Documenti di Didattica
Documenti di Professioni
Documenti di Cultura
c c
In the context of lean, Value is defined as something that customer is willing to pay
for. Value adding activities transform materials or information into something that a
customer desires. Therefore waste can be said as anything that does not add value
to customers purchase. Waste can occur in any process right from purchasing of
raw material to sale of the product. Elimination of this waste is the major
fundament of lean value analysis.
here are the general forms of wastage that tend to occur in the process of
manufacturing defective products, overproduction, inventories, excess motion,
process steps, improper transportation and longer waiting times. the value chain is
not only for the manufacturing companies also for the service industries or instance
consider an airlines, the value added part is the flight itself which doesn¶t contribute
more to the business but the non value adding parts of the process such as airport
parking, mode of transport to airport, checking times, security checks, baggage
allowance, time taken to board the flights and other things like that these actors
play major part in a customer to choose their flight so if the if airlines focus more
on these factors they can improve their business and fly their plane faster. In order
to do this the airlines organisation need to apply lean to their business.
In this paper we are going to see how general motors¶ can apply lean analysis to
reduce its wastage and improve its business. From the early 20th century there are
three big global automobile companies which compete with each other general
motors, ford and Chrysler. Within few years Toyota entered the marked and
captured the market to become no1 and general motors lost its market share as
well as the profit in which wastage has played major part. the major difference
between Toyota and general motors¶ is both of them implemented lean in their
organisations but general motors¶ failed adapt to it where as Toyota successfully
did.
In few years after the establishment the company grew stronger and became world
leader in automobiles but over the past two decades its sales have been gradually
diminishing and it is losing its market share this is mainly due to the improper
implementation of value chain analysis in its supply chain.
Saturn's Spring Hill, Tennessee automotive manufacturing plant receives more than
95 percent of its parts in reusable containers. The containers also serve as symbol
for the staff to indicate the requirement of parts wherever needed. This "Kanban"
type system helps environment by eliminating tons of packaging wastes, reducing
storage space, cost and energy. Saturn has also implemented a new supplying
technique called as "electronic Kanban" which helps suppliers to deliver components
just in time. Saturn has also implemented lean production systems to reduce paint
solvent usage.
At GM's Fairfax assemble plant; cleaning of the paint booths is done every
alternative day to prevent stray drops of paint and other dusts from attaching to
the new paint jobs. After observation it has been found that if the cleaning is done
thoroughly it is adequate to clean every alternative day while proper cleaning is
required only once a week thus by reducing the cleaning costs. And it also helps by
enabling colleagues to use the solvent continuously without allowing it to dry there
by reducing the wastage.
GM has not only applied lean procedures to it manufacturing processes but also its
administrative department. upon applying lean thinking GM has found that its
request for quote is a paper based system which requires a paper from 3/4 of an
inch to 6 inches thick which uses tons of paper every year, not only the paper
costs the printing, packing, storing and mailing costs are also very high. After
implementing the lean thinking GM has decided to uses electronic based RFO in
which requests can be made in the form of electronic mails which saves paper,
printing costs and also saves a lot of time. By implementing electronic RFO, GM
saves nearly 2 tons of paper every year.
In 1990's GM has learned that GM has to bear the wastage from suppliers,
transport costs and delays so in order to prevent these kinds of wastages GM has
appointed a separate engineer panel which works along with suppliers to deliver
goods at planned time intervals with less wastage and transport costs. GM also
encourages its suppliers to use recyclable or reusable containers and usage of
biodegradable chemicals during manufacturing.
"GM conducted a PICOS rapid improvement event with a key supplier to enhance
the cost competitiveness and on-time delivery of steering column components. The
GM team used value stream mapping and the "five whys" to assess the existing
process for steps that cause long lead times and delays. The assessment revealed
that the supplier shipped the steering column shrouds (or casings) to an outside
vendor for painting prior to final assembly with the steering column, adding
significant flow time to the production process." using this technique the team has
found that the die that has been used to paint the shrouds creates flaws that needs
to cover so the process of dyeing has to be done more that once so the team has
improved the quality of die and the mould the part using resin of the desired colour.
By applying lean techniques, not only saving the business costs GM has also helped
environment by reducing the amount of VOC emissions from painting process and
also by eliminating hazardous wastes.
GM team has found that the resin colours have been changed regularly to produce
a new batch of parts as a relist many of the plastic parts have to be disposed. So
the team has found a solution by streamlining the die setup and colour change over
process as a result the team was able to reduce the wastage.
So far we have seen how general motors¶ has implemented lean in its supply chain
here are the other major phases in its supply chain where it needs to apply lean in
order to decrease its wastage
It has to have a proper look at its production as sometimes they produce too
much or too soon which results in poor information flow and excess inventory
so they have to regulate the production according to the requirement.
The creativity and ideas of all the staffs right from grade c need to be
considered as all of them are part of the business and their ideas can do a lot
of good to the business.
If general motors¶ can consider all these factors in their supply chain and apply
lean then they could save lot of time and money.
c
So far we have seen the lean recommendations for GM now we are going to discuss
about the impact of these recommendations on GM¶s business at present and in
future.
By implementing lean the lean systems not only makes the supply chain efficient
but also faster. As the lean gets applied on to the supply chain its culture takes
over the entire chain to increase its velocity in each and every link of the chain. The
response times would be very fast and the decisions would be made at rapid pace
that doesn¶t mean that decisions are made without proper considerations because
there will be lot of experienced brains involved in taking the decision and the
habitat of taking decisions in shorter time becomes a bias. So slower response
becomes a exception. So at GM which is suffering with a brand name that their
production and service response times are quite high this would be a great deal of
help.
REDUCED INVENTORIES:
In 1998 Toyota used 50% less staff and time to manufacture a car that GM has
used this implies the improper use of lean at GM, these needs to be corrected. The
traditional concept of mass production reduces cost and time. The costs and time in
each and every part of the production cycle needs to be concentrated and
minimised. This is possible by usage of flexible staff, machinery and spare parts as
this doesn¶t require employing special staff and ordering of new machinery and
spare parts which requires more budget and time. The reduction of costs needs to
be done with proper care keeping in the mind regarding the customers who prefer
luxury than price of the product.
It might be argued by some people that how can supply chain be a competitive
weapon but the case of Toyota is a perfect example. Within 2 decades of
establishment Toyota has up beaten GM in world market which was the leader of
the world automobile industry for over 6 decades. This is achieved mainly due to
the proper application of lean. Profits can be achieved when the production costs
are decreased and customer satisfaction is increased both of these are possible
when the wastage in the process of supply chain is reduced. By applying lean an
organisation like GM can produce automobiles at reduced costs and deliver them at
proper times which increases their profits and brand name which is their
competitive advantage.
c
Here is the porter¶s template for an automobile industry
In the above template the each and every phase of the supply chain is considered
into account. each component of the table indicates the phases of the table where
lean needs to be applied in order to reduce the wastage of goods and time.
In the tabular form below the wastages that occur in the process are indicated and
the remedies for them are provided.
Waiting time The work gets delayed Try to get the repair
due to the machine down quickly and try to get
or equipment changeover overtime to get work
done quicker
Unused employee When the staff ideas are Collect the ideas from the
creativity wasted without staff and communicate
consideration them to the higher
authorities
c
Lean is a cooperative process for survival and for corporate success. Supply chains
no matter whether they are big or small need to apply lean to improve which has
been proved in the case of many supply chains. The concepts of lean apply to each
component of the supply chain whether they are service oriented or manufacturing.
All the departments in the supply chain like product development, human resource,
finance, purchasing, distribution and markets can benefit by application of lean.
Considering the case of general motor¶s they have clearly lost their way due to the
improper application of lean or no application of lean. GM has tried to implement
and adapt to the lean principles for years but they failed, for instance in 1984 GM
started an innovative program called NUMMI (New United Motor Manufacturing,
Inc) whose mission is to implement the Toyota manufacturing system in the U.S
NUMMI that is the GM unit. They have succeeded in implementing the parts and
elements of lean in the company but the lean was not properly adopted by the GM
before their business decline has started. So it is not too late for GM to understand
and apply lean in its supply chain and make sure the organisation gets adapted to
lean to gains positive results.
Ann All (did lean manufacturing contribute to Toyota recall?, January 29,
2010)
K
www.news.bbc.co.uk
www.tomkinsinc.com
www.1000ventures.com
www.valuechaingroup.com
www.epa.gov/lean/studies/gm.htm
www.whitepapers.zdnet.com
www.itbusinessedge.com
www.provenmodels.com
www.edbarrows.com/resources/briefs/valechain.pdf