21st Century Manufacturing The Role of the Manufacturing Extension Partnership Program (2013) / Chapter Skim
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3 MEP and Lean Manufacturing
3 MEP and Lean Manufacturing
Pages 45-54
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From page 45... ...
centers have deployed a suite of tools and services focused on lean manufacturing as a primary line of business.1 There are many definitions of lean manufacturing, but MEP defines it as "the establishment of a systematic approach to eliminating waste and creating flow throughout the whole company."2 As an example of one of the major current thrusts within the MEP, this chapter examines how the MEP provides lean manufacturing services, including how individual MEP centers deliver these services to their clients. Variations in how MEP centers offer lean manufacturing services are reviewed.
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From page 46... ...
A good description of the multiple modalities that can be applied has been provided by TechHelp, the Idaho Manufacturing Extension Center, which uses the metaphor of multiple building blocks to capture the varied approaches that could be employed (see Figure 3-1) .6 3 Lean Enterprise Institute, "A Brief History of Lean," |
From page 47... ...
IMPLEMENTING LEAN PRACTICES IN MEP CENTERS Many of the conceptual tools and related training programs used by MEP centers come from consulting companies that serve more than one center. It is important to see that a consulting intervention at a company is usually tightly interwoven with training for both management and workforce.
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From page 48... ...
Recently, this has been reflected in efforts by professional groups such as the Society of Manufacturing Engineers to develop curricula leading into specific professional certifications in various aspects of lean production.10 In collaboration with the American Society for Quality and the Association for Manufacturing Excellence, the Society of Manufacturing Engineers has joined the Lean Certification Alliance in an effort to standardize curricula in this area. And these efforts may be gaining traction as local providers adopt them.
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From page 49... ...
Beneteau rationalized its production lines to generate $225,000 in 13 A search of the MEP success stories database for "5S" generated 131 references for 2009-2011, from 46 different MEP centers, |
From page 50... ...
In this case, it took two rounds of process implementation with the center, as the first round of improvements were hard to sustain, but the net result was that on-time shipments improved 97 percent and productivity grew 15 percent, in turn generating ongoing cost savings.16 Value Stream Mapping Value Stream Mapping (VSM) derives from another part of the Toyota Production System, known as Material and Information Flow Mapping.17 Rother and Shook define the value stream as "all the actions (both value added and nonvalue added)
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From page 51... ...
that provides water and other storage systems to the water, wastewater, grain, coal, and process power and energy industries. The value stream mapping exercise undertaken by the Kentucky Manufacturing Assistance Center provided current state and future state value stream maps, and creating a prioritized action plan for moving from current state to future state.
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From page 52... ...
to reduce the lead time on one of its key products from 30 days to 4 days; sales increased by 42 percent as a direct result, according to the company.26 This suggests that the tension between MEP's traditional lean manufacturing focus and the new innovation-growth approach 24 Dave Nave, "How to Compare Six Sigma, Lean, and the Theory of Constraints," Quality Progress, March 2002, p.
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From page 53... ...
Similarly, Bob Browning, director of supply chain at Savage Arms, describes the project as follows, "This multi-year project is in conjunction with Savage's overall Lean initiative and had the objective to develop a process throughout the supply chain of demand pull signals from the consumer, through distribution, manufacturing, and the supply base. Simply put, when a consumer buys a gun off the rack, we want a signal that goes all the way back to the steel mill to tell them to pour more steel."27 LEAN MANUFACTURING: CONCLUSIONS The wide range of possible lean tools and modalities, the large number of centers and the much larger number of providers working out of the centers mean that no simple list of programs and formats can be used to describe the work covered by the MEP program as a whole.
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From page 54... ...
And while some MEP center directors have expressed concerns about the way in which MEP is implementing new approaches and in particular about funding, they nonetheless largely support the objective of expanding offerings beyond traditional lean manufacturing.29 GOING BEYOND LEAN There is ample evidence that MEP has played a significant role in introducing and spreading lean manufacturing techniques across the U.S. manufacturing base.
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