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PReducing Production Cost Whilst Increasing Efficiency with Toyota Production System
Tariq Ahmad Khan
Head, Marketing Planning Dept, Toyota, Pakistan
PTariq.ahmad@toyota.indus.com
(1) INTRODUCTION
With the opening of world market, the Pakistani industries cannot afford the luxury of producing
products not compatible with that of the foreign products. The presence of globally competitive
firms and the continuous innovations in the market has given a new impetus to the competition
and the quality standards. The Pakistani manufacturing industries operating in areas not having
good infrastructure and uncertain environments, are suffering on account of high cost of
production, due to high inventory levels, high cycle times and the enormous wastage. It is high
time that the manufacturers should try some innovative and new manufacturing
strategies/techniques.
Lean manufacturing can be one of the answers thus enabling them to cut down the cost of
product by reducing the ‘waste’ as the waste has been the bane of manufacturing sector both
inside and between the companies. However, intensive training, high motivational levels, strong
commitment and, perhaps, some organizational changes will be required for implementing the
lean manufacturing concepts.
This chapter, which culminates our sincere efforts in having attempted to understand some
aspects of lean manufacturing/TOYOTA Production System spotlights few basic techniques
businesses can carry out to grow and be competitive in the future. And that is really the name of
the game, growth and competitiveness in a dramatically changing market place.
(2) RISE OF TOYOTA AS LEAN MANUFACTURING
Today TOYOTA is the most efficient and highest quality producer of motor vehicles in the world.
In the late 1930`s the company entered the motor vehicle industry, specializing in trucks for
military. Before the war it had barely gone to few prototype cars with crafts method. After the
war, TOYOTA was determined to go to full-scale car and commercial trucks manufacturing, but it
faced a host of problem particularly the problem in out side the world there was a huge motor
vehicle producers who were ready to define their established market against Japanese export.
TOYOTA chief production engineer, Tiichi Ohno (1912-1990) quickly realized that employing old
(European) tools and method of mass production was not suited to this strategy. He knew he
needed a new approach, and he found it when he visited a U.S. auto plant to Learn American
production method just after the world war-2.
Ohno soon discovered during his visit in U.S. that their whole system was filled with muda (the
Japanese term use for waste) that encompasses wasted effort, material, and time.
Ohno begin to experiment when he came to his country the first step was to group workers into
team with a team leader (who would do assembly task as well as coordinate the team and would
fill in for any absent worker) rather than a fore man, who would not perform assembly task him
self but insured that the line workers followed order.
The team were given a set of assembly steps, their piece of line, and told to work together on
how best to perform the necessary operation, and next he gave the job of house keeping, minor
"Reducing Production Cost Whilst Increasing Efficiency with TPS
tools, and quality checking and finally at last after the team running smoothly, he set time aside
periodically for the team to suggest ways collectively to improve the process i.e. Kaizen,
Japanese word for continuous improvement.
In contrast to the mass production, where stopping the line was the responsibility of senior line
manager, Ohno placed a card above every work station and instructed workers to stop the whole
assembly line immediately if a problem emerged that hey couldn’t fix then the whole team would
come over to work on the problem this logic eliminates the rework area.
The greatest testament to Ohno ideas lies in the quality of the cars actually delivered to the
consumer. American buyers report that Toyota `s vehicles have among the lowest number of
defects of any in the world , comparable to the very best of German luxury car producers, who
devote many hours of assembly plant effort to rectification.
(3) DIFFUSING LEAN MANUFACTURING
The table 2 summarizes world wide performance of the volume producers at the assembly plant
level in addition to productivity and quality. In particular, it is striking to note the difference
between average Japanese performance and the average in North America and Europe in terms
of the size of repair area needed, the fraction of workers organized into teams, the number of
suggestions received and the amount of training given new assembly workers.
"Reducing Production Cost Whilst Increasing Efficiency with TPS
Performance
Layout
Work Force
Automation
• Clearly identify the areas which add and do not add value to the product from the
customer’s point of view and not from the prospective of individual firms, functions and
departments.
• Identify all the steps necessary to design order and produce the product across the
whole value stream to highlight non-value adding waste.
• Listing of those action that create value flow without interpretation, detours, back flows,
waiting or scrap.
• Only make what is pulled by the customer.
• Strive for perfection by continually removing successive layers of waste, as they are
uncovered.
The term Lean is very apt because in Lean Manufacturing the emphasis is to cut out the
"fat" or waste in the manufacturing process.
“Waste is defined as anything that does not add value to the customer. It could also be
defined as anything the customer is unwilling to pay for”.
Obviously a product that cannot be sold or has to be dumped at a reduced price is wasteful. Also
producing product before the customer needs it requires the part to be stored and ties up money
in inventory.
2. I nv e n t ory
Excess Inventory ties up a great deal of cash, which is wasteful. Stockpiling inventory between
processes is wasteful.
3. C o nv e ya nc e
Unnecessarily moving a part during the production process is wasteful. It can also cause damage
to the part, which creates wasteful rework.
4. C o rr ec t i on
Having to re-work parts because of manufacturing errors is a large source of waste. Additionally,
sorting and inspecting parts is wasteful and can be eliminated by error proofing (design
processes so that the product can only be produced one way, which is the correct way, every
time).
5. M o t io n
Unnecessary or awkward operator motions put undue stress on the body and cause waste.
Improvement in this area should result in reduced injury and workman's compensation claims.
6. P r oc ess i ng
Unclear customer requirements cause the manufacturer to add unnecessary processes, which
add cost to the product.
7. Wa i t in g
"Reducing Production Cost Whilst Increasing Efficiency with TPS
The operator being idle between operations is wasteful. It is acceptable for the machine to wait
on the operator, but it is unacceptable for the operator to wait on the machine.
By eliminating waste one can do more with less.
The importance of Lean Manufacturing System is better comprehended when its impact of
change on economics is thoroughly understood. The manufacturing engineering philosophy is
pivoted on designing a manufacturing system that perfectly blends together the fundamentals of
minimizing cost and maximizing profit. These fundamentals are Man (Labor), Material and
Machines (Equipment) - called the 3Ms of manufacturing.
8. How does Lean Manufacturing differ from Traditional Manufacturing?
Traditional manufacturing is often called mass production or batch-and-queue (waiting in line)
production. In traditional manufacturing, similar processes are grouped together (paint, welding,
fabrication, etc.) and a large batch of parts is processed and then held in a queue waiting for the
next process. In this system a batch of parts is put through Process A and set aside. They are
then moved to the next area where Process B is done to the batch. The parts then wait in a pile
for the next process. After a while they are shifted to another area where Process C is completed
on the batch. This batch-and-queue process is continued until the part is completed and shipped.
At any given time there may be hundreds or even thousands of parts in various stages of
production. If we were to track a given part through its production, we would see that the part
was in production for possibly 48 hours from start to finish, but that the actual time that it was
being processed, or value was being added to it, was only 8 minutes. The rest of the time was
spent waiting for the next process or moving the part from Process A to Process B.
Another problem with the batch-and-queue system is when a defect occurs in Process B, but is
not discovered until Process C or later. If there are 500 parts in the batch affected by the defect,
then they all must be scrapped or reworked. This can add up to a great deal of waste.
Therefore the term Lean Manufacturing is a more generic term and refers to the general
principals and further developments of Lean.
c- Type of MUDA
The first is simple waste or obvious MUDA. This obvious MUDA is any step that is logically
unnecessary to carrying out the job, such things as waiting around rearranging materials, or
handling parts that are not needed right away. Such activities add no value at all to the final
product, or to the materials that go into it.
Next is the MUDA of incidental operations, work that must be done under present job conditions
but adds no value.
Leaving the workspace to get parts or tools, or taking time to unpack parts are examples of
incidental-operation MUDA.
The last type of activity consists of the truly necessary operations, which add to the value of the
materials. These are processing operations - changing the shape of something, changing its
quality or assembling it.
"Reducing Production Cost Whilst Increasing Efficiency with TPS
The higher the proportion of value-adding operations in the total work performed, the higher is
the level of production efficiency.
In fact, when we inspect actual job sites we find that MUDA is extremely prevailed and value-
adding operations are surprisingly small. MUDA is everywhere, and the effort to identify and
eliminate it, has led to the classification of MUDA into seven categories:
Producing sooner than necessary means parts must be stored, requiring storage space, someone
to handle them, and money to be tied up in carrying costs. This is considered bad even if the
item produced is needed later, because if items are produced too soon, we cannot know for sure
if they will truly be needed later or not.
Production should take with as little inventory as possible, preferable only the one component
that is to be processed or assembled next.
This involves a concept that runs contrary to traditional production management thinking: the
concept that it can be desirable to let machinery and people be idle from production duties if the
parts they produce or assemble are not needed right away as determined by the necessary
production volume which is based on sales.
e- Concept of Efficiency
Conventional approach
Traditional thinking has dictated that machinery and labor are expensive and should therefore be
utilized as close to 100% as possible. Also traditional thinking says that the more you produce,
the cheaper it is to produce. This may be true on a strictly cost-per-item basis, but fails to
account for fixed costs and materials cost adequately..
There are three variables to consider in approaching the problem of improving production
efficiency: manpower, equipment and materials. The traditional approach is to attempt to attain
maximum utilization of these three variables in the following order to descending priority:
1) machinery, 2) manpower and 3) materials. Attention to manpower and materials is given
under the traditional system only when maximum utilization of machinery has been attained.
Thus attention is finally turned to manpower after maximum machine use is reached. And
materials utilization is a poor third at best.
f-Toyota approach
Of course, Toyota also wants to achieve maximum machine utilization, and line capacities are
painstakingly designed to minimize excess capacity. However, machinery is only one of three
elements to consider when coordinating production runs and line capacities. At Toyota more
emphasis is placed on development of human resource and maximum materials utilization than in
a conventional system.
"Reducing Production Cost Whilst Increasing Efficiency with TPS
All the materials that go into manufacturing an automobile tie up huge amounts of money from
the time the material is purchased until the finished product is sold. In the automobile industry,
with thousands of expensive parts in each car, the interest that could be earned with this money,
were it not tied up in inventory, is tremendous.
Reducing the amount of lost earnings through cutting in-process inventory is a source of great
potential saving. This is a major aim of the Toyota Production System.
3- PILLARS OF T.P.S.
Two Pillars of the Toyota Production System are Just in Time and Jidoka. The entire system is
maintained by Kaizen and Standardized Work.
a- Just In Time
Just In Time refers to producing and conveying what is needed, when it is needed, in exactly the
amount needed. It attempts to manufacture with either no or an absolute minimum of in-process
inventory, resulting in shortened lead-time and tremendous savings in carrying costs.
Consider the case of a conventional production system. The 10,000 or so parts that go into an
automobile must be scheduled to be at the correct production process among hundreds of
processes in time for processing or attachment to the correct model. Months in advance a
detailed schedule is drawn up, distributed to suppliers, and production proceeds accordingly.
However, realistically speaking, it is virtually impossible for activities to always proceed according
to plan. The conditions underlying the plan between the time first conceived and when it actually
goes into production, are bound to change.
The pull system as accomplished by Kanban is the controlling mechanism that prevents over
production and assures prompt and accurate dissemination of information. The pull system with
continuous flow processing and Takt Time, shortens production lead-time and guarantees
synchronized processing throughout the entire automobile manufacturing process.
"Reducing Production Cost Whilst Increasing Efficiency with TPS
Kanban means “Signboard” in Japanese; at Toyota, it refers specifically to small cards which
carry production and delivery instructions from following to preceding production processes.
Takt time
Takt time is the time necessary to finish a given amount of work – doing a single operation,
making one component, or assembling an entire car. This time is determined on the basis of the
"Reducing Production Cost Whilst Increasing Efficiency with TPS
monthly production requirements, and the amount of operating time during the
month.
For example, let’s say that product “A” is selling at a rate of 10,000 a month. Based on twenty
operating days a month, then 500 pieces must be produced each day in order to meet this
demand. Eight operating hours each day amounts to 480 minutes; since we must make 500
pieces per day, this means that one product “A” must be produced every 58 seconds.
Setting exact Takt Times for each process is the key for making many different parts that go into
an automobile on schedule – and bringing them together at all stages of assembly, all down the
line, at exactly the right time for keeping the pace of production in balance with the pace of sales.
Producing by Takt Time ensures that all production will be matched to the final assembly process.
If a finished product is rolling off the assembly line every 60 seconds, the interval at which every
part of the entire car is produced should also be exactly 60 seconds.
4. JIDOKA
a. Basic Concept
The second key concept at Toyota, after Just-in-time is “Jidoka”. Jidoka in Japanese is usually
translated to English as “automation”.
But at Toyota, Jidoka refers to the ability of production lines to be stopped in the event of such
problems as equipment malfunctions, quality problems or work being late, either by machines,
which have the ability to sense abnormalities or by employees.
"Reducing Production Cost Whilst Increasing Efficiency with TPS
The supervisor, having rushed to the scene of the trouble after seeing the ANDON assists in
correcting the problem and pulls another overhead rope preventing the line from stopping or
setting it back in motion if it had already come to a halt.
Important to all these activities is the concept of visual control. The status of work operations
should be apparent at a quick glance to anyone at the worksite. ANDON and other defect
notification devices that can be seen and heard are means of making simple visual control
possible.
2. Working Sequence
3. Standard In-Process Stock
Takt Times tells the amount of time allotted for producing 1 part or completing a given job.
The working sequence defines the step-by-step order in which each processing or assembly
operation is to be performed
And standard in-process stock specifies the number of parts that should be in process at any
given time.
6- Kaizen
Kaizen is continual improvement, the constant search for a better way, or never ending
improvement.
At Toyota, all jobs are being continually improved. The company realizes that the people who do
their jobs know them better than anyone else, and each Team Member with his/her team
leader’s guidance is given the right to take part in the design of the job.
Standardized work is the foundation upon which those improvements are built. If the movements
of team members are slightly different each time a process is performed, then neither the
supervisor nor the team member can clearly identify problems or potential areas of improvement.
Without standardized work, it is impossible to grasp what the current state of efficiency is and
furthermore impossible to measure the effect of any change that may be implemented.
With standardized work there is a base in line from which to identify problems more easily and
to see precisely how any change in equipment or manpower helps or hinders the efficiency of the
work process. Standardization is the first step for Kaizen.
"Reducing Production Cost Whilst Increasing Efficiency with TPS
B. CASE STUDY
REDUCING PRODUCTION COST WHILST INCREASING
EFFICIENCY WITH TOYOTA PRODUCTION SYSTEM AT INDUS
MOTOR CO. LTD
a- Productivity Enhancement
The Need
A Pakistani company practicing Japanese management, had plant capacity of producing 10,000
vehicles/ year in single shift. With the signing of Technical Assistance Agreement with Daihatsu
Motor Co. Japan, for production of 850CC Daihatsu Cuore 3,000 Units in the first year, increase in
production capacity by 30% became inevitable. One obvious conventional method was to
increase the number of work stations which would have resulted in capital investment for
providing additional equipment / tools & utilities on one hand and consequent increase of
manpower on the other hand. However, it was decided to increase the capacity by improving
productivity.
In simple terms, the requirement was to increase daily production from 38 vehicle/ days to 50
vehicles/ day thus reducing Takt time from 10.5 minutes/ vehicle to 8.5 minutes / vehicle.
Here 12 boxes of 1 ton each need to be transported from one station to other with the help of a
pickup of 4 ton capacity. If the operator chooses to load 6 boxes at a time and makes only 2 trips,
he is overburdening the pickup and also himself. The short-term gain of making only two trips,
will be nullified by excessive maintenance of the pick up resulting from over burdening, this is
“MURI”. The operator has another choice to make 6 trips by carrying only 2 boxes at a time. This
"Reducing Production Cost Whilst Increasing Efficiency with TPS
is sheer” waste” which is “MUDA” as the cost of transportation will escalate. He may also choose
to make 3 trips, but the loading in each trip may vary, e.g. 1st trip only 2 boxes, 2nd trip 6 boxes
and 3rd trip 4 boxes. This is unevenness of operation and is called “MURA”
If one takes a close look at the operations, identification of MURA & MURI in production
processes is somehow easier. However, the identification of ‘MUDA” is somewhat overlooked.
MUDA can be in anyone of the following forms:
Each department / Section of a Pakistani company practicing Japanese management, was asked
to examine critically each work activity at every station and eliminate / reduce 3Ms specially the
MUDA. As MUDA will reduce, the time spent for doing a process will reduce, which will in turn
reduce Man-hour/ Vehicle.
The basic philosophy adopted was to challenge every current activity on the workstation and
pose fundamental questions like, why the activity is necessary? Can it be eliminated altogether?
"Reducing Production Cost Whilst Increasing Efficiency with TPS
If not, can the time be reduced for doing the same activity? Is this the best method of doing it?
Can we merge this activity with some other activity for better result? Can this activity be brought
forward? Or can it be done at a later station? etc..
All shop in-charges and supervisors of each and every section were clear and committed for their
goals and made their activity plans for achieving the same.
Value
MUDA
"Reducing Production Cost Whilst Increasing Efficiency with TPS
The next step is to put these time elements one on top of the other to get the total time for the
finished product. This is what is called a Yamazumi Chart.
Once this chart is made the value added activities & the non-value added activities are clearly
visible for the entire process and concerted efforts can be made for reducing MUDA and
24 23 Minutes
23
Value Added
22 2.0 Min
G MUDA
21
0.5 Min
20
19 3.0 Min
F
18
Time (Min)
17 0.5 Min
16 2.0 Min
E
15
0.5 Min
14
13 3.0 Min
D
12
11 0.5 Min
10
3.5 Min
9
C
8
7 1.0 Min
5 3.5 Min
B
4
3
0.5 Min
2
2.0 Min
1 A
0.5 Min
A. Yamazumi Chart
rearranging processes so as to achieve required Takt Time say 8.5 Min/product.
"Reducing Production Cost Whilst Increasing Efficiency with TPS
Taking a typical example of station No. 2 Left Hand (designated as T2, LH) there are 49 process
elements done on this station. A careful Time Study of each process on this station revealed the
following Graph showing time spent on Value added and non-value added activities:
1. Recording of Activities at T2 LH
Only 7 process element/ activities are shown above and one can easily add up the time spent in
non-value added activities for the 7 processes. When the total effect of 49 processes performed
on this particular station is taken into consideration the picture emerges as shown below:
Thus out of 10.5 Min working on this station, 3.8 minutes (36%) is spent on non-value added
activities of walking, unpacking & picking of parts. A further breakup of non-value added
activities indicate that 53% time is spent in walking, 21% in unpacking & 26% in picking the
parts as shown below:
"Reducing Production Cost Whilst Increasing Efficiency with TPS
Time (Min)
Unpacking
21% (0.8Min)
Walking
53%
(2.0 Min) Picking
26%
(1.0 Min)
Total Non Value added 3.8 Min
at T2 LH
By conducting similar time study for all the 14 stations of Trim Line, the following picture
emerged:
12 N O N - V A L U E A DD ED
A v e r a g e . T a k t T i m e (1 0 . 5 M i n )
V A L UE A D ED 11 11
1 0 .5
10 10 10 10 10 10 10
10
3 9 3 9 9 9
2 2
3 3.8 1 1 3 3 3 1 3
8
3
Time (Min) .
4 8 8 8 8 8 8 8
7 7 7 7 7
6.7
6
0
T -1 T -1 T -2 T -2 T -3 T -3 T -4 T -4 T -5 T -5 T -6 T -6 T -7 T -7 T -8 T -8 T -9 T -9 T -1 0 T -1 0
RH LH RH LH RH LH RH LH RH LH RH LH RH LH RH LH RH LH RH LH
T rim L in e W o rk S ta tio n s
Thus out of a total 147 minutes of Trim line operation at 14 stations, 41 minutes were spent on
non-value added activities, which was further analyzed as follows:
Value Added
160
Non-V alu Added
140
Unpackin
120 g 9 Min
100 22%
Tim e (M in
106
80 Walking
60 21 Min
P icking 51%
40
11 Min
20 41 27%
0 44 Minutes Muda
Trim Line (Total of 14 S tations )
"Reducing Production Cost Whilst Increasing Efficiency with TPS
the racks and put these in the vehicle and install the parts one after the other. Then for next
picking, again pick up 2 or 3 parts and bring these to vehicle for installation. This way as can be
seen from the sketch below, the extra movement got reduced as the picking frequency got
reduced from 7 to 3
By adopting this method a total saving of 7 minutes in walking time was observed
c. Introduction of Moveable Rack
"Reducing Production Cost Whilst Increasing Efficiency with TPS
For small parts like grommet, washer, screws, etc., small trolleys were introduced which can be
attached with the moving vehicle on conveyor as the vehicle approaches a work station. The
simultaneous movement of trolley with vehicle enables team member to access the small parts
without walking.
The Team members can make & modify easily these racks according to the part size and
accessibility.
After introduction of Flow Racks, 5 minutes saving in pickup time was observed.
"Reducing Production Cost Whilst Increasing Efficiency with TPS
Before After
The introduction of Minomi supplies brought a saving of 5 minutes in unpacking time.
"Reducing Production Cost Whilst Increasing Efficiency with TPS
TRIM LINE LH
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
TRIM LINE RH
TOTAL WORKING STATION = 12
Space Saving
The side effect of focusing on 3Ms’ reduction resulted in space saving on shop floor. It appeared
from a time study of each workstation that part racks should be as close to the vehicle as
practically possible to reduce walking time. The introduction of adjustable flow racks resulted in
space saving on shop floor. Elimination of workstations resulting from careful study of 3Ms also
reduced the workspace, which can be used for further expansion. It may be noted that TPS is
also called lean production system i.e. lean in manpower, lean in equipment, and also lean in
space on shop floor. One technique adapted to save space on assembly line side was ‘Jundate’
(Sequential supply). Taking example of a bulky part like seat set or Fuel tank which requires a
larger storage area on Shop floor, and if, for example, 3 models of vehicle are being produced,
then a minimum quantity of these bulky parts will have to be present on line side, requiring lot of
space. The solution was found in supplying the part of requisite model as is needed on the
station. Thus the sequential supply system for bulky parts has reduced the required storage
space on line.
Another glaring example of space saving done during this exercise was to rearrange CKD boxes
in CKD warehouse such that the storage capacity increased to 44%. The previous arrangement
of placing CD boxes could store 111 Lots (lot consists of 10 Units), but by making Yamazumi
chart and doing Kaizen (continuous search for improvement), the same CKD warehouse can now
store 160 lots. This is in fact 57% saving in space in CKD warehouse. Consequently, construction
of a new CKD warehouse was avoided at the time of introduction of Daihatsu Cuore.
"Reducing Production Cost Whilst Increasing Efficiency with TPS
P ro d u c tio n C a p a c ity In c re a s e 1 5 ,0 0 0
w ith B u ilt-in -Q u a lity
1 3 ,0 0 0
Vehicle/ Year
as per TPS by
1 1 ,0 0 0
13,000
30%
9 ,0 0 0
10,000
(3 ,0 0 0 V e h ic le s/ 7 ,0 0 0
Year )
5 ,0 0 0
B e fo re A fte r
P ro d u c tiv ity In c re a s e 50 4 5 .1 3 2 .1 E n g in e
5 QA
3 3 .3 6
40
(M a n -H o u r/ V e h ic le ) by Man Hour 1 .6
8 .3 P P M C
30 3 .7
7 .8 A s s y 7 .1
26% 20 5 .1
1 2 P a in t
10 8
(R e d u c tio n o f 1 0 W e ld 7 .9
1 2 M -h rs/V e h ic le ) 0
B e fo re A fte r
30000
W o rk S p a c e S a vin g 2 3 ,4 6 8
25000
1 9 ,5 9 6
(M e te r S q .) 5898 P P M C
in s p a c e b y
Meter Sq.
20000 2515
CONCLUSION
The strategies & techniques adapted at a Pakistani company practicing Japanese management,
are based on Toyota Production System (TPS) and can be applied to other industries/ companies
specially those involved in continuous assembly line. Preparation of a Yamazumi Chart is the first
step towards elimination/ reduction of ‘3Ms’. The purpose of sharing this experience with others
is to encourage them that with participative management, clarity of objectives, motivation and
techniques of Toyota Production system, others can also achieve