Kaizen

Vishal | Rohit | Nikhil | Nishant | Pratik | Nitin

MEL 423  Computers in Manufacturing

Kaizen Based Approach for Cellular Manufacturing System Design

Vishal | Rohit | Nikhil | Nishant | Pratik | Nitin

MEL 423  Computers in Manufacturing

Kaizen Based Approach for Cellular Manufacturing System Design

Kaizen based cellular manufacturing

Background

Organizational competitiveness, rapidly evolving customer needs and increasing market risks have led the contemporary industrial world to a ‘third industrial revolution’ (Black, 1991). Organizations must continuously seek out lean techniques to lend flexibility and better controllability to their manufacturing system processes to remain competitive, satisfy their customer base and retain their market share (Chen, Dugger, & Hammer, 2001). This report discusses Kaizen Technique as one such lean manufacturing strategy and describes an example of its success in enhancing productivity and worker satisfaction levels for a manufacturing industry.

Introduction

‘Kai’ means change, ‘Zen’ means good, and the culmination of these words forms the Japanese term ‘Kaizen’ meaning continuous and incremental change in a workplace (standard of work) (Imai, 1997). Kaizen techniques follow a wholesome product, process and production development (PPP) ideology (Chen, Dugger, & Hammer, 2001) incorporating contributions from employees ranging all functionalities. This accomplishes a cooperative work environment, where everybody knows of the key goals and measures of success.

Kaizen techniques takes on design of a new product to respond to customer desires as a project. Cross functional teams consisting of engineers, shop managers, operators etc. are appointed to tackle the issues at hand.

According to Chen et al., Kaizen approach progresses through the following stages:

Figure 1: Working Stages of Kaizen Methodology

CAse study (Chen, Dugger, & Hammer, 2001)

This case deals with the virtual manufacture of meat...