1. The Illustrated London News Picture Library
Chapter 15
Lean synchronization
The Illustrated London News Picture Library

2. specified time, quantity and quality of products and services
Lean operations
Operations strategy
Design
Improvement
The operation supplies… the delivery of products and services only when needed
The market requires…
specified time, quantity and quality of products and services
Lean operations
Planning and control

3. Key operations questions
In Chapter 15 – Lean synchronization – Slack et al. identify the following key questions:
What is lean synchronization?
How does lean synchronization eliminate waste?
How does lean synchronization apply throughout the supply network?
How does lean synchronization compare with other approaches?

4. Lean operations
‘The key principle of lean operations is relatively straightforward to understand, it means moving towards the elimination of all waste in order to develop an operation that is faster, more dependable, produces higher quality products and services and, above all, operates at low cost’.

5. Lean operations (Continued)
Synonyms
Continuous flow manufacture
High value-added manufacture
Stockless production
Low-inventory production
Fast-throughput manufacturing
Lean manufacturing
Toyota production system
Short-cycle time manufacturing.

6. Lean operations (Continued)
JIT material flow
Traditional approach
Buffer inventory
Buffer inventory
Stage A
Stage B
Stage C
JIT approach
Orders
Orders
Stage A
Stage C
Stage B
Deliveries
Deliveries

7. Lean operations (Continued)
Lean approach
Focus on producing only when needed
Lower-capacity utilization, but
Traditional approach
Focus on high- capacity utilization
More production at each stage
Fewer stoppages
More stoppages because of problems
Low inventory so problems are exposed and solved
No surplus production goes into inventory
High inventory means less chance of problems being exposed and solved
Extra production
goes into inventory because of continuing stoppages at earlier stages

8. Lean operations (Continued)
The lean philosophy of operations
Eliminate waste
Involve everyone
Continuous improvement
Lean as a set of techniques for managing operations
Basic working practices
Design for manufacture
Operations focus
Small, simple machines
Flow layout
TPM
Set-up reduction
Total people involvement
Visibility
JIT supply
Lean as a method of planning and control
Pull scheduling
Kanban control
Levelled scheduling
Mixed modelling
Synchronization

9. (queue of information)
Inventories of materials. Information or customers have similar characteristics
Inventory
Of material
(queue of material)
Of information
(queue of information)
Of customers
(queue of people)
Cost
Ties up working capital
Less current information and so worth less
Wastes customers’ time
Space
Needs storage space
Needs memory capacity
Need waiting area
Quality
Defects hidden, possible damage
Defects hidden, possible data corruption
Gives negative perception
Decoupling
Makes stages independent
Promotes job specialization/ fragmentation
Utilization
Stages kept busy by work-in-progress
Stages kept busy by work in data queues
Servers kept busy by waiting customers
Coordination
Avoids need for synchronization
Avoids need for straight- through processing
Avoids having to match supply and demand
Source: Adapted from Fitzsimmons, J.A.

10. Waste
Activities that consume time, resources and space, but do not contribute to satisfying customer needs.
Over-production
Waiting time
Transport
Process
Inventory
Motion
Defectives.

11. Waste (Continued) Over-production Waiting time
Make more than is required by the customer, or to make it earlier than required.
Taking multiple copies of the document which are not required.
Waiting time
Any delay between when one process step/activity ends and the next step/activity begins.
Waiting for a manager to approve an application.

12. Waste (Continued) Transport (Over) Processing
Movement of work between departments or offices that do not add to the value of the product or service.
Multiple approvals across different departments.
Underwriting
Operations 1 IT 2
LPC
(Over) Processing
Adding more value to a service or product than customers want or will pay for.
Capturing extra information from the customer which is not used.

13. Waste (Continued) Inventory Motion
More materials or information on hand than is currently required.
100 applications waiting together for data entry.
Motion
Needless movement of people.
While ‘transportation’ refers to the movement of the work, ‘motion’ involves movement of workers.
Running to a printer on a different floor for a printout.

14. Waste (Continued) Defects/Inspection
Any aspect of the service that does not conform to customer needs.
Incorrect customer details captured in the system.
Defects
Out of 20 , 2 are defective.
The later that a defect gets caught, the higher the cost associated with it.
Company – Firewall produced defective tyres which were given to the customer. There were many accidents and the company had to recall tyres – which costed them millions – eventually the company went bankrupt

15. Some daily examples Activity Waste Category Over-production Transport
Waiting
Inventory
Defect
Over-processing
Motion
Transport.
Making extra copies, just in case
Document movement between departments
Supervisory approval delays
Files waiting to be worked on
Multiple calls to the customer for same issue
Incorrect customer address
Cupboard full of office supplies
Capturing additional fields in the system
Running for photocopier to other floor on building
Incorrect processing of salary
Customer on hold
Forms moving different locations
EXERCISE IN THE BOOK (Pg 11)
Same exercise is given in the workbook.
Give the group 5 minutes to do this exercise.
Once it is over, run through each example – let the group mark themselves.
Distribute chocolates to the top 3 winners.

16. Lean operations – The 5Ss
Sort (Seiri) – Eliminate what is not needed and keep what is needed.
Straighten (Seiton) – Position things in such a way that they can be easily reached whenever they are needed.
Shine (Seiso) – Keep things clean and tidy; no refuse or dirt in the work area.
Standardize (Seiketsu) – Maintain cleanliness and order – perpetual neatness.
Sustain (Shitsuke) – Develop a commitment and pride in keeping to standards.

17. Keep only things that are required in doing the job
Sort (Seri)
Eliminate all unnecessary items!!
Unnecessary refers to those things that are not needed for current work.
Keep only things that are required in doing the job

18. Straiten (Seiton)
Arrange items so that they can be found quickly by Anybody, Anywhere, Anytime. Items should be easy to find, easy to use and easy to put away.
Tools
Colour Coding, Signboards, Labeling.
Keep things in Order

19. A clean work place enhances health and productivity
Shine (Sieso)
Everything is clean, neat, tidy and ready to use.
Tools
Five-Minute Shine
Cleaning and Inspection checklists
Checklist of activities needing maintenance
e.g. the ‘5-second stapler’ test!
A clean work place enhances health and productivity

20. Standardize (Seiketsu)
To prevent setbacks in the first 3 pillars (Sort, Set In Order and Shine)
Tools
Best Practice documentation and sharing
SOPs documented and posted
Checklists & job cycle charts.

21. Sustain (Shitsuke)
To make 5Ss a habit in the way we do our day-to-day activities
Tools
5-S contests
Visual management boards showing 5-S audit
Slogans
Handbooks
Poka Yoke!
Make 5 S a habit

22. ‘Value stream’ mapping
‘Value stream’ mapping focuses on value-adding activities and distinguishes between value-adding and non-value- adding activities. It is similar to process mapping but different in four ways:
It uses a broader range of information than most process maps.
It is usually at a higher level (5–10 activities) than most process maps.
It often has a wider scope, frequently spanning the whole supply chain.
It can be used to identify where to focus future improvement activities.

23. Waste is a large part of most processes
Mapping the Value Stream – Example
High-level process steps for a loan application process
High-level process steps
Prepare
application
Acquire
the customer
Process
Advise
customer
Disburse
funds
Activities which add value to the customer: e.g. the credit decision
Activities which don’t add value to the customer but are required by regulation: e.g. KYC
Activities which neither add value nor are required by regulation: e.g. carrying files from one desk to another
Step-by-step activity analysis for value-add to our customer
Actual value-add activity may only be 1 –10% of the total process time.

24. Value Stream Map for an industrial air-conditioning installation service
T/T = Task time
TTT = Total throughput time
VAT = Value-added time
C/T = Cycle time
Cash management
Completion confirmation
Operations planning
Job-tracking confirmations
Sales office
Forecasts
Invoice status
Survey
Order
Assemble
Frame
Wait in branch
Wait for assembly
Ship to branch and wait
Wait for installers
Install
T/T = 0.5
Avail = 100%
C/T= 30
C/T= 10
T/T = 5.0
C/T= 12.5
T/T = 0.75
C/T= 17
C/T= 35
30 mins.
58 hrs.
96 hrs.
5 hrs.
48 hrs.
60 mins.
TTT = 258 hrs
VAT = 8 hrs

25. Delivering smaller quantities more often can reduce inventory levels

26. Influencing the throughput efficiency
Waste (muda)
Which of these symbols signify non-value-adding activities?
Activities
Types of waste
Operation
Over-production
Waiting time
Movement
Transport
Inspection
Process
Inventory
Delay
Motion
Storage
Defective goods
Influencing the throughput efficiency

27. The problem with inventory
Reduce the level of inventory (water) to reveal the operations’ problems
WIP
Defective materials
Productivity problems
Scrap
Rework
Downtime
WIP
Defective materials
Rework
Scrap
Downtime
Productivity problems

28. Small machines
Conventional Western approach is to purchase large machines to get ‘economies of scale’.
These often have long, complex set-ups, and make big batches quickly creating ‘waste’.
Changeovers
Inventory levels
Time

29. Small machines (Continued)
Using several small machines rather than one large one allows simultaneous processing, and is more robust and more flexible.
Inventory levels
Time

30. How much time will it take for 10 units to move through the process?
Flow principle
A process consists of 3 steps – A, B and C.
It takes one minute to finish each step of the process (A, B and C).
Batch Flow (units processed in batches of 10)
How much time will it take for 10 units to move through the process? A B C
10 Minutes +
10 Minutes +
10 Minutes
= 30 Minutes

31. How much time will it take for 10 units to move through the process?
Flow Principle (Continued)
A process consists of 3 steps – A, B and C.
It takes one minute to finish each step of the process (A, B and C).
Continuous Flow (unit processed individually, that is, process one, move one)
How much time will it take for 10 units to move through the process? A B C
Note – The total amount of work required to complete each batch has not changed, but the throughput time of each batch is reduced from 30 to 12 minutes
1 Minute +
1 Minute +
10 Minutes
= 12 Minutes

32. Single-piece flow Traffic lights – typical batch processing
– Flow of traffic in batches may cause uneven loads of traffic – traffic may jam on one side while no vehicle come from other directions.
Roundabout – single-piece flow
Traffic flows as soon as there is capacity in the roundabout piece by piece.

33. Levelled scheduling equalizes the mix of products made each day
Over an eight-day period, need to make 1200 of A
400 of B
400 of C
Scheduling in large batches, where batch size A = 600, B = 200, C = 200
250 A
250 A
150 B
100 A
200 C
50 B
600 A
200 B
200 C
250 A
150 B
100 A
50 B
600 A
200 B
200 C
Every day, the schedule needs to be calculated. Each day can be different

34. Every day is the same. Easy to notice if falling behind schedule
Levelled scheduling equalizes the mix of products made each day (Continued)
Over an eight-day period, need to make 1200 of A
400 of B
400 of C
With levelled scheduling, where batch size A = 150, B = 50, C = 50
150 A
50 B
50 C
150 A
50 B
50 C
150 A
50 B
50 C
150 A
50 B
50 C
150 A
50 B
50 C
150 A
50 B
50 C
150 A
50 B
50 C
150 A
50 B
50 C
Every day is the same. Easy to notice if falling behind schedule

35. Lean planning and control, or MRP, or both?
Complex structures
Simple structures
Project management
MRP
MRP
Lean and/or
Lean
Simple routings
Complex routings