Sustainable Maritime Transportation and Exploitation of Sea Resources – Rizzuto & Guedes Soares (eds) © 2012 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-0-415-62081-9 Can a shipyard work towards lean shipbuilding or agile manufacturing? D.A. Moura Federal University of ABC, São Paulo, Brazil R.C. Botter University of São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil ABSTRACT: Lean production is regarded by many as simply an enhancement of mass production methods, whereas agility implies breaking out of the mass-production mould and producing much more highly customized products—where the customer wants them in any quantity. In a product line context, it amounts to striving for economies of scope, rather than economies of scale ideally serving ever-smaller niche markets, even quantities of one, without the high cost traditionally associated with customization. A lean company may be thought of as a very productive and cost efficient producer of goods or services. 1 INTRODUCTION − Driving, which adds no value to the product; − Defects, which burden the productive process 1.1 Toytota Production System (TPS) generating rework, wasted of time, manpower, Since the conception of the assembly line and the hours of equipment etc. following development of the Toyota Production System (TPS), efficiency has been a central objec- 1.2 Agile Manufacturing tive of manufacturing. Lean manufacturing According to Yusuf et al. (1999) agility can be focuses on the systematic elimination of wastes summarized as the use of well-known developed from an organization’s operations through a set technologies and manufacturing methods. Among of synergistic work practices to produce products them there are Lean Manufacturing, CIM, TQM, and services at the rate of demand. Lean manu- MRP II, BPR, Employee Empowerment and OPT. facturing represents a multifaceted concept that In other words agility is the ability to grow business in may be grouped together as distinct bundles of competitive markets of continuous and unexpected organizational practices. A list of bundles of changes, with rapid response aimed at the consumer/ lean practices includes JIT, total quality manage- customer valuing the product and service. ment, total preventative maintenance, and human resource management, pull, flow, low setup, con- − CIM (Computer Integrating Manufacturing); trolled processes, productive maintenance and − TQM (Total Quality Management); involved employees. Lean manufacturing is as a set − MRP II (Manufacturing Resources Planning); of practices focused on reduction of wastes and − BPR (Business Process Reengineering); non-value added activities from a firm’s manufac- − OPT (Optimized Production Technology). turing operations (Yang et al., 2011). Agile can be describe as ‘‘Ability of an organiza- The base of the Toyota Production System (TPS) tion to detect changes (which can be opportunities is to eliminate waste in the system. Therefore work or threats or a combination of both) in its busi- philosophy and a few techniques/tools were inserted ness environment and hence providing focused and in the day-to-day organization to achieve such goal. rapid responses to its customers and stakehold- The seven types of waste recommended that ers by reconfiguring its resources, processes and should be eliminated in TPS are: strategies” (Mathiyakalan, et al., 2005). − Overproduction An effective integration of response ability − Transport, which adds no value to the product and knowledge management in order to rapidly, − Process, transactions that should not exist efficiently and accurately adapt to any unexpected − Waiting time, intermediate stock which gener- (or unpredictable) change in both proactive and ates queue in the process reactive business/customer needs and opportunities − Stock, throughout the production process, sup- without compromising with the cost or the quality ply chain and finished products of the product/process (Ganguly et al., 2009). 559 ‘‘Ability of a firm to dynamically modify and/or − Efficiency and effectiveness in lean operations reconfigure individual business processes to accom- − Internal and external cooperation modate required and potential needs of the firm” − Integration. (Raschke, David, 2005). Ability of a firm to redesign their existing proc- In Flexibility (ability to process different esses rapidly and create new processes in a timely products and achieve different goals with the same fashion in order to be able to take advantage and manufacturing plant): thrive of the unpredictable and highly dynamic − Flexibility in the volume of products; market conditions (Sambamurthy et al., 2003). − Flexibility in product models; ‘‘The ability of a firm to excel simultaneously − Organizational flexibility; on operations capabilities of quality, delivery, − Flexible people. flexibility and cost in a coordinated fashion’’ (Menor et al., 2001). In Quickness (ability to deal with tasks and The Lean Manufacturing system aims to reduce operations in a shorter time). the lead time for obtaining the components/parts, − Short time to insert new products in the market subsets etc. related to the supply chain, to reduce − Fast delivery of products and services time of production/processing, to run the process/ − Fast transaction time operation without faults (do it right at the first time) and to eliminate or minimize stocks with Agile manufacturing encompasses both the high control over the operations, on-time deliv- concepts of lean and flexible. Also that lean eries, increased productivity with efficiency in manufacturing is primarily concerned with mini- operations (Shingo). mization (if not elimination) of waste through Research conducted by Iaccoca Institute, an efficient production process (Ganguly, et al., Lehigh University, in USA resulted in a report 2009). about agility manufacturing. New criteria are Agile manufacturing means that the production (Sharifi, Zhang, 1999): process must be able to respond quickly to changes in information from the market This requires lead − Constant changes time compression in terms of flow of information − Fast response and material, and the ability, at short notice, to − Improved quality change to a wide variety of products Therefore, − Social responsibility. the ability to rapidly reconfigure a the production process is essential. In lean manufacturing the Thus, an agile manufacturing company must ability to change products quickly is also key as have a broad view of new needs in the business envi- any time wasted in changing over to a new prod- ronment, skill and ability to deal with turbulence uct is muda and therefore should be eliminated and gain competitive advantage in its businesses. (Naylor et al., 1999). The four main categories to be an organization To summarize these two characteristics agile in a rapidly changing environment are: manufacturing calls for a high level of rapid recon- In Fast Response (ability to identify changes and figuration and will eliminate as much waste as pos- promote rapid responses of reactive and proactive sible but does not emphasise the elimination of all manner): waste as a prerequisite. Lean manufacturing states − Sensitivity to anticipate market changes that all non-value adding activities, or muda, must − Immediate reaction to changes and insert them be eliminated (Naylor et al., 1999). into the system Agile manufacturing further requires an all − Absorbing changes. encompassing view, whereas lean production is typically associated only with the factory floor. In Competence (a set of abilities that produces Agility further embodies such concepts as rapid higher productivity, efficiency and effectiveness in formation of multi-company alliances or vir- operations and processes to the tasks to achieve tual companies to introduce new products to the the goals set by company): market. An agile company is primarily character- − Have strategic vision ised as a very fast and efficient learning organisa- − appropriate technologies or enough technologi- tion if it was not first productive and cost efficient cal ability (Sharp et al., 1999). − Quality of products and services In agile manufacturing, the main features shall − Efficiency in costs be (Yusuf et al., 1999): − High rate of introduction of new products − High quality products and highly customized − People are trained, certified and involved with − Products and services with high added value the process. − Mobilization of key competences. 560 − Commitment to social and environmental matters − ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning); − Responding to change and uncertainty − EDI (Electronic Data Interchange) − Intern Integration and between companies. Systems: Systems Design 2 THE ENABLERS OF AGILE Several techniques and systems are addressed in MANUFACTURING the literature that support the agile systems design: CAD/CAM, rapid prototyping and QFD are some The enablers of Agile Manufacturing are the strat- examples. Regarding the project support systems egies, systems, technologies, methodologies and for Agile Manufacturing, some jobs are worth tools that allow the company to become agile. For highlighting: better understanding, these enablers are classified − QFD (Quality Function Deployment) based on its focus. This classification groups the − Planning and Control Systems enablers of Agile Manufacturing, according to the − Integration of management systems and database. focus on four categories: People − Strategies: Virtual enterprise/virtual manu- − Continuous improvement facturing − Virtual enterprise is a temporary aggregation Commitment of senior