Lean Concepts PDF

In this paper, we are to present a practical application of Axiomatic Design (AD) methodology as a roadmap to lean production, in a car body assembly line. In addition to product development, AD has already been applied for manufacturing system design but we tend to expand its application to production system design, which besides manufacturing includes all activities required to satisfy customer needs. AD theory provides a framework to simplify the whole problem. According to the AD principles, a hierarchical structure for conceptualization of lean philosophy has been developed. This structure originates in lean manufacturing principles.

In the past years the word quality has been considered a synonymous of success or failure. This situation results from how firms understand quality concepts. The development of such concepts has changed the quality view as a simple way of controlling products and processes to develop a systemic vision of quality management in the whole organization. In this sense, the objective of this paper is to propose a Systemic Quality Management Model based on the precepts of Total Quality Management approach and oriented by the firm’s customer needs and attributes. This work was developed using the Axiomatic Design approach, established in function of axioms, corollaries and theorems. The objective is to improve “good practices of design” in the construction of the Systemic Quality Management Model. The proposed model was developed considering three domains in the design of a system: Customer Domain (CA), Functional Domain (FR) and Physical Domain (DP). It was also developed the hierarchy diagram of the FRs and DPs, as well as the functional requirements and design parameters decomposition, pointing out each level of the hierarchy diagram the design equations, steps and leaves that were obtained for the related elements. The model also includes the entire design matrix and module-junction diagram that shows the hierarchical structure of modules. Finally, some conclusions were drawn considering the benefits and constraints faced with the proposed development.

International Journal of Production Research, 2000.
Systematic design and evaluation of segmented production system structures is subject of this paper. Recently emerged paradigms of Lean Management and Business Process Reengineering call for adaptation of production system’s organizational structure to be more reactive to a volatile and diversified market behavior. One opportunity to optimize production system design is segmentation of the manufacturing enterprise into small, flexible and decentralized production units. The presented segmentation procedure utilizes an Axiomatic Design framework and supports Lean Management practices following strategic, organizational, and technological design aspects. A case study exemplifies the developed methodology to improve competitiveness of a manufacturing company.

Center for Quality of Management Journal, Vol 7., No. 2, Winter 1998
This paper will explore aspects of the work of a Chrysler Corporation team that set out to design a new-vehicle assembly plant for a lean production system. From May until December of 1996 I was working at Chrysler in Detroit, Michigan as an intern under MIT’s Leaders for Manufacturing program; and I had the opportunity to be part of this design effort. The paper will illustrate the development of an integrated management system, and I will extract from the case generic lessons for organizations to consider when designing other integrated management systems.

Center for Technology, Policy and Industrial Development, MIT, Cambridge, MA, November 1996.
The design and evaluation of manufacturing system design is the subject of this paper. Though much attention has been given to the design of manufacturing systems, in practice most efforts still remain empirically-based. Numerous idioms have been used in the attempt to describe the operation of manufacturing systems. When a company tries to become “lean” or wants to increase the production and become more efficient, the company will start to introduce numerous concepts developed by Toyota and others. The problem is that a company does not know the order in which to implement the lean changes or why they should implement what they are implementing. This approach greatly slows manufacturing improvements when complementary or contradictive concepts are introduced on an ad-hoc basis. In this paper, a sequence of implementation steps will be developed through the application of axiomatic design. This sequence will provide a design methodology for lean production which connects manufacturing system design objectives to operation design parameters. This paper will use the methodology developed to improve manufacturing processes in two different companies.