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- A Rapid Improvement Process through “Quick-Win” Lean Tools: A Case StudyPublication . Rodrigues, Jorge; Sá, José Carlos; Silva, Francisco; Pinto Ferreira, Luís; Jimenez, Genett; Santos, GilbertoThe main purpose of this paper was to introduce procedural changes based on a type of human resources management tool using Lean Leadership (LL). We sought to determine which Lean Tools (LTs) are able to promote a rapid impact on a company; namely, we aimed to determine which LTs are able to facilitate fast and positive results for companies after their implementation, thus allowing for quick wins. This study was conducted at a medium-sized Portuguese company in the metalworking sector. Results were assessed from two surveys (involving 17 people) regarding perceptions of employee awareness in the machining area for Quality, Maintenance/Equipment, Process/Products, Leadership/Management by Objectives, and Trust and Training. The surveys were conducted at the beginning of the study and at the end of a quarterly period. LTs were used over a period of three months, thus enabling changes to the company’s manufacturing processes which could lead to improved organization, orientation, consistency and viability. Three months were considered an adequate time period to measure whether the tools were effective in the production of quick wins or not. LL allowed for greater awareness of the importance of LTs, the most important feature of which is the aggregation of all of the employees’ energies, which culminates in better operational efficiency and an increase in the employees’ overall positive perceptions of their company’s principles and mindset. The introduction of LL, as well as the implementation of 10 LTs, which are considered to be Quick-Win Tools, enabled employees to improve their perceptions of their company by 6.1%. Lean tools can be implemented quickly and are easily understood by their intended users. These benefits provide additional motivation for their use and for the achievement of highly satisfactory operating results across production areas. This study aims to identify which lean tools allow companies to obtain benefits/gains quickly. This outcome is the main contribution of this study to the scientific community and to companies. A Quick Win means a rapid improvement in a short period of time. As such, lean tools that provide Quick Wins also contribute to economic development. Due to the restricted time period imposed by the main purpose of this study, statistical analysis of the results was unfeasible
- Implementing “quick-wins” in lean managementa case studyPublication . Rodrigues, Jorge; Sá, José Carlos; Silva, Francisco J. G.; Ferreira, Luís Pinto; Pereira, Maria TeresaThis study was undertaken at a Small and Medium-sized Enterprise (SME) in the metalworking sector, where Lean Management has been implemented through several Lean Tools (LT) and their variations. This study comprised two main goals. The first involved demonstrating which LT allow the highest impact during the implementation phase, thus producing great influence both in terms of organization and operational results, as well as in the context of employees’ motivation. The second goal consisted of introducing procedure changes based on the Management of Human Resources through Lean Leadership tools. By implementing these two objectives, one was able to achieve an increase of 8,5% in machine occupancy rate, and a reduction of 27,9% regarding the costs of defective products per hour.
- Analysis and improvement in the Electrical Discharge Machining process used on the manufacturing of moulds for plastics injection mouldingPublication . Costa, A; Pinto Ferreira, Luís; Silva, F. J. G.; Sá, José Carlos; Pereira, Teresa; Ávila, PauloDue to increasing competitiveness in the industry, companies will invariably adopt strategies to ensure that their employees continuously eliminate waste and create more value. This concept was applied at a company that designs, develops, and manufactures steel moulds for the injection of thermoplastics, with the purpose of implementing Lean thinking in the production sector, thus achieving the following objectives: organization of production; preparation of documents to support production, and standardization of graphite stock. Regarding the application of the 5S tool, an improvement in worker safety, and in cleaning was observed, which also led to a reduction in the time wasted when locating tools. Through the implementation of 5S auditing, enabling to verify an overall improvement, from a rating of 35% in the first audit to 85% in the subsequent audit. The tools implemented allowed for improvements in communication between sectors, leading to increased productivity and productive autonomy. Finally, graphite stock was standardized by means of Kanban.
- Lean Safety - assessment of the impact of 5S and Visual Management on safetyPublication . Sá, José Carlos; Manuel, V; Silva, F. J. G.; Santos, G; Pinto Ferreira, Luís; Pereira, Teresa; Carvalho, MThis study was developed in a furniture company and aimed to implement some Lean tools, such as 5S and Visual Management to reduce waste, by improving the production process. To carry out this analysis an observation plan was used, having the Spaghetti diagram as a reference as well as the value-added analysis of the operations. The implementation of 5S's allowed the improvement of the visual management and the organization through a reorganization of the layout, as well as normalization of the production process. With this, a reduction of 40% was achieved in terms of waste related to activities that did not add value to the product, such as unnecessary movements, waiting times and even movement of materials, having achieved a level of productivity of 74% and 87% in the finishing and joinery sections, respectively. In addition to improvements in the production process, the impact of the measures at the safety level (lean safety) was assessed. For this purpose, a questionnaire was prepared to assess the opinion of the employees, in which 40% considered that the implementation of the tools provided a greater motivation to develop their work activities safely
- Lean six-sigma implementation in an automobile axle manufacturing industry: A case studyPublication . Guleria, Prateek; Pathania, Abhilash; Sharma, Shubham; Sá, José CarlosContinuous improvement in the manufacturing industries is the prime requirement to make the organization profitable. Lean manufacturing and six sigma are old techniques to improve the production of the industry by eliminating waste. These tools help the industry to grow worldwide in the competitive environment. This paper is based on the case study of a well-known automobile transmission components manufacturing industry. This industry manufactures about 33 types of axles for different vehicles and was facing the problem of rejection in one of its rear axle components. The industry was losing Rs. 7,33,000/- every month due to rejection of this rear axle. Lean six sigma (LSS) was the tool implemented to find and eliminate wastages. The current state map was made for this product by using historical three months data from the industry. The layout of the shopfloor was changed to reduce the transportation of the product and to manage the space for best utilization. 5S was implemented to make everything easily assessable. Drastic improvements have been achieved after the successful implementation of LSS like the rejection rate was reduced from 10.4% to 3.20 %. The shop floor area for processing the axles has been reduced from 252 m2 to 90 m2 after change in layout. The distance travelled by the material was reduced from 4050 m to 809 m. The sigma level was also improved from 3.34 to 3.94. The lead time was reduced from 12 days to 11 days.