Managing a Manufacturing System with Integration of Lean Thinking

Qian Wang, Laura Arias, Said Azzam

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

    Abstract

    Products are often made by accomplishing a number of manufacturing processes on a sequential flow line which is also known as manufacturing system. Today, lean concepts are widely adopted by many manufacturing plants as a popular model when designing, implementing, operating or managing a manufacturing system. The main motivation behind this is that it is a cost-effective approach to increase efficiency and productivity of a manufacturing system by consistently seeking and removing any non-value added activities during a production with a small or without any additional investment. 5S is considered as an effective lean method used for identifying and eliminating manufacturing-related wastes which obstruct the system performance in terms of efficiency and productivity and minimizing unnecessary production costs. It is also reported that applying highly skilled, flexible and dynamic walking workers to production lines is a good practice for implementing a lean manufacturing system in which each worker travels down the line performing multiple tasks at each station; and each worker is trained to complete assigned tasks of a unit from start to finish. This paper presents a feasibility study of implementing 5S rules into a manufacturing system using walking workers to improve efficiency and productivity of an existing shop floor production at a local plant.
    Original languageEnglish
    Number of pages3
    JournalWorld Academy of Science, Engineering, and Technology
    Publication statusPublished - Jun 2011

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