Customer Reviews

Lean Manufacturing in Build to Order, Complex and Variable Environments (Lean Transformation)

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As anyone even vaguely familiar with lean manufacturing knows, the key to attaining high productivity, lower costs and high quality is to keep things flowing continuously from the arrival of parts, through the assembly of components that come together just when needed in final assembly, and then move out the door to the loading dock and onto trucks bound for customers. But how do you do that when what you build may have dozens of configurations and call for a host of different subassemblies based on customer needs and wants -- when many subassemblies, for example, tend to create bottlenecks and throw the best laid plans into disarray? Larco and his team show and tell how with charts and graphs and in jargon-free prose that anyone can easily understand. They explain and give examples of how to configure such an assembly operation so units requiring work that others do not can be routed onto side tracks, eventually to return to the main line. They also explain that the scheduling function is key. New software applications, for example, can calculate the right order for the queue and determine when the work on subassemblies must be initiated for everything to come together at the right time and in the right place. This is a must-read book anyone interested in creating the most productive possible build-to-order, complex and variable assembly environment.

Anyone that has had lean manufacture will recognise the concepts and applications used by those who have suceeded. The is a compilation of standard practice without any new "how to" insights.

I was hoping for some in depth informaion on how to calculate kanbans. I found this book to be a high level this is what it is and why you hould do it but little actual "how to".

I cut my Lean teeth in a hi volume hi mix environment (25,000 units per day and 50,000 SKUs) and now work in a hi mix lo volume plant (150 units per day, 1000 SKUs, highest volume product is 5 per day). I was looking for a book that will instruct on the prioritization of action and application of tools I already know. It didn't do that well.

The book is a high level review of an approach. It is heavy with approaches from hi volume businesses (production lines, points of customization). It takes a broad approach to the topic. If that was the target it wasn't bad and I did learn from it, but not as much as I hoped. I got more out of "Made-to-Order Lean: Excelling in a High-Mix, Low-Volume Environment" by Greg Lane and "Creating a Lean Culture: Tools to Sustain Lean Conversions" by David Mann. As an overview book I think this is adequate, for more depth and detail (like the Kanban question in another review [Toyota Production System by Monden]) I'd look elsewhere.

I also thought as Lean professionals, they emphasized scheduling systems way too much. In their discussion of them, they illustrated the seeds of it's own destruction, the amount of data that needs to be completely accurate.

In my world, product differentiation starts at the first operation, and continues throughout the production system. So far we are looking at the plant as two separate systems, a small batch system on the front end and made to order system for the back end. The focus is on making things flow and using the tools we know to that end. Typically you start in an area and work it, but the flow approach indicated that macro systems needed improvement first to impact flow and WIP. Then attacking areas in order to achieve and maintain flow. Full disclosure, we are looking at a scheduling system to sequence the release of work into the plant.

None of that was explicitly in this book.

As a lean practitioner, I have read numerous books on the topic. I have enjoyed "Lean Transformation", another book of which Mr. Larco is co-author, and had high hopes for "Build to Order".
As Lean Thinking moves outward from high-volume, low-variation factory environments, practitioners need an excellent reference for the applications that look like something other than a Toyota production line. This book addresses a subset of that need, but, in the opinion of this reader, falls short of the subtitle, "complex and variable environments." The central chapters of this book are essentially a description for developing dedicated production cells and aligning other business functions to support cellular production. As such, other books on cellular production offer more detailed analysis, clearer implementation steps, and richer examples.
For some companies that are beginning their Lean Transformation, this book may prove useful, but mostly as a way to begin their familiarization, and not as a reference that details how to solve the real-world complexities they will inevitably encounter.
For readers who need more theory, detail, discussion, and practical examples, you may be interested in Greg Lane's 2007 Made-to-Order Lean.