Dagens arbetsklimat kännetecknas av konstanta förändringar, vilket sätter en stor press på företag att anpassa sig för att inte hamna efter. För att bibehålla konkurrenskraft tvingas därför företag att hitta nya sätt att utvecklas inom organisation och produktion, för att bemöta de kontinuerliga förändringar som sker. Tillverkning under tjugohundratalet kännetecknas av specialanpassade produkter där många tillverkande företag har komplexa produktionsplaneringar och affärssystem. Detta har lett till att företag söker sig alltmer mot koncept och metoder av ständiga förbättringar, något som gjort att tillämpningen av lean bland mindre tillverkande företag blivit alltmer framträdande.  Syftet med denna studie är att undersöka hur ett mindre tillverkande företag kan implementera koncept, verktyg, värderingar och principer inom lean för att bemöta sina nuvarande problem, och att långsiktigt kunna fortsätta arbeta vidare med det som en del i det dagliga arbetet. Målet är att ta fram ett ramverk för implementering av lean hos ett mindre tillverkande företag. Ramverket syftar till att visualisera de olika steg ett företag behöver gå igenom för att lyckas inkorporera förbättringskoncept/verktyg i sin verksamhet och därmed standardisera arbetet och minimera slöserier.  Studien är av kvalitativ karaktär där intervjuer, observationer och en litteraturstudie stod för insamlingen av data. Totalt genomfördes åtta intervjuer där en blandning av ledningen och anställda i produktionen var intervjuade. Observationerna utfördes genom att vandra omkring i produktionen för att skapa sig en bild för hur arbetet faktiskt går till idag. Litteraturstudien behandlar relevanta artiklar inom lean, SME:S och ständiga förbättringar. Genom att analysera den insamlade data mot den befintliga litteraturen kunde slutsatser om vilka verktyg/koncept som krävs för att bemöta respektive slöserier inom ett producerande SME göras. Även vilka faktorer som är viktiga för företag att ta i beaktning vid införandet av förbättringskoncept. Detta visualiseras genom ett ramverk som är framtaget genom denna studie. Fumex rekommenderas använda detta ramverk som ett stöd till implementering av lean i sin verksamhet. Detta syftar till att lösa de identifierade problemen med dokumentation, otydliga manualer/instruktioner och kommunikation mellan ledning och produktion.

This thesis evaluates the existence and viability of lean ERP systems in today’s manufacturing industry. Results from the research show that current practitioners of lean – who also utilize ERP systems – do not have a strong enough link between the two to consider their ERP systems, and overall organizations, as being truly lean. Few articles and research papers in today’s body of knowledge contain information on the concept of lean ERP. A survey, sent to numerous industry professionals and posted on lean manufacturing websites, provided the results necessary for statistical analysis. The conclusions obtained from this survey analysis provided a strong foundation for additional, more focused, research of lean ERP systems.

No description available.

The implementation of lean manufacturing concepts has shown significant impacts on various industries. Numerous tools and techniques have been developed to tackle specific problems in order to eliminate wastes and carry out lean concepts. With the focus on "how to make a system leaner," little effort has been made on determining "how lean the system is." Lean assessment surveys evaluate the current status of a system qualitatively against predefined lean indicators. Lean metrics are developed to quantify performance of improvement initiatives, but each metric only focuses on one specific area. Value Stream Maps demonstrate the current and future states graphically with the emphasis on time-based performance only. A truly quantitative and synthesized measure for overall leanness has not been established. In some circumstances, being lean may not be the only goal for manufacturers. In order to compete in the rapidly changing marketplace, manufacturing systems should also be agile to respond quickly to uncertain demands. Nevertheless, being extremely agile may increase the cost of regular operations and reduce the leanness of the system. Similarly, being extremely lean may reduce flexibility and lower the agility level. Therefore, a manufacturing system should be agile enough to handle the uncertainty of demands and meanwhile be lean enough to deliver goods with competitive prices and lead time. In order to achieve the appropriate leanness level, a leanness measure is needed to address not only "how lean the system is" but also "how lean it should be." In this research, a methodology is proposed to quantitatively measure leanness level of manufacturing systems using the Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) technique. The production process of each work piece is defined as a Decision Making Unit (DMU) that transforms inputs of Cost and Time into output Value. Using a Slacks-Based Measure (SBM) model, the DEA-Leanness Measure is developed to quantify the leanness level of each DMU by comparing the DMU against the frontier of leanness. A Cost-Time-Value analysis is developed to create virtual DMUs to push the frontier towards ideal leanness so that an effective benchmark can be established. The DEA-Leanness Measure provides a unit-invariant leanness score valued between 0 and 1, which is an indication of "how lean the system is" and also "how much leaner the system can be." With the help of Cost-Time Profiling technique, directions of potential improvement can be identified by comparing the profiles of DMUs with different leanness scores. The leanness measure can also be weighted between Cost, Time and Value variables. The weighted DEA-Leanness Measure provides a way to evaluate the impacts of improvement initiatives with an emphasis on the company's strategic focus. Performing the DEA-Leanness measurement requires detailed cost and time data. A Web-Based Kanban is developed to facilitate automated data collection and real-time performance analysis. In some circumstances where detailed data is not readily available but a Value Stream Maps (VSM) has been constructed, the applications of DEA-Leanness Measure based on existing VSM are explored. Besides pursuing leanness, satisfying a customer's demand pattern requires certain level of agility. Based on the DEA-Leanness Measure, appropriate leanness targets can be identified for manufacturing systems considering sufficient agility level. The Online-Delay and Offline-Delay Targets are determined to represent the minimum acceptable delays considering inevitable waste within and beyond a manufacturing system. Combining the two targets, a Lean-Agile Performance Index can then be derived to evaluate if the system has achieved an appropriate level of leanness with sufficient agility for meeting the customers' demand. Hypothetical cases mimicking real manufacturing systems are developed to verify the proposed methodologies. An Excel-based DEA-Leanness Solver and a Web-Kanban System have been developed to solve the mathematical models and to substantiate potential applications of the leanness measure in real world. Finally, future research directions are suggested to further enhance the results of this research. / Ph. D.

As energy prices and demand are projected to increase globally and markets become more competitive nationally and internationally; the wood products industry must find ways to remain relevant. By: 1) analyzing energy-saving recommendations contained in the IAC database; 2) comparing those recommendations by criteria such as cost, savings, and payback period; 3) identifying recommendations that incorporate lean manufacturing principles; and 4) investigating the practices and perceptions of manufacturers at the facility level, this project provides information for identifying the greatest opportunities for energy management among U.S. wood product manufacturers. Results from the analysis of the IAC database show that wood product manufacturers had a low implementation rate of energy recommendations ranked purely by cost, savings, and payback period among wood product manufacturers suggesting they were not focused on implementing energy recommendations specifically based on those criteria. While some recommendations were found to be statistically different in at least one criteria: cost, savings, or payback period between wood and non-wood manufactures as well as primary and secondary wood manufacturers, only two recommendations had practical differences, large payback periods, between primary and secondary wood manufacturers. Twenty-four of 192 energy recommendations were classified as lean-based energy recommendations using the Kirby and Green (2003) methodology, however, there was no clear evidence to suggest the lean-based energy recommendations were superior in terms of cost, savings, or payback period when compared to simple energy recommendations. Interviews with primary and secondary manufacturers revealed a lack of commitment to energy performance improvement and the reported barriers of implementation among a small sample of wood products manufacturers suggests that the dissemination of energy management knowledge and benefits is a problem. / Master of Science

Pour faire face aux contraintes économiques (demande de plus en plus importante pour de la personnalisation de masse, globalisation et réduction des coûts…), le développement de stratégies de production « Juste À Temps », ou « Lean Manufacturing » impose la réorganisation de l’entreprise sur les activités génératrices de valeur en suivant une logique de chaîne de valeur pour éviter tout gaspillage. Cette stratégie conduit de fait à un recentrage métier et une extension de la chaîne de valeur. L’entreprise est donc amenée à développer des stratégies de collaboration (Bare et Cox, 2008 ; Davis, 1987) et doit disposer d’un SI Lean (réponse au plus juste), agile pour réagir aux fluctuations et aléas, ouvert pour assurer un partenariat avec ses fournisseurs, ses clients et ses partenaires et, enfin, interopérable pour faciliter la communication entre les différents systèmes et concilier ces différentes facettes métiers. Or, le SI de l’entreprise est constitué d’une multiplicité de logiciels (l’ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning), le MES (Manufacturing Execution System), le PLM (Product Life-cycle Management), le SCM (Supply Chain Management)…). Chaque système vise à répondre à un objectif donné pour une facette métier, et est développé selon des spécifications métier propres échappant le plus souvent à toute standardisation. Ceci engendre une redondance, une hétérogénéité et une augmentation du volume d’information, d’où des risques d’incohérence, de rigidité du SI et notamment une grande difficulté de communication dans le cadre de collaboration interentreprises. Pour répondre à ces aléas, il importe de définir un SI agile et interopérable et de réorganiser les processus pour supporter la chaîne de valeur de l’entreprise. C’est dans cet objectif que nous proposons de développer un Lean ESB (Enterprise Service Bus), socle d’une Architecture Orientée Services, doté d’une couche sémantique métier. Nous avons défini quatre modules du Lean ESB : • Le module de médiation définit les échanges d’information entre les différents métiers et entre le métier et la technologie pour assurer le fonctionnement des autres modules. • Le module de chorégraphie dynamique permet de composer les services industriels pour définir les processus selon les besoins de production spécifiés par le client. • Le module de routage intelligent organise les ressources de l’atelier pour définir des processus en flux tirés. • Le module de monitoring et gouvernance permet de contrôler la performance de la production et la qualité des produits. / To meet the economic constraints (growth of mass customization demands, globalization and cost reducing), the development of new strategies forms as a “Just In Time” production strategy or “Lean Manufacturing” needs to reorganize the enterprise taking into account the activities which generates value (following the value-chain logic) in order to avoid wastefulness. This strategy leads to a business refocusing and a value-chain extension. The enterprise has to develop collaboration strategies (Bare and Cox, 2008 ; Davis, 1987) and has to have a Lean (just in time response) Information Systems (IS), agile IS to react fluctuations, open IS to support a partnership with suppliers, customers and partners and interoperable IS to make easier the communication between systems and business views. However, the enterprise IS contains multiple systems: ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning), MES (Manufacturing Execution System), PLM (Product Life-cycle Management), SCM (Supply Chain Management)…Each system is designed to meet a particular business view, and is developed according to specific business requirementswithout any standardization which cause redundancy, heterogeneity and increase the volume of information including an inconsistency, a rigidity of the IS and a difficulty of inter-enterprise collaboration. To face theses disadvantages we have to define an agile and interoperable IS and to reorganize processes to support the enterprise value-chain. Therefore, we propose to develop a Lean ESB (Enterprise Service Bus) which is a Service Oriented Architecture middleware, improved by a business semantic layer. We defined four modules of Lean ESB:• The mediation module defines information exchange between a business layers and IS and insures other modules operating. • The dynamic choreography module enables industrial services composition to define processes in accordance with customer demands. • The intelligent routing module organizes workshop resources in order to reorganize processes in a pull flow strategy. • The monitoring and governance module enables the control of production performance and products quality.

En Perú, uno de los eslabones más importantes en la cadena de producción es el sector metalmecánico, debido a la contribución al PBI nacional en un 16.5% y la generación de millones de puestos de trabajo. Sin embargo, estudios estadísticos recientes han demostrado que las empresas metalmecánicas peruanas poseen una capacidad de producción de 40.6%, debido principalmente a deficiencias operativas como la baja disponibilidad de las máquinas, altos tiempos de configuración y desperdicios de producción. Este problema impide satisfacer la demanda proyectada que posee el sector y la generación de ingresos al país. Por ello, la presente investigación ofrece una solución aplicando un modelo de eficiencia operativa, la cual combina herramientas propias de la filosofía Lean Manufacturing, tales como SMED, Mantenimiento Productivo Total (TPM) y 5s bajo la metodología Kaizen. Como variables de entrada y salida del modelo se ubican los datos de producción, indicadores, técnicas de apoyo y nuevos procedimientos generados. El modelo fue validado en una empresa metalmecánica, en donde se obtuvo una mejora del 8% del OEE, reducción de los tiempos de configuración en 21% y reducción de la tasa de productos defectuosos en proceso del 20%. Esta nueva solución industrial permitirá a las empresas de la industria ser más competitivas en el mercado y adaptarlas a sus diferentes necesidades. / In Peru, one of the most important links in the production chain is the metalworking sector, due to the contribution to national GDP of 16.5% and the generation of millions of jobs. However, recent statistical studies have shown that Peruvian metalworking companies have a production capacity of 40.6%, mainly due to operational deficiencies such as low availability of machines, high setup times and production waste. The projected demand cannot be satisfied and the income to the country cannot be generated because of this problem. Therefore, this research offers a solution by applying an operational efficiency model, which combines Lean Manufacturing tools, such as SMED, Total Productive Maintenance (TPM) and 5s on the Kaizen methodology. There are inputs and output in the model like production data, indicators, support techniques and new procedures. The model was validated in a metalworking company, where the OEE was improved by 8%, set up time was reduced by 21% and the rate of defective products in process was decreased by 20%. This new industrial solution will allow companies in the metalworking sector to be more competitive in the market and change to their different needs. / Trabajo de investigación

yes / Purpose – Cost reduction through the use of technology has become the competitive strength of companies. The benefits of technology integration are quite credible and have been effective in business competition. The purpose of this paper is to describe an integrated manufacturing strategy for the deployment of a CAD/CAM system in a small, medium manufacturing enterprise (SMME). Design/methodology/approach – A case study of a SMME is utilised in deploying an integrated CAD/CAM system for practical application of manufacturing technology for achieving sustainable growth through lean systems design (LSD). The paper presents a techno-economic and technology change management framework, with an application of a holistic set of lean deployment tools that include establishing a strategic and operational plan for implementing CAD/CAM systems as a means to achieving world-class performance. Findings – The paper shows that the CAD/CAM integration within the case company increased knowledge of CAD/CAM technology, productivity, and flexibility whilst reducing throughput times. Based on the literature review and the current case study, a framework for ideal CAD/CAM implementation has been proposed. The paper also shows that management and organisational structures are key inhibitors for successful implementation of technology integration. Research limitations/implications – The paper uses a single case study to validate deployment of the integrated manufacturing strategy in SMMEs. Hence there is a limitation to its generality. Practical implications – ThepaperprovidesanopportunitytofurtherunderstandCAD/CAMsystem implementation protocols within a well structured framework and its configuration within SMMEs. Social implications – The CAD/CAM implementation framework will allow the SMMEs to achieve Lean manufacturing (thereby minimising wastes) leading to improved growth and employment rates. Originality/value – The presentation of conceptualisation, development and implementation of an integrated CAD/CAM system in support of organisational wide Lean manufacturing initiative in SMMEs is an originality of this paper.

В выпускной квалификационной работе раскрыта сущность теоретико-методических подходов формирования и развития концепции бережливого производства, рассмотрена терминология, принципы маркетинга и бережливого производства, методики внедрения бережливого производства. По результатам исследования предложена авторская методика внедрения бережливого производства, методика выбора инструментов бережливого производства. Проведен анализ текущей ситуации на рынке, определено положение системообразующих предприятий, проведен анализ деятельности компании, даны рекомендации. В рамках исследования предлагается концепция проекта по внедрению бережливого производства в производственную и управленческую систему ООО «Бергауф Строительные Технологии». / In the final qualifying work, the essence of theoretical and methodological approaches to the formation and development of the concept of lean production is revealed, terminology, principles of marketing and lean production, methods of implementing lean production are considered. According to the results of the study, the author's methodology for the introduction of lean production, the methodology for choosing lean production tools is proposed. The analysis of the current market situation is carried out, the position of the backbone enterprises is determined, the analysis of the company's activities is carried out, recommendations are given. Within the framework of the study, a project concept is proposed for the introduction of lean manufacturing into the production and management system of «Bergauf Construction Technologies».

Submitted in fulfilment for the requirements of the degree of Master of Technology: Business Administration in the Faculty of Management Sciences at the Durban University of Technology, 2009. / Competition is increasing as trading borders continue to widen in this global marketplace. As a result, South African organisations need to improve their efficiencies. The primary objective of the study was to examine the effectiveness of the Lean Enterprise Strategy (LES) at improving business efficiency, in the electrical pre-payment industry in KZN. Several underlying objectives which support the primary objective were examined and realtionships established. Two forms of empirical studies, observation and questionaire based, were used. These studies provided substantive findings which were analysed and interpreted. A positive relationship between the LES and business efficiency were established and the various underlying objectives addressed. Communication was found to be inadequate and highlighted. It was also found that there is a substantial delay in return on investments; therefore, sustainability should be targeted and the LES should have a continual re-cycling mechanism, which allows it not only to be sustainable, but also renewable.