Master-Arbeit Univ. St. Gallen, 2009.

Master-Arbeit Univ. St. Gallen, 2009.

Master-Arbeit Univ. St. Gallen, 2009.

Zugl.: Braunschweig, Techn. Universiẗat, Diss., 1996.

<p>I dagens samhälle ställs hårda krav på resultatförbättringar i företag och industrier. Det är vanligt att företag tar hjälp av någon eller några av de ledningsverktyg som finns utvecklade i just detta syfte, Lean Production är ett av dessa verktyg. Syftet med denna rapport är att ge en historisk bakgrund till Lean Production och att undersöka vilka tillvägagångssätt tre företag har valt för att implementera Lean i sin verksamhet. Vidare skall författarna undersöka om det finns några likheter mellan dessa tillvägagångssätt och Toyotas produktionssystem (TPS).</p><p>Utvecklingen till det som idag benämns som Lean började redan 1911 då Fredrick Winslow Taylor presenterade sin artikel ”Principles of Scientific Management”. Henry Ford anammade Taylors idéer i sin nybyggda bilfabrik i Detroit år 1912 och utvecklade Fordismen, Ford blev sinnesbilden för rationell tillverkning. Under 1930-talet hade en annan biltillverkare, japanska Toyota, mycket stora svårigheter och hade svårt att överleva den västerländska konkurrensen. Företaget blev tvunget att genomföra radikala förändringar och påbörjade därför 1950 utvecklingen av sitt produktionssystem, TPS. Produktionssystemet, som byggdes runt fjorton principer, skulle visa sig få ett stort genomslag efter oljekrisen 1973. Amerikanerna började intressera sig för TPS och utifrån detta system utvecklades under 1980-talet det vi idag kallar Lean Production.</p><p>De i studien undersökta verksamheterna, två av AstraZenecas fabriker samt Volvo Powertrains fabrik för kamaxlar presenterar olika tillvägagångssätt att arbeta med konceptet. Empirin har samlats in genom personliga och öppna intervjuer med personer som är väl insatta i verksamheternas förbättringsarbete. Den första fallstudien visar på ett mjukt tillvägagångssätt med mer fokus på företagskultur och på medarbetare än ren användning av verktyg. Den andra fallstudien visar på att fabriken valt verktygen framför medarbetarnas medbestämmande och bemyndigande. Det tredje fallstudieföretaget har arbetat med förbättringar en längre tid och har därför lyckats implementera både mjuka och hårda delar i verksamheten.</p><p>För att lyckas med Lean och få konceptet att bli ett sätt att vara mer än enbart en uppsättning verktyg krävs att verksamheten på sikt implementerar såväl konceptets hårda som mjuka delar. Med hårda delar menas här resultatinriktade verktyg, medan de mjuka delarna fokuserar mer på medarbetarnas bemyndigande, självkänsla och medvetenhet. Fallstudierna visar tydligt att Toyotas fjorton principer inte är framtagna och finns av en ren slump. För att långsiktigt lyckas med Lean är det ett måste att alla principer återfinns i företagets arbetssätt. Finns inte alla principer med finns det en stor risk för att konceptet förblir en uppsättning verktyg som förbättrar företagets processer och försvinner inom ett antal år. En långsiktighet och kontinuitet måste finnas i arbetet och en alltför stor fokusering på kortsiktiga ekonomiska vinningar och korta ekonomiska mål är således inget att rekommendera för företag som vill att Lean skall efterlevas.</p> / <p>There are many important challenges for industry of today, and efficient manufacturing is one of them. To manage some of these challenges many businesses put a lot of faith in the management philosophy called Lean Production. The first objective of this report is to find out how three different Swedish companies have worked with the complex toolbox of Lean production and how they have implemented these tools. The second objective of this report is to analyze possible similarities between the implementations of Lean and the fourteen management principles of efficient manufacturing according to Toyota.</p><p>In 1911 Fredrick Winslow Taylor published an article, “Principles of Scientific Management”, on how to make industry more efficient. Henry Ford, the father of modern cars, accepted Taylor’s ideas and applied them in his new car factory in Detroit in 1912. Taylor’s fundamental ideas together with Ford’s enterprising attitude and the modern assembly line led to large sales success of the T-Ford. Some decades later the Japanese car manufacturer Toyota interested themselves in the American management of making cars due to financial difficulties. In 1950 Toyota started the process of developing their own production management system, Toyota Production System. The Japanese production system was successful and lifted Toyota out of the financial crisis. The 1973 oil crisis limited the sales of big American cars in favour of smaller and cheaper Japanese ones. The American car makers paid attention and financed a research project at Massachusetts Institute of Technology in order to develop an even better production system, Lean Production.</p><p>The three case studies, two factories of AstraZeneca in Södertälje and a Volvo Powertrain factory in Skövde have developed different strategies in implementing Lean Production. The empirical studies are based on personal interviews with people understanding the development work in each organisation. The first AstraZeneca factory shows a noncommittal approach where the employees take a great part in the decision-making process. The second AstraZeneca factory shows a more strict approach where the result-orientated tools are in the centre of interest. The Volvo Powertrain factory has gained experience from this kind of development work through the past twenty years. They have had both the time and knowledge to implement a wide range of tools and methods.</p><p>To make the Lean projects permanent and a way of life rather than just a set of tools it is important for organisations to implement both the human relation approach and the structural tool-oriented approach. The human relation approach focuses on the employees, their self-esteem and their right to be a part of the decision-making. The core of the structural approach is the result oriented tools and methods. The case studies clearly show that the fourteen principles of Toyota Production System represent a holistic view on logistics development. If some of the principles are not represented in a project there is a big risk that the project will fail. Resilience is the key word to increase the chance of being Lean.</p>

Despite many significant contributions and advances of lean thinking recorded in articles, books, and industrial case studies, its impact upon the maintenance function has not been fully investigated. From a maintenance perspective, excluding TPM, little or no insight into the use of lean thinking concepts in maintenance can be found in the literature, despite prominent contributors advocating greater management and business integration. An objective of the research described in this thesis was to satisfy the need for industry to understand the contribution of lean thinking to the maintenance of manufacturing systems. A research hypothesis (lean thinking improves the effectiveness of the maintenance function) was therefore devised that aimed to bridge this gap in knowledge in which the researcher developed two new tools alongside existing methodologies for further investigation. The first novel research tool, a lean concept reference framework, was used to comprehensibly represent fe--antfiffikifig concepts possible within a company, and maintenance in particular. Ihe sec n oyýý _411 measure of maintenance performance comprised a number of indicators that sign ough ify c maintenance activity. This was used to reflect the impact of lean concept use by maintenance through change in activity performance. The research investigates the current views of lean thinking and maintenance within the UK, and particularly in the automotive industry. It exposes the diversity of maintenance as a function within this industry, and highlights the scope of lean concept use and understanding. As an outcome of the research, it was found that each company investigated had different reasons for adopting and using lean concepts within their maintenance function. Similarly, each company differed in the management and use of their performance data. Nonetheless, all those investigated accepted the role of lean concept use within maintenance, and considered certain elements useful. These elements were used as an aggregation of tools to assist maintenance in their activities rather than using them to develop an alternative maintenance strategy. However, perception of lean concept use, and the perceived benefits gained differed according to different viewpoints. Although it was generally accepted that lean use bought about or improved overall skills, and helped provide the basis of a more robust and standardised maintenance department, concern was expressed concerning the difficulty in translating essentially lean manufacturing techniques to suit maintenance.

La filosofía lean construction se inició en la década de 1990 basado en la adaptación de las teorías de producción de las grandes fábricas (Lean Production) a la industria de la construcción. Sin embargo su difusión y aplicación en el Perú es aún incipiente, está limitada a un grupo menor de empresas que apuestan por su aplicación, generando mejoras y reducciones en costos y tiempo. El presente trabajo se centra en la aplicación de la filosofía lean construction como método de planificación, ejecución y control de un proyecto de construcción desarrollado en la ciudad de Lima. A lo largo del presente trabajo se describen los principales conceptos y herramientas de la filosofía lean para poder generar una base teórica sólida que respalde la aplicación de herramientas y el análisis de resultados en los proyectos. Además, se analiza y describe de forma detallada como se aplican las herramientas más importantes de esta filosofía (Last Planner System, Sectorización, lookahead, etc.) con la finalidad de difundir la metodología de aplicación de cada herramienta y servir de guía para profesionales o empresas que busquen implementar lean construction en sus proyectos. Por otro lado se analizan las etapas del proyecto de mayor incidencia y se demuestra de manera concluyente los buenos resultados que brinda esta filosofía, buscando de esta forma alentar a que sea adoptada por más empresas del sector construcción y puedan romper el paradigma de que su aplicación genera sobre costos. Finalmente se analiza el desarrollo y performance del proyecto para poder sacar conclusiones y propuestas de mejora que puedan ser aplicadas por la empresa, y otras empresas, en la ejecución de sus próximos proyectos aplicando la metodología de mejora continua. Lean Construction philosophy began in the 1990s based on the adaptation of the theories of production of large factories (Lean Production) to the construction industry. However their dissemination and implementation in Peru is still incipient, it is limited to a smaller group of companies committed to its implementation, generating improvements and reductions in cost and time. This work focuses on the application of lean construction philosophy as a method of planning, execution and control of a construction project developed in Lima. Throughout this work the main concepts and tools of lean philosophy to generate a solid theoretical basis to support the application of tools and analysis results are described in the projects. In addition, it is analyzed and described in detail how are applied the most important tools of this philosophy (Last Planner System, sectorization, look ahead, etc.) in order to spread the methodology of application of each tool and serve as a guide for professional or companies seeking to implement lean construction projects. On the other hand are analyzed the stages of the project with the highest incidence and the good results provided by this philosophy is demonstrated conclusively , thus seeking to encourage to be adopted by companies in the construction sector and can break the paradigm that its application generates extra costs. Finally, the development and performance of the project is analyzed to draw conclusions and suggestions for improvement that can be applied by the company, and other companies, in the execution of their upcoming projects applying the methodology for continuous improvement.

The research project measured the influence of lean culture elements as well as power distance elements on the success of lean manufacturing implementations. The literature review revealed that lean transformations are not always successful and sustainable since organisation see these as quick win opportunities to improve short term profits. Lean, however, is a long term philosophy that entails not just quick changes but a fundamental change in the way that business is done. The elements that were measured in the study were organisational awareness, employee engagement, managerial consistency, accountability, mutual respect and autocratic behaviour. The study revealed a strong relationship between these factors and the success of lean implementations. The results indicated that there is a positive relationship between lean culture and the other lean elements. The study also indicated that autocratic behaviour has a positive relationship to lean implementation. The study showed that tools that were developed in the past are valid across various industries and that power distance does play a role in lean implementations.

With global advances in technology, many organizations are finding it difficult and quite challenging to do business as usual. Japanese companies are on top of the world economy, while many Western companies are struggling to find ways to compete with them (Womack, et al., 1990). The Japanese secret weapon “Lean Production” is no longer a secret; more and more western companies are now learning and adopting Lean techniques to remain relevant and competitive. Lean management is a consistent philosophy and a set of practices that must be maintained over time in order to see the gains (Losonci & Demeter, 2013). Lean is not a quick fix to reduce costs, but a continuous improvement journey that will transform an organization into a cost efficient value-driven system. Lean is still a fairly new phenomenon in South Africa, particularly in the Eastern Cape. The road towards the lean implementation is viewed by many as a challenging and yet rewarding journey. South African organizations are following the trend of implementing lean in order to eliminate waste, improve quality, speed, customer satisfaction and thereby increasing profits. It is however still a long journey towards achieving total perfection. The main challenge facing South African organizations is the ability to sustain the lean improvements over a longer period. This study will focus on identifying and analyzing the main barriers that inhibit many successful organizations from sustaining lean improvement efforts.

The goal of the thesis is to analyze continuous improvement (Kaizen) activities in companies, which operates in the Czech Rep. Based on this analysis, defining criteria for optimal selection of forms of continuous improvement activities, and aplling suitable tools and methods of continuous process improvement will follow.