955. His work and effort is largely what
resulted in the formulation of what is now acknowledged as the Toyota Production System.
Based on the principle of resources and wastage reduction, Toyoda and his coworker Onho
Taiichi formulated the famous Toyota Production System (TPS).
There are five basic principles of lean thinking highlighted by Womack and Jones.
1. Value
Every company needs to understand what value the customer places upon their products and
services. It is this value that determines how much money the customer is willing to pay for the
product and services. This leads to a top-down target costing approach that has been used by
Toyota and others for many years. Target costing focuses on what the customer is willing to pay
for certain products, features, and services. From this the required cost of these products and
services can be determined. It is the company’s job to eliminate waste and cost from the business
processes so that the customers price can be achieved at great profit to the company.
2. The Value Stream
The value stream is the entire flow of a product’s life-cycle from the origin of the raw materials
used to make the product through to the customer’s cost of using and ultimately disposing of the
product. Only by a study and clear understanding of the value stream and its value-add and waste
can a company truly understand the waste associated with the manufacture and delivery of a
product and/or service. Lean thinking advocates supplier and customer partnership and radical
supply chain management to eliminate waste from the entire value stream.
3. Flow
One very significant key to the elimination of waste is flow. If the value chain stops moving
forward for any reason, then waste will be occurring. The trick is to create a value-stream where
the product (or its raw materials, components, sub-assemblies) never stop in the production
process. Where each aspect of production and delivery is fully synchronized with the other
elements. Carefully designed flow across the entire value chain will tend to minimize waste and
increase value to the customer.
4. Pull
The way to ensure that nothing is made ahead of time and builds up work-in-process inventory
that stops the synchronized flow is to use a pull approach. A traditional western manufacturer
will use an MRPII or ERP style of production planning and control whereby production is
"pushed" through the factory based upon a forecast and a schedule. A pull approach states that
we do not make anything until the customer orders it. To achieve this requires great flexibility
and very short cycle times of design, production, and delivery of the products and services. It
also requires a mechanism for informing each step in the value chain what is required of them
today, based upon meeting the customer’s needs.
5. Perfection
A lean manufacturer sets his/her targets for perfection. The idea of total quality management is to
systematically and continuously remove the root causes of poor quality from the production
processes so that the plant and its products are moving towards perfection. This relentless pursuit
of the perfect is key attitude of an organization that is "going for lean".
How Toyota has implemented lean manufacturing.
• Educate suppliers