Adapting Lean for High-Mix, Low-Volume Manufacturing Environments

Description

There are thousands of high-mix, low-volume (HMLV) manufacturers whose factories forge, injection mold, fabricate and machine hundreds -- sometimes thousands -- of parts with different manufacturing routings.  Their manufacturing environments simply do not match those of Toyota, Boeing, or Ford because they are jobshops and do not produce their products on assembly lines.

So how does one adopt and adapt Lean for jobshops and other HMLV environments?  The secret lies in integrating two manufacturing strategies -- group technology and cellular manufacturing.  This strategy was first implemented in the 1960s by Serck Audco Valves, a British company, and thereafter used by numerous other small and medium British enterprises.

JobshopLean uses production flow analysis to identify part families that exist in the product mix of any jobshop.  Knowledge of the part families is used to re-organize the jobshop into autonomous flexible manufacturing cells to the extent possible.  Efforts to (1) break those constraints and (2) develop the systems and practices to implement and sustain the feasible cells constitute the basis for driving the continuous improvement efforts of the company.

During this webinar you'll:

• Learn why Lean in a high-mix, low-volume environment should not imitate the popular approach used in low-mix high-volume environments
• Find out whether or not your manufacturing facility is suited for JobshopLean
• See how the core element of the JobshopLean methodology -- flexible manufacturing cells -- was implemented in a forgings manufacturing facility, and the results that facility achieved
• Receive guidance on what steps to take after you have identified (or failed to identify) the part families in your product mix

Speakers

Dr. Shahrukh A. Irani
Director of IE Research
Hoerbiger Corporation of America, Inc.

Dr. Shahrukh A. Irani is the Director of IE Research at Hoerbiger Corporation of America, Inc. (HCA), Houston, TX.  In his current position, he undertakes pilot projects in one or both HCA plants in Pompano Beach, FL, and Houston, TX, to assess new and innovative IE practices for high-mix low-volume manufacturing that could benefit one or both HCA plants.  Based on the viability of the practices that emerge from these projects, he advises and assists the Hoerbiger plants to adopt those that fit their business model, manufacturing environment and workforce culture.

Prior to this current position, Irani had been an Associate Professor in the Department of Integrated Systems Engineering at The Ohio State University from 1996-2012.  There he developed the JobshopLean methodology for high-mix, low-volume  small and medium enterprises. Also, he is the inventor of the PFAST (Production Flow Analysis and Simplification Toolkit) software that facilitates the implementation of Lean in jobshops.

In 1995-96, he worked in industry on a Faculty Internship that was partially supported by the Grant Opportunities for Academic Liaison program of the National Science Foundation.  He is the Editor of the Handbook of Cellular Manufacturing Systems published in 1999 by John Wiley.  In 1996, he was voted Young Engineer of the Year by the Minnesota Federation of Engineering Societies and the Minneapolis Chapter of the Institute of Industrial Engineers. Dr. Irani served as the Director of the Facilities Planning and Design division of the Institute of Industrial Engineers for 1999-2001 and 2001-2003.

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