The Newsletter of Lean Manufacturing Strategy
Building The Big Stuff |
Manufacturing Strategy for Planes, Trains , Boilers, etc. |
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Kansas City |
20 MAR 2015 |
Issue# 90 |
Kansas City 20 MAR 2015
During World War II, Henry Kaiser's shipyard could build an entire Liberty ship in 4.5 days. So why should it take months to build a pressure vessel, power transformer or switchgear station? Or weeks to overhaul a rail car?
Large, often unique products present unique challenges for manufacturing. Many of the Lean techniques practiced at Toyota simply do not apply. In the past year we have worked with the manufacturers of several such products and identified certain principles can help in planning processes and arranging factories for these situations.
Application of these principles can lead to:
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It starts with a simple exercise that demonstrates the advantages of concentrating resources on just a few jobs at any one time. This exercise, however, raises multiple objections and problems. Just as quality problems should be addressed at their source, such difficulties should be addressed at a fundamental level. Some of the topics we discuss are:
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Check out the pages on Building the Big Stuff or download the entire series in a PDF file. If your products are big, bulky and expensive, you will find these pages intriguing.
We also offer training and facilitating in Manufacturing Strategy. Please feel free to call me at the number below to explore the possibilities.
Best Regards,
Quarterman Lee
816-931-1414
