Gold Mine Study Report

Goldmine

1.

 Overproduction,

 producing

 ahead

 for

 next

 step:

 They

 had

 massive

 stack

 of

 finished

mechanisms

 at

 the

 line

 of

 what,

 above80,

 which

 means

 that

 they

 were

 producing

 too

much

 stuff

 for

 the

 next

 step.

Inventory,

 in

 excess

 of

 immediate

 needs:

 Operators

 have

 more

 components

 and

 WIP

than

 their

 immediate

 goods.

 Therefore

 their

 inventory

 kept

 increasing.

Processing

 waste,

 more

 than

 required:

 During

 looking

 for

 inefficient

 operations

 in

assembly,

 someone

 may

 be

 working

 at

 an

 unnecessarily

 high

 quality

 standard,

 which

 is

unrelated

 to

 the

 functional

 quality

 of

 the

 mechanism.

Waiting

 time,

 imposed

 by

 an

 inefficient

 work

 sequence:

 sometimes

 operators

 spent

time

 searching

 for

 some

 missing

 parts

 or

 calling

 supervisors.

Products

 defections/Rework,

 create

 rework:

 Five

 defects

 per

 1000

 in

 the

 customer’s

products

 are

 terribly

 high.

 So

 there

 are

 rework

 products.

Motion,

 unnecessary

 operator

 motion:

 Sometimes

 operators

 had

 to

 go

 away

 then

 came

back

 with

 a

 container

 of

 components.

Transportation,

 workflow

 is

 neither

 direct

 nor

 smooth:

 Operators

 have

 to

 move

 the

 parts

from

 working

 station

 to

 working

 station.

 But

 while

 stations

 are

 aligned,

 the

 work

doesn’t

 seem

 to

 flow

 easily.

2.

 A

 bottleneck

 is

 a...