6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Accessible Exposition of Principles but the Devil's in the Details, September 23, 2006
This review is from: Creating Mixed Model Value Streams: Practical Lean Techniques for Building to Demand (Paperback)
In this very good book author Kevin Duggan describes an approach to implementing lean manufacturing in challenging environments characterized by a high degree of variety, shared resources, and lumpy demand. All too often in such situations, practitioners conclude that lean principles can be applied incompletely or not at all. Significant missed process improvement opportunities follow from this foundational misunderstanding.
Duggan develops his material using as a case study the hypothetical EMC Supply Company. Value stream mapping is used throughout the book to depict the current scenario and the various improvements to achieve the desired future state.
The author starts at the very beginning, with a discussion of how the proper definition of product families is critical to the creation of flow in high mix plants. He goes on to introduce the concepts of takt time and the pacemaker operation for the process. From there the discussion moves to the balancing of operations, presentation of materials at the point of use, scheduling the work, and dealing with variation in customer demand.
These concepts are applied by the EMC implementation team and are illustrated with an evolving series of value stream maps. As a result the presentation has a "real world" feel to it that should encourage application of the principles.
One significant caveat needs however to be mentioned. Successful implementation is about pressing through countless details in every situation. Duggan draws attention to this in various places writing for example, "Material presentation for a high mix of products will take some creativity and planning. This is an area where we will have to sweat the details".
In fact, in my experience as a lean implementer, the details need to be sweated at every turn. The concepts may be simple, elegant, and often self evident, but putting them into action requires an almost obsessive attention to a myriad of practical intricacies.
For those committed to making this effort the results will be impressive. This book can help make it happen.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Creating Mixed Model Value Streams, February 18, 2009
This review is from: Creating Mixed Model Value Streams: Practical Lean Techniques for Building to Demand (Paperback)
Most companies have struggled with the application of lean concepts to more complex applications in manufacturing. Most books provide examples for very simple, highly repetitive production. The author Kevin Duggan provides the first real reference of the application of the lean concepts of flow and level pull to mixed model environments. The book details how to identify product families in such situations, with easy to follow guidelines that include consideration of work content, as well as required process steps. There are excellent descriptions of how to adapt the important concept of management timeframe or "pitch" to a mixed model application by taking the traditional "day-by-the-hour" board concept and creating a "floating pitch board".
The book is easy to read, making use of a case study and the effective value stream mapping tool to guide the reader throughout. This is a must read for anyone who works in a high mixed model production environment - which is most manufacturers - and not just a "widget" producer.
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2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Great read, glosses over detail, April 10, 2008
This review is from: Creating Mixed Model Value Streams: Practical Lean Techniques for Building to Demand (Paperback)
I have to agree with other reviewers. The math is dead simple. And the transition from batch to flow will re-invent your business.
Where to book fell down for me was in the examples given. If i worked in a shop which only produced a small list of parts and very little process variation i would be done implementing by now.
Where a small business may fall most large facilities/organizations do not. Again, great way to approach changing the way your business runs but without some serious data mining and statistical skills you will end up right where you started.
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