20,143 research outputs found

    A customised lean model for a Chinese aerospace OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer)

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    The aim of this research is to introduce Lean Thinking in a systematic and cost effective way; moreover, it is to bring Lean Principles and apply Lean Tools to the new aerospace companies. In particular the research will develop a customised Lean manufacturing model. The following objectives will be achieved during the research. 1); Investigate the principal features of Lean Thinking, and identify state of the art in Lean manufacturing implementation. 2); Identify the current situation of a specific Chinese aerospace company and the requirements needed in becoming Lean. 3); Develop a customised Lean model for applying Lean into a new Chinese aerospace company. 4); Validate the Lean manufacturing model by experts in the company and university. The Chinese traditional thinking is different from lean think. Therefore, to implement Lean in China will face some distinct barriers. The author attempts to resolve these problems through a customised lean model. According to the literature review and researcher‘s knowledge, there is no paper developing a model linking to the barriers of lean implementation in Chinese manufacturing. Therefore, the author will attempt to fill in this gap during the research. The questionnaire and assessment tool will be used to collect information from the company. Best practices will help to establish the structure of the model. However, in China, most companies implement lean through copying examples from the United States, UK and other Western countries without combining their current situation and culture. The contribution of this research is to develop a model to link Chinese barriers and a company‘s situation for lean implementation. Finally, this model will be validated by company and academic experts. The first validation is based on the sponsoring company. Other validations are achieved by academic experts and industrial expert

    Implementing the Lean Sigma Framework in an Indian SME: a case study

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    Lean and Six Sigma are two widely acknowledged business process improvement strategies available to organisations today for achieving dramatic results in cost, quality and time by focusing on process performance. Lately, Lean and Six Sigma practitioners are integrating the two strategies into a more powerful and effective hybrid, addressing many of the weaknesses and retaining most of the strengths of each strategy. Lean Sigma combines the variability reduction tools and techniques from Six Sigma with the waste and non-value added elimination tools and techniques from Lean Manufacturing, to generate savings to the bottom-line of an organisation. This paper proposes a Lean Sigma framework to reduce the defect occurring in the final product (automobile accessories) manufactured by a die-casting process. The proposed framework integrates Lean tools (current state map, 5S System, and Total Productive Maintenance (TPM)) within Six Sigma DMAIC methodology to enhance the bottom-line results and win customer loyalty. Implementation of the proposed framework shows dramatic improvement in the key metrics (defect per unit (DPU), process capability index, mean and standard deviation of casting density, yield, and overall equipment effectiveness (OEE)) and a substantial financial savings is generated by the organisation

    Development of an impact assessment framework for lean manufacturing within SMEs

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    The main aim of the research work presented in this thesis, is the development of a novel framework with the capability of assessing the impact of implementing lean manufacturing within small-to-medium sized manufacturing firms (SMEs). By assessing the impact of lean implementation, SMEs can make informed decisions on the viability of lean adoption at the conceptual implementation stage. Companies are also able determine their status in terms of lean manufacturing affordability. Thus, in order to achieve the above-stated aim, the following were the main set research objectives; (1) identifying the key drivers for implementing lean manufacturing within SMEs, (2) investigating the operational activities of SMEs in order to understand their manufacturing issues, (3) exploring the current level of lean manufacturing usage within SMEs so as to categorise users based on their levels of involvement, (4) identifying factors that determine the assessment of lean manufacturing, (5) developing an impact assessment framework for justifying lean manufacturing within SMEs, (6) developing a knowledge based advisory system and (7) validating the impact assessment framework and the developed knowledge based advisory system through real-life case studies, workshops, and expert opinions. A combination of research methodology approaches have been employed in this research study. This comprises literature review, observation of companies' practices and personal interview. The data collection process involved ten SMEs that provided consistent information throughout the research project life. Additionally, visitations to three large size manufacturing firms were also conducted. Hence, the framework and system development process passed through several stages. Firstly, the data were collected from companies who had successfully implemented lean manufacturing within their premise. The second development stage included the analysis and validation of the dataset through company practitioners. An impact assessment framework was thus developed with the aid of regression analysis as a predictive model. However, it was realised that there were few correlations between the dataset generated and analysis. The reasons for this were unclear. ,a knowledge based advisory system was adopted to conceptualise, enhance the robustness of the impact assessment framework and address the problem of the imprecise data in the impact assessment process. Three major factors of impact assessment were considered in the framework and the system development process, namely relative cost of lean implementation, a company lean readiness status and the level of value-added to be achieved (impact/benefits). Three knowledge based advisory sub-systems that consisted of the abovementioned factors were built. Results obtained from them were then fed into the final system. The three sub-systems were validated with the original set of data from companies. This enabled the assignment of a number of input variables whose membership functions aided the definition of the fuzzy expert system language (linguistic variables) used. The final system yielded heuristic rules that enable the postulation of scenarios of lean implementation. Results were sought and tested on a number of firms based within the UK, for the purposes validation. These also included expert opinions both in academic and industrial settings. A major contribution of the developed system is its ability to aid decision-making processes for lean implementation at the early implementation stage. The visualisation facility of the developed system is also useful in enabling potential lean users to make forecasts on the relative cost of lean projects upfront, anticipate lean benefits, and realise one' degree of lean readiness

    Benefits of connecting rfid and lean principles in health care

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    The performance management process in health care is far behind compared to the manufacturing and service industries. Although nowadays the health care organizations are able to deal with a greater rank diseases, their cost, quality and delivery has essentially not improved significantly, and the difference with the other industries even seems to have increased. As opposed to this situation health care has a tremendous opportunity to deploy lean principles to reduce internal/external costs, improve patient safety, increase profits, reduce litigation and decrease the dependence on Government and Insurance. The application of these principles is being facilitated by the use of the new technologies. A new technology allowing personnel to constantly "see" what's happening with regards to patients schedule, backlog, workflow, inventory levels, resource utilization, quality, etc., is Radio Frequency Identification (RFID). The aim of this paper is to analyse the benefits that can be derived from the joint use of lean principles and RFID technology in health care

    Implementation of Lean methods in the luxury footwear industry to reduce waste

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    reservedL'elaborato ha lo scopo di presentare alcuni dei metodi lean che possono essere applicati in un'azienda del settore calzaturiero di lusso per la riduzione degli sprechi derivanti dal ciclo produttivo. Tale strategia di miglioramento è stata applicata da me durante il tirocinio curriculare presso un'azienda del mondo del fashion luxury.The purpose of this paper is to present some of the lean methods that can be applied in a luxury footwear company to reduce waste from the production cycle. This improvement strategy was applied by me during my curricular internship at a luxury fashion company

    Lean on me

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    Sometimes in our lives we all have painWe all have sorrowBut if we are wiseWe know that there's always tomorrow Lean on me, when you're not strongAnd I'll be your friendI'll help you carry onFor it won't be long'Til I'm gonna needSomebody to lean on Please swallow your prideIf I have things you need to borrowFor no one can fill those of your needsThat you won't let show You just call on me brother, when you need a handWe all need somebody to lean onI just might have a problem that you'll unde..

    Lean Knowledge Management: The Problem of Value

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    Lean knowledge management is defined here as: getting the right information, in the right form, to the right people at the right time. This definition highlights series of practical problems for knowledge management in the built environment which, in turn, have implications for lean theory. In the terms of TFV theory, the problems that arise from getting information to the right people at the right time are essentially flow (F) issues, but those that are concerned with defining the right information and the form in which it is to be delivered are more concerned with value (V). Here, we focus primarily on the problem of defining right information. A distinction is made between sociological 'values' and economic 'value', showing how both relate to production theory. In the course of benefits capture and realisation, both values and value are negotiated between project participants and other stakeholders. It is argued that these processes are best conceived as conversations and that this is implied in the basic formulation of V theory. The notion of objectivity and its significance for these values/value negotiations is examined. The problem of benefits realisation is considered and a set of hypotheses are generated regarding the nature of an effective benefits realization management proces

    Investigation of Visual Management Cases in Construction by an Analytical Framework from Manufacturing

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    Along with the progress of globalization, speed and efficiency have become more critical for any industry than ever before. In this sense, the concept and methods of lean management, promoting these performances, have been deployed from manufacturing, its origin industry, to other industries. This paper deals with this management style in the construction industry, called lean construction. In particular, visual management (VM) as one effective tool in this scheme is focused on. A number of VM cases, 306 in total, was collected from both construction and manufacturing sites and investigated by the so-called 5W1H analytical framework developed in the manufacturing industry. Obtained results suggest that the VM cases in construction have common attributes such as purpose and location, target to attain, users’ attributes, timing to use and elemental technologies for case development. A comparison analysis of the VM cases from construction and those from manufacturing was also carried out, for a mutual transfer of this technology between these industries

    HPLC-MSn analysis of phenolic compounds and purine alkaloids in green and black tea

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    Tea is a complex mixture containing a range of compounds from simple phenolics to complex thearubigins, many of which have well-recognized antioxidant properties. This paper describes the application of high-performance liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (HPLC-MSn) methods for the rapid and routine analysis of more than 30 phenolics in tea. Green and black tea infusions were injected directly onto a reversed phase HPLC column, and the phenolics eluted using two different mobile phase gradients, one optimized to resolve catechin derivatives and the other, flavonols and theaflavins. Compounds, identified on the basis of their retention time, absorbance spectrum, and MS fragmentation pattern, included (+)-catechin, (-)-epicatechin, theaflavin and their various gallate derivatives, quercetin and kaempferol mono-, di-, and triglycosides, quinic acid esters of gallic acid and hydroxycinnamates, and the purine alkaloids, caffeine and theobromine
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