Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3500 words

Essay Example The seven wastes include motion; transportation; waiting time; overproduction; inventory; processing time; and defects. Other common wastes are energy; untapped human resources; and by-products. Motion and transport are related to layout; organisation; and engineering. Waste arises as motion and transport does not always result in useful work. In the current case study, motion and transportation includes rearrangement of storage areas that are temporary before and after manufacture or product components; and movement associated with searching fixtures, jigs, tools, equipment, materials, etc. Movement allows an opportunity for product damage during handling and movement; poor space utilisation – large distances between stages or large gangways or storage areas; higher labour cost from low productivity; large batches waiting for transport – large inventories, long leadtimes, low responsiveness. Waiting time, overproduction and inventory are related to scheduling; setups; communication; quality; skills; reward systems; breakdowns; and layout. Waiting time could be caused by material; machine; or labour. Lack of material could be caused by scrap; breakdown; poor schedule; or poor supplier. Machine unavailability could be caused by breakdown; setups; large batches; or unavailability of tools, jigs, fixtures, etc. Skills shortage, absenteeism, or operating or supervising more than one machine could cause skill shortage. Overproduction could be a case of too much or too early. Too much is when there is more production than needed. This could be caused by setups that are long, improper scheduling for EOQ, or inadequate design of processes. Too early includes production earlier than required. This could be caused by lack of machine capability, subcontracting of operations, long in-process delays, or long leadtimes. Overproduction could also be caused by unbalanced material flow; cushion storage; safety storage; and lot delays.