Thesis (M.S.)--Rochester Institute of Technology, 2009. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 104-108).

This article proposes a production method that aims to increase the manufacturing capacity of a footwear small- and medium-sized enterprise (SME) to reduce backorders. Therefore, an assessment is carried out and delays in production processes, excess product transport time, defective products, and inefficient work methods are identified. This article proposes designing a Lean manufacturing method using the change management approach, whose methodology is composed of six phases. In phase 0, change management is carried out; in phase 1, the company's current situation is reviewed using the Value Stream Mapping (VSM); in phase 2, the work area is reorganized (implementing SLP and 5S); in phase 3, production is balanced (implementing Line Balancing); in phase 4, continual improvement is established using the Kaizen tool; and finally, in phase 5, the results are evaluated. Through validation, it was possible to confirm that Lean manufacturing tools along with change management increased order deliveries by 82%.

M. Ing. / According to Taque (2005: 30), current lean manufacturing can be presented as ineffective due to a lack of guidelines for establishing and implementing the application thereof. In this project, guidelines for the implementation of lean manufacturing were developed using data collected from multiple sources. One of these sources were company visitations conducted at Desta Power Matla (DPM) in Johannesburg and Bosch SA in Brits. In addition, interviews were conducted with an expert in the field of lean manufacturing, ECSA-accredited professionals in the field, academics in industrial engineering and workers who use lean manufacturing. The significance of this study lies in assisting employees in understanding lean manufacturing production and then developing and implementing guidelines for its implementation. The study also brings to the fore the role of the individual worker in acquiring knowledge about and an understanding of lean manufacturing guidelines. This will ultimately enable companies to implement lean manufacturing production successfully. The results emerging from the data were used to develop guidelines for lean manufacturing production.

For companies operating within the garment manufacturing industry, having frequent downtimes in their production flows is an extremely common issue. In this context, a balanced production line is required to prevent high waiting times due to limited productive capacity. A well-balanced assembly line allows products to be produced in an optimum time while using less resources, such as machines, materials, or labour, since the right number of products is produced with the exact amount of resources, thus generating savings in production costs. This paper seeks to foster optimum resource allocation through the line balancing tool. Finally, to define a work methodology, best practices were selected, and a procedures manual was developed focusing on Standardization. Both tools were implemented after implementing changes to the company culture by means of the Employee Empowerment tool. As a result of this implementation, workers acquired greater accountability and control over the resources, methods, and equipment of their work areas. After the proposed improvements had been deployed, the company reported an increase of over 20% in production line quality, performance, and efficiency.

Several factors compel graphic design companies to improve efficiency and competitiveness in their production lines. However, these companies are not prepared to take on this challenge, as they report delays in 20% of their deliveries, caused by high setup times, low machine availability, and poor work scheduling. In this context, this study proposes a new production management model fed by the interaction of lean manufacturing tools and the Johnson scheduling method. This model has been validated by direct application at the SISSA. The results obtained were the reduction of the setup time to 15 minutes, increased machine availability up to 24%, and an efficient scheduling of its tasks. All of these reduced the percentage of delivery delays from 20% to 6%.

This thesis deals with the management of the production process, focusing on unproductive activities. It comprises analysis of the current situation in the company Teva Czech Industries s.r.o. (the TCI) and suggestions for improvement measures. The first chapter presents theoretical basis for processing work. PMT methods, namely MTM and MOST, lean production with a focus on 5S, TPM and Kaizen are described. The second chapter is focused on the company TCI, core business, organization structure and analyzes the current status. It’s focused primarily on the process of critical non-manufacturing operations and the changeover cleaning process. The third chapter, following the analytical part consists of the proposed recommendations. The fourth chapter deals with the final evaluation.