Become Lean with glovia.com

By Quentin Brearley, Director of Product Management

While one of the central tenants of lean is the systematic identification and elimination of waste, many manufacturers struggle with exactly how to accomplish this. Lean practitioners have developed a supporting system of ten Technical Elements that are required to eliminate operations waste. These technical elements are the essential building blocks for a lean organization that allow companies to map, analyze, and improve their operations systematically.

Leading extended ERP solutions, like glovia.com, have been used successfully to enable the Lean Technical Elements and speed lean transformations. The following are the Ten Lean Technical Elements, their description, and the glovia.com capabilities that enable them:

(For a summary of this information please see the chart at the end of this article.)

• 5S's
• Visual Control
• Standardized Work
• Set-up Reduction and TPM
• Cellular Production
• Mistake Proofing
• Takt Time
• Continuous Flow
• Leveled Production
• Pull System

The 5S's
One of the most visible aspects of lean is the creation of a more organized and efficient workspace. This is made possible through a set of manual disciples called the 5S's:

• Sort — only having what is needed in a work area
• Straighten — organize work area
• Shine — clean work area
• Schedule — standardize the first three steps
• Sustain — practice and repeat the 5S's disciplines.

Visual Control
The hallmark of visual control is the intuitive use of visual signals to enable any employee to know what is going on, understand any process, and see clearly what is being done correctly and what is not.

While visual signals are an effective way to trigger activities and the movement of materials, they have no "memory." They cannot be used to show historical performance — an essential requirement for continuous improvement. Companies, however, by coupling visual controls with real-time data collection, can capture the information they need for analysis, monitoring, and accounting purposes.

glovia.com supports visual control by helping manufacturers to capture the critical information behind signals in real-time so they can be analyzed. The solution also provides companies with visibility into line loading and timelines for jobs, which makes it easy for managers to see the status of their operations.

Standardized Work
Standardized work is the creation and documentation of clearly defined operations for workers and machines. This allows companies to apply best practices to their operations consistently and provides a foundation for continuous improvement.

ERP systems, by serving as a central repository for information related to standardized work (e.g., Bill-of-Materials, process routings, valid configurations, costs, etc.), can play a critical role in helping companies get lean.

Glovia supports standardized work through glovia.com, which allows manufacturers to create and share standardized processes, procedures, and even diagrams and photos easily. glovia.com also provides robust capabilities for managing complex and evolving Bills-of-Materials, routings and even costs.

Set-Up Reduction and TPM
Since lean requires manufacturers to produce only to customer demand, it requires them to make products in smaller and smaller lot sizes. This, in turn, creates a need to reduce setup and changeover times throughout the manufacturing process. Lean also requires companies to adopt Total Productive Maintenance (TPM), the goal of which is to eliminate machine-related accidents, defects and breakdowns that sap efficiency and drain productivity on the factory floor.

Manufacturers can reduce setup times and minimize the changeovers required to meet customer demand by leveraging constraint-based planning systems available with more advanced ERP systems, like glovia.com.

Glovia's extended ERP solution also allows for the real-time monitoring of factory floor activities, which provides manufacturers with the critical status information required to prepare for and execute changeovers. This status capability can be used to monitor machinery and equipment and instantly communicate the completion of jobs or critical events, such as breakdowns.

Cellular Production
Another essential technical element of lean is the creation of manufacturing cells to replace traditional, linear production lines. Manufacturing cells help companies produce products in smaller lot sizes, ensure a more continuous flow, and improve product quality.

While workflow within a production cell is managed through physical signals, the design of the cell and its scheduling (loading) can be supported with information technology. ERP systems can be used to improve materials management within a production cell, such as backflushing, planning and even electronic Kanban signaling, as well as be used to provide real-time monitoring and visibility.

glovia.com supports cellular production by linking operational and sequencing steps. This allows companies to remove the linearity of their manufacturing processes, which reduces steps and flattens BoMs. The solution also supports flow manufacturing with pull-based materials replenishment capabilities and real-time data collection.

Mistake Proofing
As continual improvement is one of the primary concepts behind lean, mistake proofing, or "poka-yoke," is an essential activity. The objective of mistake proofing is either to prevent the cause of defects or ensure that no defective items reach downstream processes.

glovia.com can help prevent product defects from occurring in the first place by making standardized processes, critical documentation, and other quality information available to production personnel. The solution includes a monitoring system that can instantly flag defect-related issues, alert downstream workers and activities, and record information for later analysis.

glovia.com also includes a rate-based scheduling capability that can be used to stop production within manufacturing cells, allowing workers to identify and correct mistakes and quickly reschedule and restart production. This also allows companies to backflush selectively for items and components affected by defects.

Takt Time
In a lean factory, takt time defines the speed of the manufacturing line and the cycle time for all manufacturing operations based on customer demand. As the "pacemaker" of a lean system, takt time is essential to the smooth flow of work through production cells and is a key factor in planning and scheduling work.

Since takt time depends on variable customer demand, manufacturers require an effective way to account for and smooth that demand when calculating takt time. Glovia helps calculate takt time because it allows manufacturers to account for end-product customer demand and then explode that demand into item-level demand for related feeder production lines. glovia.com also helps account for use problems associated with routing to improve the calculation of takt time.

Continuous Flow
In lean, continuous flow is properly designed manufacturing lines or cells that are planned and loaded according to takt time and that operate smoothly through the use of visual controls and mistake-proof procedures. Flow pulls materials from external supplier or internal feeder operations through a synchronized manufacturing process to satisfy end customer demand.

To support continuous flow, ERP systems must provide a rate-based scheduling and execution application that helps maintain takt time throughout all operations and that does not require work orders or other paperwork. glovia.com's ability to support high-volume, rate-based manufacturing operations makes it an ideal solution to enable continuous flow operations. The solution adjusts operations by accounting for changes in flow rates, variable demand, and more without the need of work orders. Further, glovia.com supports pull techniques for managing materials based on actual consumption and can issue electronic kanban signals.

Leveled Production
Leveled production, known as "heijunka" in Japanese, involves producing products in a specific sequence to overcome queuing and line stoppage problems associated with lean manufacturing. Leveled production means that production cycle times at individual work stations or production cells are coordinated — via takt time and customer demand — so that work moves continuously and smoothly throughout the entire manufacturing process.

glovia.com's advanced planning functionality allows manufacturers to sequence blocks of work as one unit and functions as a "shock absorber" for variable demand, minimizing the impact on flow and cellular production. This functionality also ensures the proper release of work and the assignment of tasks to maintain level production throughout the factory and synchronize the production of sub-assemblies.

Pull System
The ultimate goal in lean is to transform manufacturing operations into a pull-based system where the flow of materials is controlled by replacing only what has been actually consumed. Pull systems are an essential element in demand-driven manufacturing. Also known as kanban, pull systems ensure that production and material requirements are based on actual customer demand rather than inaccurate forecasting tools.

glovia.com allows companies to become demand-driven by managing materials based on consumption using advanced kanban signaling capabilities. The advanced planning system helps smooth demand for items with highly variable demand and also provides a real-time monitoring and feedback system that synchronizes operations and triggers the movement of materials.

glovia.com Support for Lean Technical Elements