1st Edition

The Portal to Lean Production Principles and Practices for Doing More with Less

By John Nicholas, Avi Soni Copyright 2006
    342 Pages 113 B/W Illustrations
    by Auerbach Publications

    The Portal to Lean Production: Principles and Practices for Doing More with Less describes the steps, difficulties, and rewards of implementing lean production. The book moves beyond concepts to address practical matters. The authors provide enough information for you to begin implementing lean production within your organization.

    This book applies a model-the Portal to Lean Production-to illustrate principles and practices. The model reappears at the start of every chapter and serves to connect the concepts of each chapter with those in other chapters, and with basic lean production principles.

    This volume contains short vignettes that appear in every chapter of actual lean production implementations. Following these real-world examples, the text provides expanded coverage of topics to enable you to learn and apply concepts and principles. The authors enable you to see the context, application, and practical issues associated with lean production concepts and methods before learning details. The vignettes, based upon the work experience of co-author Avi Soni, help connect the concepts and tie them to practical examples.

    Portal to Lean Production
    Race with a Moving Finish Line
    Awakening to Lean Production
    The Portal
    The Organization of the Book

    THE JOURNEY, FIRST STEPS

    Beginnings
    Toyota Production System
    Quick History of TPS
    TPS and the Portal to Lean Production

    First Glimpse of a Manufacturing Cell
    The Indiana Plant
    Cellular Manufacturing
    Throughput and Quality

    Gaining Experience, Broadening the Concept
    Trap Cell
    Scheduling for Uniform Load
    Cell Design

    Applying the Cell Concept Plantwide
    The Revelation
    Linked Workcells and Subcells
    Implementation

    BUILDING UP STEAM

    Kanban
    Inventory Mess
    Adopting Pull Production
    Pull-Production Concepts
    Number of Kanbans
    Signal and Control: Methods and Issues

    Total Productive Maintenance
    Breakdown in the Trap Cell
    Concepts of Maintenance Management
    Preventive Maintenance
    Total Productive Maintenance

    Quick Changeover
    A Tale of Two Plants
    Setup Reduction Concepts and Techniques
    SMED Procedure
    Techniques for Setup Reduction
    Checklist
    Attachments and Fasteners
    Eliminate Adjustments
    Storage
    Carts
    Setup-Reduction Projects
    Component of a Larger System

    Standard Work
    Strange-Looking Charts
    Concept of Standard Work
    What Is Standard Work?
    Critical Role in Kaizen

    Focused Factories
    Early Focused-Factory Experience
    Focused-Factory Team Leaders
    A Little Knowledge Can Be…
    Clash of the Old and the New
    Focused Factory
    Microdesign Issues
    Clustering Products and Operations
    Focused-Factory Organization

    Customer-Focused Quality
    Listening to Your Customers
    Customer Complaint
    Statistical Variation
    Experimentation
    Awakening
    Road to Six Sigma
    Quality Assurance in Lean Production
    Problem-Solving Tools
    Statistical Process Control
    Nonstatistical Process Control
    Quality at the Source
    Quality Improvement and TPS

    SUSTAINING MOMENTUM

    Employee Involvement, Workplace Organization, Kaizen
    Employee Involvement and Workplace Organization
    Value Stream Mapping
    Main Vent Assembly Cell

    Supply-Chain Partnerships
    Learning from Our Suppliers
    Problems with Parts
    Building Bonds with a Supplier
    Building Bonds in the Supply Chain
    Supply-Chain Concept
    The Lean Supply Chain
    Partner Relationships
    Little Customer, Big Supplier
    This Can Be Difficult

    The Lean Enterprise
    Product Design
    Lean Product Development
    Process Engineering
    Purchasing Function
    Accounting and Finance
    Sales and Marketing
    Human Resources

    Lean Culture Transformation
    Organization Culture
    Role of Management
    Sustaining Momentum
    Transformational Leadership
    Mistakes
    Closing Thoughts

    APPENDIX A: Glossary

    Biography

    John Nicholas, Avi Soni