Thesis on "Lean Manufacturing Best Practices"

Thesis 5 pages (1425 words) Sources: 5 Style: MLA

[EXCERPT] . . . .

Lean Manufacturing

Best Practices in Lean Manufacturing Processes for Mass Customization

Manufacturers are seeking greater levels of product and service differentiation to extend their product lifecycles while also attaining cost reductions through process efficiencies and the use of lean manufacturing techniques. The use of mass customization across all product lines and build-to-order specifically are redefining manufacturing strategies from being purely efficiency driven to being significant from a selling standpoint as well (Sharma, LaPlaca, 476). Lean process efficiency applied to mass customization, build-to-order, configure-to-order and engineer-to-order delivers financial results when these lean manufacturing techniques are integrated with supply chain, manufacturing scheduling, and product systems. Table 1, Financial Impact of Lean Manufacturing Applied to Build-to-Order Workflows shown in the Appendix of this analysis provides financial analysis of the financial benefits manufacturers can realize when they automate these product workflows. To attain these levels of financial performance however, lean manufacturing techniques including Six Sigma is often applied to the quoting, sales and product configuration, manufacturing workflows and logistics processes to ensure the highest level of performance possible. The intent of this analysis is to evaluate how lean manufacturing techniques are delivering financial performance improvement based on more efficient process execution and continual improvement choosing the best possible mass customization strategy given internal constraints, resources, and strengths (Cavusoglu, Cavusoglu, Raghunathan, 16, 17).



Applying Lean Manufacturing Techniques to Mass Customization

Manufacturers who often adopt and continually strive to improve their mass customization, build-to-order, configure-to-order and engineer-to-order strategies rely on value stream mapping to find areas of relative strength or weakness (Chandandeep, 405, 406). In conjunction with value stream mapping, manufacturers are also relying on the Six Sigma DMAIC process (Reidenbach, Goeke, 46, 47) illustrated in Figure 1, Six Sigma DMAIC Process.

Figure 1: Six Sigma DMAIC Process

Source: (Reidenbach, Goeke, et.al.)

Each of these five areas of the Six Sigma methodology collectively contribute to ensuring manufacturing processes that are being transformed to greater efficiency, or made leaner, still stay focused on customers' unmet needs. The fact that lean manufacturing implementations are most successful when they are anchored in the unmet, urgent needs of customers is a critical point of this use of the DMAIC methodology in general and Six Sigma specifically (Hallgren, Olhager, 978. 979). The prioritization of customer needs throughout the entire Six Sigma process is also captured in the Voice of the Customer synthesis which occurs as part of the DMAIC methodology over time (Reidenbach, Goeke, 45, 46). Implicit in Six Sigma are the initially conflicting dual roles of optimizing performance and reduction of costs of a process while at the same time creating enough agility and lean-based workflows to keep the processes (and therefore the entire company) more customer- and demand-driven and responsive.

The use of lean manufacturing processes, principles and techniques are especially relevant in the context of creating mass customization, build-to-order, configure-to-order, and engineer-to-order workflows. The implications of including Six Sigma workflows into product designs also become especially relevant in the context of product lifecycle management (PLM) synchronization and planning (Kumar, Wellbrock, 15). The implications of Six Sigma process improvements for one specific product generation need to be included and integrated into each subsequent product generation to be effective in attaining lean manufacturing benchmarked performance objectives (Searcy, 34, 35). This continual progression of process improvement the catalyst of which is lean manufacturing techniques is what makes the attainment of longer-term financial metrics of performance shown in Table 1, Financial Impact of Lean Manufacturing Applied to Build-to-Order Workflows attainable. As Six Sigma methodologies' contributions to mass customization are primarily in the removing of unpredicted variability in the context of actual manufacturing strategies (Hallgren, Olhager, 979, 980) the definition of customization of each specific strategy is needed. Table 2, Definition of Mass Customization Production Strategies provides the necessary framework for determining to just what extent Six Sigma needs to be used as a lean manufacturing strategy. Each of these levels of customization are associated with a unique set of DMAIC requirements and variations in how the Voice of the Customer phases of the Six Sigma methodologies are managed throughout PLM strategies.

Table 2: Definition of Mass Customization Production Strategies

Sources: (Cavusoglu, Cavusoglu, Raghunathan, 12 -- 28) (Hallgren, Olhager, 976 -- 999) (Kumar, Craig, 194 -- 214) (Sharma, LaPlaca, 476 -- 486)

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