A Study on the Utilization of Lean Techniques/Tools in Indian Smes
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P RODUCTION E NGINEERING A RCHIVES 20 (201 8 ) 32 - 3 7 P RODUCTION E NGINEERING A RCHIVES ISSN 2353 - 5156 (print) Exist since 4 th quarter 2013 ISSN2353 - 7779 (online) Available online at www.qpij.pl/ production - engineering - archives A study on the Utilization of Lean techniques/tools in Indian SMEs Arvind Kumar Shrimali 1 , Vimlesh Kumar Soni 2 1 Department of Mechanical Engineering, Chameli Devi Group of Institutions, Indore, M. P., India, e - mail: [email protected] 2 Department of Mechanical Engineering, Maulana Azad National Institute of Technology, Bhopal, M. P., India Article history Abstract Received 09 . 0 9 .201 8 The Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) are the backbone of all the major economies around the Accepted 18 . 09 .201 8 world. Majority of these industries are facing tough environment for existence. The present study Available online 30 . 09 . 201 8 explored the most common and easily implementable Lean Tools/Techniques amongst the SMEs. Keywords This has been achieved via a detailed survey of SMEs in India. Study concludes with nine most Lean techniques/tools common Lean Tools/Techniques implemented across the surveyed population of Indian SMEs. Lean Implementation Small and Medium Enterpris- es (SMEs) DOI: 10.30657/ pea.2018.20.07 JEL: L23, M11 1. Introduction 2. Methodology The present study on Lean tools/techniques used in Indian SMEs focus on acquiring a high sales turnover with strate- SMEs is a part of a survey based on the study which focuse d gies that stron gly emphasize increasing market share or en- on the current status of Lean Implementation in the Indian tering new markets with current products. Small enterprises small and medium enterprises (SMEs). The large r study has are constrained by capital, labor and limited resources to been conducted during and under the doctoral study by the improve their technology. With a rapidly changing environ- authors amongst the SMEs in India. Owing to the size of ment and successes, it is necessary t o create certain "tools" questionnaire the sample size chosen was large. for small enterprises with a limited budget. These tools A total of 149 feedbacks are received from Indian SMEs as should be implemented quickly and, most importantly, they a result of the survey co nducted via internet and personal should have a significant impact on the company at the time visits to the industries in central and west part of India. of implementation. There are more than a hundred common The data collected is being ana lyzed using statistical meth- tools available and that there is no way to systematically ods. undermine the production organization for its problems and possible tools to address these problems (Mathur et al., 2014). Bhasin and Burcher (2006) suggested that the compa- 3. Lean Tools ny should implement all or most of the lean practices to suc- In order to simplify ensure effective implementation of ceed in the implementation of Lean. At the same time, the Lean its fundamental concept s must be clear. Lean relies o n reviews show that SMEs cannot simultaneously implement several fundamental concepts: all methods (Gunasekaran et al., 2000, Rose et al., 2011). Customer focus – value is determined by the customer In India the enterprises other than Large are categorised as values . micro, small and medium enterprises and are addressed as Eliminate waste – if anything does not add value then MSME. However, these industries are addressed as SMEs in it is waste and must be eliminated . most of the countries and in research literature. Hence, the Smooth flow – level out any variations in process terminology used in this paper to address the enterprises steps to achieve consistent flow of processes . under th e study is SMEs. A RCHIWUM I NŻYNIERII P RODUKCJI 32 A RVIND K UMAR S HRIMALI , ET AL . / P RODUCTION E NGINEERING A RCHIVES 20 (2018) 32 - 3 7 Continuous improvement – continually find ways t o Value Stream Mapping (VSM), 5S, Six Sigma, Kaizen make any type of improvements. (continuous improvement), Visu al Workplace, Just in Time These principles are achieved using a set of tools focusing (JIT), and Poka - Yoke, or mistake proofing. on any of these principles. The most commonly used tools Rose et al. (2009) summed up the Lean practices suggested (NSW Department of Education and Training, 2009) include: by various r esearchers as follows (Table 1). Table 1 . Lean Practices (Rose et al., 2009) - h Large organization Small organisation c r r a e e s Mclahlin (1997) and e Bhasin 2006 White, 1999 Lee, 1997 Wh ite, 1999 R Shah & Ward (2003) i Set up time reduction Set up time reduction Set up time reduction Set - up time reduction Set up time reduction ii Kanban Kanban Kanban Kanban Kanban JIT/continuous flow Continuous improve- iii Total Quality Control Total Quality Control Total Quality Control production ment iv Small lot Group technology Group Technology Small lot Group technology Total quality manage- Process mapping Multifunction Em- Multifunction Em- v JIT Purchasing ment exercise ployee ployee Continuous improvement Multifunction Em- vi Step change/ kaikaku Group Technology JIT purchasing programs ployee 5S and visual mana- vii TPM Quality Circles JIT purchasing Quality Circles gement viii Multifunction employee Value and seven waste Uniform workload Uniform Workload Uniform Workload ix Self - directed work teams Supplier development TPM TPM TPM Supplier base reduc- x Focused factory Focused Factory Focused Factory Focus factory tion ix TPM Pirraglia , A., Saloni, D., and Van Dyk , H. (2009) in a de- Following are the definition or explanation of the key or tailed study on the Status of Lean manufacturing implemen- the tech nical terms used in this thesis from a variety of Lean tation on secondary wood industries, have reported the re- resource s (Claire Biggs, 2009, Bicheno, 2000; Hines et al., sults in the form of a figure (Figure 1). The researchers have 2004; Hines and Taylor, 2000; Womack and Jones, 2003; found a high usage of 18 workplace organization (5S) tech- and Vorne Industries Limited at - niq ue as 73.3 percent respondents have validated its usage. http:// www.Leanproduction.com, 2011 - 16. ) 5S - A simple tool to make a work- place suitable for Lean production and visual control. It consists of five steps. The name of each stage begins with S in Japanese, the place of its origina- tion and the same have been translated into 5 words in English that al so begin with letter S to maintain its essence. Seiri – Sort - eli minate that which is not needed . Seiton – Set in order – put the remaining items in sensible lo- cations, and mark them . Seiso – Sweep and shine – cLean and inspect work area . Seiketsu – Schedule - create standards for above . Shitsuke – Stick to it - main- Fig . 1 . Lean Manufacturing tools usage (Pirraglia et al., 2009) tain the above system and ar- rangement. 33 A RCHIWUM I NŻYNIERII P RODUKCJI A RVIND K UMAR S HRIMALI , ET AL . / P RODUCTION E NGINEERING A RCHIVES 20 (2018) 32 - 3 7 5S Eliminates waste that results from a poorly organized Poka - yoke – “Mistake Proofing” or “ Error Proofing” - work area (e.g. wasting time looking for a tool). designing tools etc. in such a way that mistakes are impos- Cellular manufacturing – An arrangement of production sible to happen (e.g. making a jig so that it is impossible to floor where all the work centers required for manufactur- put a part into it the wrong way around). ing one family of products are arranged in order in one ar- Pull / push – In a pull system, customer orders “Pull” work ea or cell, enabling better flow of the processes, reducing through the process, in a push system, work is “pushed” travelling within the factory and making one - piece flow through in batche s to build up stock, and is then held pend- easier. ing orders. Gemba (The Real Place) – A philosophy that reminds us Rightsizing – Making equipment the right size for the flow to move out of our offices an d spend time on the plant of work, so that batch flow is not necessary. floor – the place where re al action occurs. It promotes Root cause analysis (five whys) – A problem solving meth- a deep and thorough understanding of real - world manu- odology that focuses on resolving the und erlying problem facturing issues – by first - hand observation and by talk- instead of applying quick fixes that only treat immediate ing with plant floor employees. symptoms of the problem. Go for gemba (wherever the Heijunka (levelling) – A form of production scheduling problem is occurring) and a common approach is to ask that purposely manufac tures in much smaller batches by why five times, each time moving a step closer to discov- sequencing (mixing) product variants within the same ering the true under lying problem. process. It r educes lead times (since each product or vari- Single piece flow – Products are made one by one instead of ant is manufactured more frequently) and inventory in batches. Reduces inventories, reworking and scrap (be- (since batches are smaller). cause mistakes are caught after only a few products have Jidoka (Autonomation) – To design equipment to partial- been made wrongly rather than a whole batch), handling, ly automate the manufacturing process (partial automa- errors in i dentification. tion is typically much less expensive than full automa- Six Sigma – Under this tool statistical analysis is availed to tion) and to automatically stop when defects are detected. find ways to improve process capability. After Jidoka, workers can frequently monitor multiple SMED ( Single - minute exchange of dies) – Reduce setup statio ns (reducing labor costs) and many quality issues (changeover) time to less than 10 minutes.