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

by Jorge L. Larco (Author), Elena Bortolan (Author), Michael H. Studley (Author), Stephen Hawley Martin (Editor)

Editorial Reviews

Review
To meet the constantly changing demands of customers in a dynamic marketplace, the authors have combined the principles of Lean with computerized algorithms in a way not done before, creating a new Lean paradigm for businesses operating in highly variable, complex manufacturing environments. The impact on companies in such categories is almost certain to be huge. One can expect a reshuffling to occur and winners and losers to emerge not imagined or anticipated today. --Bruce A. Henderson, Former Chairman & CEO of Imation Corporation

Product Description
Until now, many experts thought the application of Lean manufacturing in complex and variable environments was impossible in most cases. Level scheduling and standard processes, two hallmarks of Lean manufacturing, are difficult to achieve in industries that produce complex products that must be customized for specific applications. The widely varying processing times that result from the fabrication of different combinations of sub assemblies required for products in such categories make the maintenance of continuous flow, another hallmark of Lean manufacturing, seem an insurmountable goal. But the authors of this book, international consultants to companies turning out such products, have found ways to deal with these challenges and to employ Lean manufacturing techniques in order to maximize labor, plant and equipment productivity.

A key aspect of the methodology explained is the use of sophisticated scheduling software to eliminate bottlenecks and to minimize downtime in the pursuit of continuous flow. Another is to lay out production lines in a way that arranges the different machines used to create product variations so that each product variation can be routed through assembly on the shortest and most efficient path. Depending on the level of customization, one may take a direct route while another requiring more work might be diverted to a side track. The authors compare this to local trains that take side trips off the main line while express trains continue on to arrive at the terminal sooner.

Mr. Larco and his team believe that high customization, low cost, quick turnaround, and diminishing volumes characterize the future of this type of manufacturing. If a company can set these as goals and achieve them, it will have important strategic advantages over the competition. Specialized products generally cost significantly more than standard, off the shelf models. By using Lean manufacturing techniques, however, the authors maintain that this no longer must be so. They say that whatever the industry, whether it be automotive, apparel, electronics, consumer products, white goods, industrial products, or anything in between, the issues are similar and so are the solutions. This book will give executives in these categories a vision of what can be done to jump ahead of their competitors.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 192 pages
• Publisher: Oaklea Press (December 1, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1892538415
• ISBN-13: 978-1892538413
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.6 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #649,806 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Clear Direction on How to Create Flow Even When It May Seem Impossible, June 15, 2008

By	S. Martin "Metaphysican" (Richmond, VA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

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.

1.0 out of 5 stars Lean LMs, April 12, 2009

By	L.M. Drilling "S.Works" - See all my reviews

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.

2.0 out of 5 stars High Hopes, December 31, 2008

By	Robert A. Drensek (Huntsville, AL USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

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.