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Vol 31 - No 06 - September 2005 Branch news : Midlands - Lean Considerations in the Product Development Process The evening of Tuesday 14th June saw the combined West and East Midlands Branch hold a presentation on ‘Lean Manufacturing Concept to Launch’ by Steve Boam from KM&T Ltd and Wendy Garner from Coventry University at the IOM Headquarters. The question that was asked at the start of the evening was, “how do you condense a three hour lecture into what turned out to be 2.1/2 hours with all the interactions, yet still maintain interest in the subject matter on such a glorious summers evening?” Well it would be fair to say that Steve Boam, an engineer turned consultant with 8 years experience at Toyota in the UK and 2 years in Japan, and Wendy Garner from Coventry University managed to do exactly that. For the level of information (97 slides) coupled with the interest and Steve’s undoubted passion helped the evening to fly by. The main aspects stressed in the first half of the evening were, for many of those that have embarked on the path towards lean manufacturing and supply, almost all too obvious; but for others it was a breath of fresh air to hear the whole process surgically laid bare and put into small sound bites that encouraged further investigation. For those who have been on the path, it provided a point to look back and reflect and possibly re-apply themselves. The evening’s session was opened by Wendy Garner, who introduced the principles of Lean Manufacturing under the auspice of the Toyota Temple with its aims of eliminating all waste, improving quality and standardising processes. Then, for many, came one of the biggest shocks; by the time that manufacturing gets involved with any new product, 85% of the cost is pre-determined, yet almost 100% of the time is spent reducing the costs wherever possible in the manufacturing area which can only effect 15% of the real cost of the product (Figure 1.1 overleaf). Maybe this single point is one of the great paradoxes within the implementation of Lean Manufacturing that does not embrace design in the process. Maybe the focus should be maintained with manufacturing, yet also seek to move further backwards towards the development of the product and drive cost out and enhance the manufacturability of the product from early on in the product development life cycle. After the introductory slides, Steve Boam took over under the title of “How do we develop a Good Product?” He pointed out that the Toyota Lean Temple had remained virtually unchanged for 50 years, yet it had constantly evolved to reach its current position, holding true to its principles almost as though a religion. It was pointed out that lean in its purest terms takes a good product and, through a lot of effort in both cost and time, can make a near perfect product! And why do we need to expend all this time and effort? Our customers are getting more demanding, they want more for less money and quality is paramount: in short they want more for less or greater value for money. So what makes the Toyota Production System (TPS) so different? Maybe they do problem solving. What they don’t do is ‘Six Sigma’. They recognise that operators have a high degree of local knowledge. For many of us that as yet do not embrace the Toyota principles so fully, it is often through miscommunication that we fail to deploy into our processes that which we really want. For the most part we fail to adhere to the visual factory principle of being able to identify if our position is good, bad or indifferent in three seconds. It should be remembered that one of the keys to all visual management systems is about recording things with pencils without the need for extensive IT infrastructure support. The next area identified was the importance during product development of clearly and concisely identifying problems in a timely fashion, so that the appropriate resources can be gathered together to ensure that the issues are resolved with the original milestones adhered to and, if the problem persists, it is then escalated. It is important that both time and effort is expended when and where needed, this also includes your suppliers. The use of time to understand and resolve issues rather than finding and making excuses is paramount. Another point often overlooked is that our finished product is not only as good as our own ability; it is also a reflection of our supplier’s capabilities and quality processes. Steve noted that Toyota, and the Japanese in general, have the skill of taking something good and making it excellent. Many of its principles and processes are not mould breaking, but they are evolutionary rather than revolutionary. From this basic standpoint came the recognition that New Product Introduction (NPI) and Design for Manufacture (DFM) maybe different, but they are not mutually exclusive, for together they ultimately define the process that manufacturing will follow. Another key issue here is that all the processes should balance (Yamazumi) and as such support manufacturing and create a robust easy to follow manufacturing cycle, eliminating wherever possible non-value added activities. So, with the evening fast drawing to a close, the reality dawned to many that organisations may have woken up to NPI, but not DFM and NPI combined. Applying lean principles to product design is about moving the focus from the 15% of the product (manufacturing) to the 85% (design) for any new product being developed. So although DFM and NPI are distinct processes, they offer a high degree of synergy between the two (Figure 1.2). The concluding slide summed this up by saying, “By reviewing, confirming and changing a product at the earliest time it is possible to develop a product that is truly designed for Manufacture, Assembly, Customer and Cost.” Thus a brilliant summers evening drew to a close and the level of information both from slides and anecdotally made the 2.1/2 hours fly by. David Macready, MIOM Related Topics:
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