...Background ThedaCare is an integrated healthcare delivery system in Wisconsin. Introduced Lean, or the Toyota Production system, to its five hospitals and 27 physician’s clinics in 2003. The implementation of Lean changed quality management from a crisis reaction system to a system that is proactive in its methods, processes and strategies to improve quality. The changes are a result of cultural changes, visual management and inclusion of the front-line in continuous improvement. Introduction Healthcare must change to a new approach. An approach that is based on the consumer’s demand for improved outcomes and reduced costs. This is leading healthcare organizations to adopt a culture of lean. Lean is a set of principles and quality improvement ideology (Toussaint and Berry, 2013) Lean methodology has been effective in manufacturing and has been effective in healthcare. Lean applies the scientific method to problem solve, a different approach to management role. Management’s role is to facilitate, mentor, and as coach frontline workers to identify and solve everyday issues. The challenge to lean adoption in healthcare the quality manager’s role changes from identifying and tracking to one of reducing risks of adverse effect and assisting with improvement quality processes. The transformation to lean at ThedaCare was to improve every aspect of the patient experience and deliver improved quality at a lower cost with a better staff morale. Key points Benchmarking performance...
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...Quality Management and Lean Systems In Quality Management there are five concepts. The third is Six Sigma which is a route for the development and allocation of close to perfect products. It is a level of how much a process differs from exactness (Russell & Taylor, 2013). The goal for Six Sigma is equal to or less than 3.4 defects (anything outside of a customer’s specifications) per million opportunities (Russell & Taylor, 2013). Six Sigma has two sub-methodologies (practices, procedures and rules) DMAIC (define, measure, analyze, improve, control) which is a system for improvement of existing processes which fall below standards and looks for improvement, and DMADV (define, measure, analyze, design, verify) which is used to develop new products or procedures at the most highest quality levels (Russell & Taylor, 2013). Both of these processes are achieved by project team members (green belts) and project leaders (black belts) and overseen by supervisors (mater black belts). In Lean Systems there are five concepts. The fifth is Poka-yoke, in short it is the prevention of defects from occurring, also known as “fool-proofing” (Russell & Taylor, 2015, Chap. 16). Poka-yokes create correct conditions prior to executing step, preventing defects from happening in the first place. Any item, action, or worker involved in production can have a defect causing failure of a product, so it is vital to reach a defect free zone. There are two methods for prevention based poka-yokes...
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...Lean manufacturing has become an ever increasing necessity in American manufacturing. Companies are striving to make a profit in a wildly fluctuating economy. Added to that; companies are becoming more aware of their responsibility to the environment as global citizens. Competition and innovation introduce new and exciting products to the market place every day. Large global companies have to respond with Lean manufacturing systems that reduce costs, improve their quality and environmental impact. For the purpose of this paper, Boeing will be used as an example. They manufacture airplanes. This company was chosen due to the extent they have shown the capabilities and processes of lean manufacturing. They have implemented lean principles all through their organization. Their quality standards are extremely high; and they continually meet those standards. This is an enormous manufacturer who deals with ongoing manufacturing as well as innovation in the field. They have expressed a concern for the environment and their impact upon it. They also have a track record of high safety standards and programs for their employees. Boeing is the largest air travel manufacturer in the world. They are now experiencing serious competition with Airbus out of Europe. In an effort to compete more effectively with their competition; they have dedicated their focus on the implementation of and continuing improvement through lean manufacturing. Boeing has begun utilizing their...
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...USA Armor School Research Library TDCD Fort Knox KY Bibliography March 2006 Lean Six Sigma Lean: Identifying 'waste' or ‘non-value-added activities’ from the customer perspective and then determining how to eliminate it the 'right' way. [Lean Six Sigma Institute] Lean Six Sigma: A business improvement methodology that maximizes shareholder value by achieving the fastest rate of improvement in customer satisfaction, cost, quality, process speed, and invested capital. [Lean Six Sigma Institute] http://www.army.mil/aeioo/rc/terms.htm Army rallies troops behind Lean Six Sigma program (Author: RP news wires – February 11, 2006) The Army’s growing Lean Six Sigma program has its roots in a corporate method of eliminating wasted time, money and material. Lean Six Sigma integrates two independently developed improvement tools: Lean and Six Sigma. Lean is an outgrowth of the Toyota production system, and focuses on increasing efficiency and reducing cycle time by the elimination of waste. Six Sigma was developed by Motorola beginning in the 1970s as an approach to improving quality and effectiveness through statistical control. Its roots go back more than 150 years to a Prussian mathematician who introduced the concept of the normal curve. Together, Lean and Six Sigma are powerful tools in transforming organizations, Army Materiel Command officials said. They said Lean Six Sigma enables a culture of innovation that continuously listens to customers, questions...
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...The Emergence 1 The Emergence of Lean Six Sigma Carl E. Pierce MBA 5101-06F – Strategic Management and Business Policy Professor Larry R. Williams October 15, 2006 The Emergence 2 Introduction Every organization has problems that get solved over and over again, only to reappear. Organizations work hard for months, generating solutions that people know will work, but don’t. To have any chance of success, implementation of Lean Six Sigma must be accompanied by new positions, new training, and new ways for different layers of the organization to communicate. By delivering products and services with speed, customer satisfaction and lower cost through operational excellence is essential to achieve and sustain superior shareholder returns in businesses and government enterprises. Operating excellence is becoming a priority in services like banking, insurance, retail, and government, because so much of the cost is tied into operations. Lean Six Sigma and Six Sigma are all about change and managing change. We all want improved results; it is just the challenge of making the changes and managing change necessary for the improved results that present the challenges. For some managers, the changes brought by Lean Six Sigma can present a challenge to their normal management approach. Decisions...
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...global maritime logistics and the MPA. In this report, the utilisation as well as impacts of Lean and Six Sigma strategies will be analysed. In addition to this, the two strategies will be compared and contrasted. Lean and Six Sigma assist in working efficiently and reducing wastes. In recent times, IT has proven to be a vital tool in assisting organisations and global maritime logistics. This report will examine the relationship between IT and quality (TQM), efficiency (Lean) and collaboration and has shown assist them in their objectives and gain a competitive edge. This report has shown that IT has proven to be effective in helping organisations and global supply networks work and communicate among one another effectively and efficiently. 1.0 INTRODUCTION In this report, its main focus is on determining the most optimal cost reduction strategies in the implementation of green strategies in global maritime logistics such as the Singapore maritime logistics network or Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (MPA) and for this particular paper, the researcher has chosen two specific cost reduction strategies specifically: Six Sigma and Lean. Container ports the world over are increasing at an alarming rate and ports have to take into account of its efficiency, throughput and green performance. TASK 1 2.0 COST REDUCTION STRATEGIES TO ACHIEVE OBJECTIVES Six Sigma and Lean are the strategies that will be critically examined and analysed to be implemented in the global...
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...------------------------------------------------- Quality Focus Paper Just-in-Time Production and Lean Manufacturing Keller Graduate School of Management Spring Semester, May 2010 Session GM588: Managing Quality (online) Instructor: Robert Lee 5 June 2010 Table of Contents I. Introduction 3 What is it? 3 Background 5 History 7 II. Literature Review 9 Significance in Practice 9 JIT and Lean Thought Processes 10 JIT & Lean Thinking – General Principles 10 Advantages/Benefits of JIT/lean 10 Major Advantages/Benefits of JIT 11 Major Advantages/Benefits of Lean Productions 11 Relevance of JIT/lean in Today’s Businesses 11 Mistakes of Implementation 13 Additional Challenges 13 III. Demonstrations and Applications in the Business World 16 Survival Strategy for Business 16 List of Companies that use JIT/lean production techniques 18 Best Practices & Successful Implementation 18 IV. Conclusion and Reflection 20 References 22 Introduction * What is it? Just-in-Time (JIT) production is a set of principles applied to manufacturing and inventory to control the purchase of materials to produce units on a need-basis. JIT is set on the philosophy that controlling raw materials purchased for production to bring them into the manufacturing process as they are needed leads to cost savings and production efficiencies. JIT focuses on realizing that holding little or no inventory has economic and quality values for the organization. Manufactures receive...
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...safeguard Singapore strategic maritime objectives. Research for this report includes evaluating the application on Lean and Total Quality Management (TQM) in logistics and supply chain networks to achieve Maritime Port Authority (MPA) objectives such as quality of service, competitiveness, reliability and efficiency. The major findings shows that lean implementation improves processing times achieving more work in less staff time and bringing services up to standard. (Radnor, Walley, Stephens, & Bucci, 2006). It also changes the focus of management from optimizing separate technologies, assets, and vertical departments to optimizing the flow of products and services through entire value streams that flow horizontally across technologies, assets, and departments to customers. Lean helps to eliminate waste along entire value streams, instead of at isolated points, creates processes that need less human effort, less space, less capital, and less time to make products and services at far less costs and with much fewer defects, compared with traditional business systems. Also, it requires keeping far less than half the needed inventory on site, results in many fewer defects and produces a greater and ever growing variety of productions. TQM Management can be a tool to support and create synergy for inducing a more competitive market among companies. Total quality management (TQM) may be considered as a management approach to long term success through continuous improvements...
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...Lean Management In Automobile Industry Lean Management In Automobile Industry Arvinder Singh, Bargavi Poloju, Inderpreet Kaur, Inderjeet Kaur, Jaskaran Singh Gill Eastern Institute of Technology September 10, 2015 Abstract Lean and six sigma are widely known business improvement processes for industries /organisations these days for achieving drastic results, which are majorly cost cutting, quality maintenance and time management by specializing in processes to boost performance. Nowadays, There are some industries that are even integrating lean and six sigma into a more cohesive strategy i.e., lean sigma in order to establish even more powerful and effective process which focuses at eliminating wasteful activities and retaining most of the strengths of each activity. Lean Sigma aims to combine waste eliminating strategies of Lean Thinking with variability reducing techniques of six sigma to promote growth and increase revenue from the bottom line of organisations(M. Kumara). Lean management is outlined as a consistent and a methodical approach to determining and eliminating waste through continuous improvement, flowing the merchandise at the pull of the client in pursuit of perfection. The idea of lean management was developed for maximizing the resource utilization through reduction of waste, and eventually lean was developed in response to the unsteady and ever-competitive business organisations. For organisations to face major challenges and competition can be...
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...CASE STUDY: Quality Parts Company BUS520 OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT 04 January 2008 Introduction: I. Which of the changes being considered by the manager of Quality Parts Company are counter to the lean philosophy? II. Make recommendations for lean improvements in such areas as scheduling, layout, kanban, task groupings, and inventory. III. Sketch the operation of a pull system for quality for Quality Parts Company’s current system. IV. Outline a plan for introducing lean at Quality Parts Company. WHICH OF THE CHANGES BEING CONSIDERED BY THE MANAGER OF QUALITY PARTS COMPANY ARE COUNTER TO THE LEAN PHILOSOPHY? The manager is considering installing an automated ordering system to control inventories. This would not fit into the lean philosophy as it would have the skids filled with workers making products two days in the front. Lean philosophy calls for not producing a product until it is needed. MAKE RECOMMENDATIONS FOR LEAN IMPROVEMENTS IN SUCH AREAS AS SCHEDULING, LAYOUT, KANBAN, TASK GROUPINGS, AND INVENTORY. Some lean improvements that could be made for the Quality Parts Company are; In the scheduling area to ensure that there are equal shifts and hiring for areas of the line which need more attention and it would fit the need and wait time for that line. The layout of the Skids are currently counterproductive to the lean philosophy, most of the skids are very far apart and cause wait times for processing. Realignment of the skids is necessary to improve...
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...LEAN LOGISTICS INTRODUCTION Every class we have had and every paper we have read has shown us that logistic activity involves delivering products and services where they are required at the exact time needed. In order to achieve this, logistics require the correct and precise administration of order processing, inventory, transportation, but also the consolidation of warehousing, materials handling and packaging, all these activities through an integrated network of facilities. We can see in our daily life that it is very difficult to imaging accomplishing a whole variety of operations such as, manufacturing or international commerce without logistics. In an effort to go deeply into the logistics wide and complex world we are willing to investigate an specific area of it, which we believe is the main goal of today’s logistical operations: Lean Logistics. Having a Lean system, without waste, allows us to give better and quicker response to the demand, and makes enterprises improve in many if not all activities. Writing this report represents not only giving definitions, and researching the most possible information that can be extracted from different reliable sources, it is more than that. It is interpreting data, analyzing information, and demonstrating how effective this logistical approach can be inside a company. DISCUSSION Companies are always pushing themselves to improve in order to obtain an advantage over their competitors. They frequently feel...
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...Title: Enhancing Productivity & Quality in an integrated Steel Plant – a case study Name of the Scholar : O. Rama Mohan Rao AGM (Pers), Visakhapatnam Steel Plant Dept : Mechanical Engineering Name of the guide : Dr. K.Venkata Subbaiah, Ph.D, Professor in Mech. Engg., Andhra University Dept : Mechanical Engineering ABSTRACT Globalization is making most of the organizations, sectors more intensely competitive. Many organizations are struggling to improve their operating performance in response to market demands for lower costs, higher-quality products and services, shorter lead times, and higher returns on investment in infrastructure and resources. To address issues of competitiveness and to uncover hidden value, our clients find that Lean Six Sigma technique is one of the most powerful platforms available. This research addresses the application of Lean and Six Sigma tools to increase the productivity and improve the quality in the steel industry. It illustrates the procedures of implementing lean tools in a process industry with emphasis on Value stream mapping, 5 s and six sigma tools. Study on Integrated applications of lean & six sigma tools in a continuous process industry are limited. The thesis hypothesizes that there are lot of opportunities for improvement in the process industries like steel if lean and six sigma tools are integrated and utilized. It systematically demonstrates how lean manufacturing tools when used...
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...Rodriguez LEAN & SIX SIGMA PROC 5000 May 9, 2013 Outline I. Introduction II. History of Lean and Six Sigma III. Lean Sigma IV. Six Sigma V. How Lean and Six Sigma are applied VI. Summary VII. Recommendation VIII. Conclusion Introduction: As our economic future hinges on the ability for organizations to cut cost and improve the quality of their products and services as well as develop new ideas in order to stay competitive, managers today still rely on concepts that stay constant throughout the years, those concepts are Six and Lean Sigma. These concepts are widely used by many organizations as an approach or a process for investigation to achieve better results and improvement in their daily operations, services and products. Throughout this research paper the focus will be centered on the history of Six and Lean Sigma, how both concepts helped revolutionize the fields of quality control and process management, Lean and Six Sigma’s emphasis on collective efforts and teamwork to the applied steps taken. Furthermore, the research paper will provide tables and examples of how both concepts are applied to organizations. History of Lean and Six Sigma: The origins of Six Sigma can be traced as far back as 1777 when Carl Frederick Gauss first introduced the concept as a measurement tool of the normal curve. In the 1920's the word 'sigma' was used by mathematicians and engineers as a symbol for a unit of measurement in product quality variation...
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...Lean Production Manufacturers and companies are seeking methods in order to provide customers with the best quality of products and services in all over the world. These entities try to eliminate or reduce their products wastes, inefficiency, and anything that might affect their products or customer service. Lean manufacturing has been created as a consequence of the Toyota Production System (TPS) and it was called “Lean” in the 1990s. Based on the article called, “Lean manufacturing”, the following facts have been stated: Lean manufacturing or lean production, often simply, "Lean," is a production practice that considers the expenditure of resources for any goal other than the creation of value for the end customer to be wasteful, and thus a target for elimination. Working from the perspective of the customer who consumes a product or service, "value" is defined as any action or process that a customer would be willing to pay for. Lean operation is a costly process, but the manufacturers see that its profit is worth to pay a lot of money in order to change their systems into this system. Some of its benefits are: Minimizing inventory and cost, increasing profit, and maximizing efficiency. In order to change to this lean production, manufacturers need to do some additional jobs, so that their employees and products can meet the minimum requirements for a lean operation. Quality is much more important than quantity in this system. Businesses prefer to produce less amount with...
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...LSS lean Six Sigma Abstract Purpose – Although research has been undertaken on the implementation of lean within various industries, the many tools and techniques that form the “tool box”, and its integration with Six Sigma (mainly through case studies and action research), there has been little written on the journey towards the integration of the two approaches. This paper aims to examine the integration of lean principles with Six Sigma methodology as a coherent approach to continuous improvement, and provides a conceptual model for their successful integration. Design/methodology/approach – Desk research and a literature review of each separate approach is provided, followed by a view of the literature of the integrated approach. Findings – No standard framework for lean Six Sigma or its implementation exists. A systematic approach needs to be adopted, which optimises systems as a whole, focusing the right strategies in the correct places. Originality/value – This paper contributes to knowledge by providing an insight into the evolution of the lean Six Sigma paradigm. It is suggested that a clear integration of the two approaches must be achieved, with sufficient scientific underpinning. Keywords Lean production, Six sigma Paper type Literature review 1. Introduction The Toyota Production System (TPS) provided the basis for what is now known as lean thinking, as popularised by Womack and Jones (1996). The development of this approach to manufacturing began shortly after...
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