The Effectiveness of Lean Manufacturing Audits in Measuring Operational Performance Improvements

Abstract

The hypothesis that lean manufacturing audits are an effective way to measure improvements in operational performance was tested using 64 manufacturing sites owned by a FTSE 100 company. Commonly-used lean characteristics were evaluated: policy deployment, standardised work, visual management and housekeeping, quick changeover techniques, total productive maintenance, continuous improvement (kaizen), error proofing, cultural awareness, material control, and levelling (heijunka). Operational performance was assessed employing commonly-used operational performance measures: on-time-delivery, inventory turns, and direct labour utilisation. The findings are that lean manufacturing audits are effective in measuring improvements in operational performance provided that the audit scope and the lean characteristics are aligned up front. OPSOMMINGDie hipotese dat die amptelike evaluering van stroombelynde produksie effektief gebruik kan word om verbetering in bedryfsdoeltreffendheid te meet, is getoets met die gebruik van 64 vervaardigingsaanlegte wat deur 'n FTSE 100 maatskappy besit word. Stroombelynde tegnieke wat algemeen gebruik word, is geëvalueer: strategiese beplanning, gestandaardiseerde werk, visuele bestuur en huishouding, vinnige oorgangstegnieke, totale gehaltebestuur, kaizen, foutvoorkoming, kulturele bewustheid, materiaalbeheer, en konstante produksietempo's. Maatreëls wat algemeen gebruik word om bedryfsdoeltreffendheid te meet is gebruik om bedryfsdoeltreffendheid te assesseer: tydige aflewering, voorraadomsetsnelheid, en direkte arbeidsbenutting. Die bevinding is dat, om amptelike evaluering van stroombelynde produksie effektief te gebruik om verbetering in bedryfsdoeltreffendheid te meet, moet die omvang van die amptelike evaluering en stroombelynde tegnieke vooraf belyn word. a a a a a a a a a a aa a a a a 1*

Learning on Lean Production: A Review of Opinion and Research within Environmental Constraints

“…Lean Production Framework Kurdve et al (2011) dealt with the environmental value stream mapping for achieving better results in two case studies at Volvo; Nasab et al (2013) introduced an integrated dynamic approach to investigate the technology effectiveness of lean manufacturing in enterprises and ability to alter the parameter's affects on others; Venkataramana et al (2014) aimed at lean implementation in an Indian automotive industry through multi-criteria decision making model & analytical hierarchy process to create product mix flexibility; Marudhamuthu et al (2011) addressed the lean implementation in an Indian garment export industry by VSM and single minute exchange of die (SMED) approaches which resulted in reduced set up time; Mittal and Sangwan (2014) developed a model for environmentally conscious manufacturing by SPSS tool, exploratory & confirmatory factor analysis and SEM to validate the model; Taggart and Kienhöfer (2013) concluded that lean audits are only effective ways to measure improvements in operational performance and tested it in 64 manufacturing sites; Sullivan et al (2002) provided a roadmap for the analysis of equipment replacement decision problems through VSM; Wang et al (2008) introduced a step-by-step implementation framework for lean production & product development by means of marketing research on product development & design processes (Figure 7); Upadhye et al (2014) tried to find out the implementation enablers of lean tools i.e. Just-in-Time in the Indian corrugated packaging industry through interpretive structural modeling; Jaganathan (2014) carried out the assembly line balancing & layout modification in a garment industry using largest candidate algorithm rule, and increased the efficiency up to 26% & the productivity by 25%.…”

Improving Productivity and Standard Time Updating in an Industrial Company – A Case Study

“…The companies seek to find methodologies that allow them to respond to the growing challenges that are currently posed to them, and the Lean Manufacturing philosophy [1,2,8,13,15,16] and some other more or less closely related subjects are often the solution found to solve their problems [5][6][7]9,11,14,15,17,18].…”

“…The goal of Lean Manufacturing is to minimize any kind of waste, which becomes a progressively more complex goal to achieve, to make each company more competitive in the current global market context [13,15,16].…”

“…The current market imposes the price of products, increasingly tight quality requirements, shorter delivery times and not neglecting also the requirement of increasingly personalized products. Therefore, several companies seek to find methodologies that allow them to respond to these challenges, being the philosophy of Lean Manufacturing and closely related approached, such as methods and times measurement and analysis the solution often chosen by many companies [15].…”

Application of a System Dynamics Model to Improve the Performance of Make-to-Order Production

“…Aburas [1] recognises that evaluating the corporate performance of a multi-business company is complicated because it should be viewed from various perspectives and has to satisfy multiple objectives. Taggart and Kienhöfer [34] propose that some commonly-used operational performance measures are on-time-delivery, inventory turns, and direct labour use. Besides, the simulation modelling is applied to investigate the concept of performance analysis [18].…”