How to implement lean production in mold manufacturing industry

The first step: consciousness guidance, training first.

Lean production regards all activities that cannot add value in production as waste. Emphasize the role of people, give full play to their potential, and eliminate waste through continuous improvement. Therefore, in the first step of implementation, all employees should be trained in consciousness, from general manager and deputy general manager to operators and porters, and the training content should include "competition". The concept of waste. Drive production, 5S, team improvement, total equipment management. Total quality management ". Only on the basis of all employees' understanding and basic recognition of lean production can it be smoothly promoted.

Step 2: Set up the project leader and implementation team.

Many enterprises will establish a lean production organization when implementing lean production, some are called "lean production Committee" and some are called "improvement organization". Generally speaking, the general manager should be the person in charge of the lean organization, and some enterprises also list the deputy general manager in charge of the factory as the person in charge. The organization shall include the heads of production management department, manufacturing department, production technology department, quality department and other relevant departments, and establish the improvement responsibilities of the heads.

Plans for implementing lean production should be made, including systematic implementation plan, annual plan and monthly plan. The plan should include the project, analysis, responsible person, completion time, etc. , and record according to PDCA.

The third step: improve the demonstration line, reflect the results, and establish and improve the model area.

Any improvement is based on good expectations. In order for employees to truly accept the change, we must see the actual results. Many lean tools need to be implemented in the actual process to interpret their advantages. Lean production has been implemented for 3 to 6 months. When 5s has achieved initial results, you can choose a production line for demonstration and improvement. Some enterprises improve the demonstration line, which is called "object line improvement" or "small-scale improvement". The content of improvement should use lean tools as much as possible. When selecting the demonstration line for improvement, the line of the assembly line should be selected, and the state before improvement should be carefully confirmed, including: list of finished products and used parts, layout diagram of current layout, flow chart of current materials and information, C/T time survey of current project, inventory survey along the line, and delivery. Improvement should be gradual, and the person in charge of everything should be determined. Also pay attention to the use of brainstorming, brainstorming. The improved information should be released to the improvement team members in time to ensure synchronization and smooth cooperation. The person in charge of the improvement team should confirm the progress of improvement every day. Improvement depends on the statistics and release of results, so that all employees can feel the benefits of lean production.

Step 4: On-site improvement, starting from 5S.

5S is five steps to improve the site environment, specifically: sorting, rectifying, sweeping, cleaning and literacy. Lean production, starting with improving the site environment, cleans up some unnecessary products on the site by sorting, and reduces the occupation of space; Through rectification, the on-site items are placed in an orderly manner and easy to access; Through cleaning, the site becomes clean and the equipment is maintained in time; Through continuous inspection and rectification, employees can form the habit of maintenance and update various forms in time, thus maintaining a good site environment and improving production efficiency and product quality. Lean production starts from 5s. On the one hand, under the activity of 5S, the site became orderly and reduced some obvious waste phenomena. On the other hand, through the participation of leaders, employees can understand the management's determination to improve and raise the awareness of all employees.

Step 5: Select the key processes that need to be improved.

Lean production mode is not achieved overnight, it emphasizes continuous improvement. First of all, we should choose the key process and strive to establish it as a template line.

Step 5: Draw a value flow chart.

Value stream diagram is a method to describe logistics and information flow. In the value flow chart, the box represents each production process, the triangular box represents the WIP inventory between each process, various icons represent different logistics and information flows, and the dotted line connecting the information system and the production process indicates that the information system is sorting the production processes, and so on.

After drawing the current value flow chart, you can draw a lean future lean.

In this process, more icons are used to represent continuous processes, various types of pulling systems, balanced production and shortened tool replacement time. The production cycle is subdivided into value-added time and non-value-added time.

Step 6: Conduct an improvement seminar.

Lean vision must be put into practice, otherwise, no matter how cleverly planned the chart, it is just a piece of waste paper. What (what), when (what) and who are responsible for the implementation plan, and set up review nodes during the implementation process. In this way, all employees participate in the whole productive maintenance system.

Under the guidance of value flow chart and lean vision chart, each independent improvement project in the process has been given a new meaning, which makes employees very clear about the significance of implementing the project.

There are several ways to improve the production process:

(1) Eliminate quality inspection and rework.

If the product quality can be guaranteed 100% from the design scheme to the whole production line, the phenomenon of quality inspection and rework will naturally become redundant. Therefore, the idea of "error prevention" must run through the whole production process, that is to say, the quality problem has been considered from the beginning of product design, so as to ensure that every product can only be processed and installed in the correct way, thus avoiding possible errors in the production process.

Eliminating rework is mainly to reduce waste. Pay close attention to various phenomena (such as equipment, personnel, materials and operation methods, etc.). ) produce waste products, find out the root cause, and then solve it completely.

(2) Eliminate unnecessary parts movement

Unreasonable production layout is the root cause of parts moving back and forth. In the workshop organized by process specialization, parts often need to move back and forth between several workshops, which makes the production line long, the production cycle long, takes up a lot of WIP inventory and has high production cost. By changing this unreasonable layout, the equipment needed to produce products is arranged according to the processing sequence, and it is as compact as possible, which is conducive to shortening the transportation route, eliminating unnecessary parts movement and unreasonable material movement, and saving production time.

(3) Eliminate inventory

In lean enterprises, inventory is considered as the biggest waste, because it will cover up many problems in production, increase the inertia of workers, and even worse, it will take up a lot of money, so treating inventory as an emergency solution to production and sales is like quenching thirst with poison.

A powerful measure to reduce inventory is to change "mass production and queuing supply" into "one piece flow". In the process of single-piece production, basically only one production piece flows between each working procedure, and the whole production process keeps flowing forever with the progress of single-piece production process.

Ideally, there is no WIP inventory between adjacent processes. Of course, it is actually impossible. In some cases, considering the handover time of two adjacent processes, a certain amount of WIP inventory must be maintained. The concept and method of eliminating inventory in lean production are similar to those of JIT in just-in-time production. Please refer to the related contents in the previous chapter.

(4) Reasonable arrangement of production plan

From the perspective of production management, a balanced production plan can give full play to the efficiency of the production system. It is necessary to arrange the work plan and personnel reasonably to avoid the workload of a process being too high and too low for a while.

In the process of uninterrupted continuous production, it is also necessary to balance each process in the production unit, and the time required to complete each process is roughly the same, so that each process or group of processes is consistent with the production time of a single product on the production line (Tact

Time). The production time of a single product is the production time needed to meet the needs of users, and it can also be considered as the rhythm or rhythm of the market. Strictly according to wit

When time organizes production, the inventory of finished products will be minimized.

(5) reduce production preparation time

The general method to reduce the production preparation time is to do all the preparation activities carefully before starting the machine to eliminate all kinds of hidden dangers that may occur in the production process. It includes:

(1) List each element or step of the production preparation procedure;

(2) Identify which factors are internal (need to stop and deal with); What are external factors (which can be handled in the production process)

③ Try to change the internal cause and external cause;

(4) Use industrial engineering methods to improve technology, straighten out all internal and external factors that affect production preparation, and improve efficiency.

(6) Eliminate downtime

Eliminating downtime is of great significance to maintain continuous production, because there is little inventory between two processes in the process of continuous production, and if the machine breaks down, the whole production line will be paralyzed. The most powerful measure to eliminate downtime is total production maintenance.

Productive maintenance includes daily maintenance, predictive maintenance, preventive maintenance and immediate maintenance.

① Daily maintenance: The daily maintenance activities carried out by operators and maintenance workers require regular maintenance of the machine.

② Predictive maintenance: use measurement and analysis technology to predict potential failures, so as to ensure that production equipment will not lose time due to machine failures. Its significance lies in taking precautions and preventing problems before they happen.

③ Preventive maintenance: Prepare files for each machine and record all maintenance plans and records. Make a thorough and strict maintenance of every part of the machine, and replace the parts in time to ensure that the machine does not have unexpected faults. The goal of total production maintenance is not to stop. In order to achieve this goal, we must devote ourselves to eliminating the root causes of faults, not just dealing with routine maintenance tasks.

④ Immediate maintenance: When a fault occurs, the maintenance personnel should be on call, on call and handle it in time.

(7) Improve the utilization rate of labor force.

Improving the utilization rate of labor force includes two aspects, one is to improve the utilization rate of direct labor force, the other is to improve the utilization rate of indirect labor force.

The key to improve the utilization rate of direct labor is to cross-train operators, so that one person can be responsible for the operation of multiple machines, and the operators on the production line can adapt to any type of work on the production line. Cross-training gives workers great flexibility and is conducive to the coordination and handling of abnormal problems in the production process.

Another way to improve the utilization rate of direct labor is to install automatic detection devices on production equipment. The production process is closely monitored by automatic detection devices from beginning to end. Once there is any abnormal situation in the production process, it will give an alarm or stop automatically. These automatic inspection equipments have replaced the activities of quality inspection workers to a certain extent, eliminated the causes of quality problems, greatly reduced the rework phenomenon, and naturally improved the utilization rate of labor.

The utilization rate of indirect labor is mainly to eliminate indirect labor. From the point of view of product value chain, the manpower and material resources consumed by inventory, inspection and rework can not increase the value of products, so these labors are usually regarded as indirect labor. If the indirect activities that can't add value in the product value chain are eliminated, the indirect costs caused by these indirect activities will be significantly reduced and the labor utilization rate will be improved accordingly. Measures that are conducive to improving the utilization rate of direct labor can also improve the indirect labor rate.

Step 7: Create a corporate culture that supports lean production.

Although the significant improvement of workshop site can bring a series of subsequent corporate culture changes, it is obviously unrealistic to assume that positive cultural changes can be automatically established and promoted because of the improvement of workshop layout and production and operation mode.

In fact, the change of culture is ten times more difficult than the improvement of production site, and both of them should be completed and complement each other. The implementation experience of many projects proves that the key to the success of the project is that the company leaders should combine the improvement of production methods with the evolution of corporate culture. There is no doubt that it is necessary for the company's vice-president level management to listen to the voices of the grassroots at the production site and encourage the ongoing improvement activities.

The transformation from traditional enterprises to lean production can not be completed simply by adopting the corresponding "Kanban" tools and advanced production management technology, but must change the concept of all employees. Lean production was born in Japan, not the United States, precisely because the corporate cultures of the two countries are very different.

Step 8: Promote all employees and pay attention to implementation.

The implementation of lean production is not only a process of learning and applying various lean tools, but also a process of continuous participation and continuous improvement by all employees, and it is also a process of forming the improvement habits of all employees. Therefore, the promotion of lean production should be to let all functional departments of the enterprise actively learn and cooperate with the use of lean production tools, such as: production management, manufacturing and logistics departments should cooperate with each other to promote production, equipment departments should implement full equipment management, change molds in one minute, quality departments should implement total quality management, and so on. The department responsible for promoting lean production should improve the demonstration line according to the system planning, and at the same time do a good job in guiding and supporting the key improvement.

Step 9: Promote to the whole company.

Lean production uses various industrial engineering technologies to eliminate waste and pays attention to the whole production process, not just one or several processes. Therefore, the success of the sample line should be extended to the whole company, which can shorten the operation process and push the production system to be replaced by the customer-oriented pull production system.

Step 10: Continuous improvement

Lean production is a never-ending process of pursuing perfection. It is committed to improving the production process and every working procedure in the process, eliminating all activities in the value chain that cannot add value as much as possible, improving the utilization rate of labor force, eliminating waste, and minimizing inventory while producing according to customer orders.

The transformation from traditional enterprises to lean enterprises can't be completed overnight, it needs to pay a certain price, and sometimes unexpected problems will appear, so that those who are keen on traditional production methods and skeptical about lean production can cite one reason or another to refute it. However, those enterprises that are determined to take the lean road can recover all the transformation costs within six months, and some even enjoy the benefits brought by lean production in less than three months.