Creating a Knowledge Base to Support the Concept of Lean Manufacturing Using Expert System NEST

Formulation of the problem. In the conditions of global competition, lean production acquires special importance. For enterprises all over the world, the only way to survive in the market is to produce goods and provide services that most fully satisfy the demands of consumers, while using advanced management methods and technologies. Lean manufacturing is one of the modern tools of production organization and management technology, which is used to improve the quality of products and services, the most complete satisfaction of consumer needs, while ensuring a careful attitude to the company's resources and their savings.
 The purpose of the study is the further development of methodological, methodical and practical approaches to the concept of Lean manufacturing to improve the quality of the enterprise's business processes.
 Research methods. The research used scientific methods, such as theoretical generalization, comparison, analysis, synthesis.
 Result. In the process of research, a comparison of traditional business management and the concept of lean production was made and revealed. that the concept of lean production has such advantages as the transition from centralized, vertical management to horizontal, involvement of all employees in the process, teamwork, focus on rational use of resources. The concept of lean production is aimed at eliminating the following main types of losses: overproduction of goods; waiting for raw materials, semi-finished products, necessary service information; unnecessary movement of materials; redundant processing steps arising due to errors in the design of business processes; excessive stocks and business processes leading to their occurrence; unjustified rotation of personnel in the work process; production of waste; underutilization of employees' creative potential.
 Conclusions. Six main elements and 52 components (requirements) of Lean manufacturing are defined based on the SAE J4000 standard for more successful application of lean manufacturing ideas in practice production to analyze the levels of implementation of lean manufacturing methodology components and elements. The main elements of the concept of lean manufacturing, the development and improvement of which should be focused on, are: company management and trust in it; enterprise personnel; information environment; chain "supplier – organization – consumer"; product; business processes. An important role in the concept of lean manufacturing is played by the 5S ordering system and the system of general maintenance of TPM equipment .
 Keywords: lean manufacturing; losses; flow of value creation; 5S ordering system; system of general maintenance of TPM equipment; SAE standard J4000.

While the concept of Lean manufacturing isn't new, effectively deploying lean principles in the electronics manufacturing services (EMS) environment is. The EMS environment contains unique constraints. This paper will identify key challenges faced in implementing Lean manufacturing principles within the EMS environment including: ■ Implementing lean practices in a multi-customer environment which includes variance in forecasting practices and process requirements ■ Integrating each customer's required suppliers ■ Structuring a system flexible enough to interface and support each customer's internal vision of appropriate lean manufacturing practices. The paper will then discuss ways that EPIC Technologies has modified its internal systems and processes to support lean manufacturing practices in the areas of: ■ Supplier management ■ Scheduling/forecasting ■ Multi-facility support of customers (including cross-border logistics support) ■ Process optimization ■ Program management

This chapter discusses the key lean manufacturing principles and then relates these to various available Andon hardware and software that can be used for tracking and continuous improvement. Implementation of lean manufacturing principles can have a large impact on profit. Also, lean manufacturing principles can be applied to energy, as well as manufacturing activities and processes. The introduction to lean manufacturing principles and their importance has laid the groundwork for a deeper look into the concept of Andon. The primary purpose of this chapter is to provide information for energy professionals to use to make their industrial customers aware of the lean tool of Andon and its potential benefits to manufacturing processes. The benefits of implementing lean manufacturing are well documented. Lean manufacturing practices can have a very positive impact on industrial plant process efficiency and the associated financial bottom line.

Traditionally, industries followed a linear process of resources consumption: taking raw materials from nature, transforming them into products, and selling them to consumers (who discarded them when they were no longer useful). Nowadays, due to the sustainable development concerns, there is an increasing awareness on the society for reuse, repair, recycling, and remanufacturing to avoid resource depletion and achieve waste reduction. Following this idea, with the aim to train students and practitioners in lean manufacturing and circular economy concepts and tools, a learning process organized in three sequential phases was developed, starting with the manufacture of a toy car (25 kg and over 100 pieces) using a traditional push system, then reengineering the process to implement pull system and lean manufacturing concepts, and finally, considering a circular economy pull system through the reuse and recycling of parts and components. In this way, the importance of reducing waste in manufacturing and the reduction in the use of raw materials by considering the 3Rs is highlighted.

Electronic manufacturers are at increasing risk from offshore competition; often due to significantly lower labour costs abroad (Roberts, 2012). The implications are serious and, ignoring the threat, will, at best, lead to loss of market share and, at worst, the closure of many businesses with significant effect on the South African economy and society. This kind of competition has been seen in other industries. The clothing industry in South Africa, for example, has either failed or moved offshore. Traditional manufacturing production systems offer no solution to the problem, while a lean manufacturing has been associated with productivity increase, quality improvement, reduction of lead time and cost (Marudhamuthu & Krishnaswamy, 2011). According to Taj and Morosan (2011), waste is anything other than the minimum amount of equipment, materials, parts and working time which is absolutely vital to production. The focus of this study is the adoption of lean manufacturing principles in the electronic manufacturing industry in South Africa: a case of Altech UEC. The aim of this research is to identify the possible or potential of adopting lean manufacturing principles in the electronic manufacturing industry and, in particular, Altech UEC. The study identified the tools, techniques and drivers for implementation. In order to achieve the aim of the study, the following objectives were developed: • To capture employees’ perception of lean manufacturing and the principles that they believe have been implemented within Altech UEC; • To establish the impact being made or lack thereof of implementing lean manufacturing at Altech UEC; • To ascertain the challenges being faced by the implementation of lean manufacturing at Altech UEC; and • To explore the ways in which the implementation of lean manufacturing can be improved within Altech UEC. For the purpose of obtaining necessary information, the researcher employed a descriptive research design. With this research design, the primary data needed in this research are derived from the answers of the respondents of the survey through a previously used questionnaire. This study sought to explore the use and implementation of lean manufacturing principles at Altech UEC as the basis for understanding how lean manufacturing can benefit an organisation within a South African context. There were four research questions asked under the broader topic of lean manufacturing and through extensive research of previous literature and logical inferences made from the analysis of the data it was found that while some aspects of lean manufacturing principles were being used to improve upon the lean manufacturing process, there was still a great deal of improvement for Altech UEC to be a lean manufacturing organisation. The study was able to effectively conclude that lean manufacturing impacts positively on the manufacturing process and, if implemented correctly, the manufacturing process will run smoothly and efficiently. The more lean manufacturing aspects applied to the manufacturing process, the more likely it was to run smoothly and efficiently at an increased rate of production.

Value addition and performance improvement are important to deal with increasing local and global market competitiveness. Interventions and automation based on Lean and ergonomics principles have strong influence on performance improvement of the production systems. This study focuses on implementation of lean manufacturing and ergonomics principles to improve work environment and performance of the soccer manufacturing production line. Work visualization and value stream mapping (VSM) techniques were employed to identify the opportunities for improvements. Time of value and non-value-added activities is recorded using time study method. Working postures and associated risk factors are evaluated using Rapid Entire Body Assessment (REBA) method. Lean manufacturing principles are employed to minimize wastes and non-value added activities. Similarly, improvements in work environment are made through ergonomics interventions. Various models comprising different levels of lean and ergonomics interventions were evaluated through simulation before actual implementation. The results of the finalized model in terms of decrease in cycle time (8.64 to 7.018 seconds), increase in daily production (20505 to 24176 soccer balls), and improved work environment are evident of performance improvements in all aspects. The integration of lean and ergonomics principles leads to improve the productivity and working environment for workers in soccer ball manufacturing industry.

This study addresses a critical gap in understanding how Lean Manufacturing (LM) practices, particularly people-centered approaches, can enhance operational performance within the unique industrial context of Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 economic transformation. The concept of Lean Manufacturing involves a systematic approach and principles aimed at enhancing efficiency, minimizing inefficiencies, and boosting output in manufacturing operations. While LM principles are well-established globally, their application in Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) economies remains understudied, particularly regarding the central role of workforce engagement in successful implementation. The main objective of the study is to investigate the implications of LM on the productivity of the industry sector. Specifically, this research examines how the integration of people-centered practices with traditional LM constructs (Just-in-Time, Jidoka, Stability and Standardization) influences operational outcomes in Saudi manufacturing firms. A survey was conducted among specific private and public enterprises to collect data, yielding a 55.8% response rate and 67 valuable responses from a pool of 120 contacted companies. The sample encompassed small, medium, and large enterprises across seven manufacturing sectors. SmartPLS 3 and SPSS were used to assess the structural and measurement models. Common method bias was evaluated using Harman’s single-factor test. The findings demonstrate that implementing the recommended LM structural model significantly enhances operational performance. Notably, people integration exhibited the strongest influence on operational performance (β = 0.361), suggesting that human-centered approaches may be particularly salient in the Saudi context. These findings offer practical guidance for manufacturing firms seeking to align lean initiatives with Vision 2030 objectives.

Simulation of Integrated Total Quality Management (TQM) with Lean Manufacturing (LM) Practices in Forming Process Using Delmia Quest

Lean manufacturing practices focus on minimizing all forms of waste from the production system. The applicability of lean manufacturing concepts and principles has often been questioned in sectors including aerospace manufacturing primarily due to their high variety - low volume environments. The key challenges include the difficulty in changing the factory layout, lack of plant-specific manufacturing strategies, lack of benchmarking between manufacturing plants and non-existence of learning through experimentation culture. Consequently, the aerospace manufacturing industries have struggled to implement lean principles over the years successfully. Industry 4.0 is a new paradigm that is significantly influencing several manufacturing industries across the globe. Applying the concepts of Industry 4.0 along with the conventional lean transformation technology could potentially address these challenges. The focus of this research is to study the possibilities of integrating Industry 4.0 tools with existing lean manufacturing philosophies within the aerospace manufacturing sector in order to improve various aspects of manufacturing processes in a cyber-physical environment. A case study is performed considering a quality inspection department in a typical aerospace industry. The case study is simulated using discrete event simulation tool — Arena. The study found that a hybrid approach involving the holistic merger of the lean principles along with the Industry 4.0 tools known as Lean Industry 4.0 is the best way forward for the aerospace manufacturing sector. The outcomes of this research provide an understanding of the role of industry 4.0 paradigm and their implementation in several other high-technology and high-risk manufacturing sectors including life sciences, space, and defense industries.

Lean and agile manufacturing for work-in-process (WIP) control

In the fiercely competitive market, productivity improvement always plays a key strategic role in determining bottom-line success for an industry. Being a plastic bag manufacturer, which is widely used as packaging material for apparel industry, the manufacturer belongs to a group of backward linkage industry, which is highly competitive. As such, the company has to focus heavily on three strategic issues: reduction in overall cost, improvement in quality with right assurance scheme, and improvement in productivity with right tools and techniques. This research has been conducted in a large FDI-based plastic bag manufacturing company, a techno-economic consortium of Dutch, China and Bangladesh, and located in the suburban area of Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh. This research was aimed to focus on these issues along with future guidelines as to how to approach lean manufacturing as a pursuit to achieve the ultimate goal of “near perfection”. All of these improvement efforts are planned around the concepts of lean manufacturing. This involves application of Value-Stream Mapping (VSM) and 5S program.

From a drilling contractor point of view, drilling operation should be always at least on schedule and on budget. However, drilling in challenging environments with different drilling problems (technical and un-technical) causes a lot of non-productive time (NPT), i.e. time where the rig is not drilling, which pushes drilling operation behind the schedule and results in a lot of money lost. However, the new low oil price environment put a pressure on drilling contractors to focus on improving drilling efficiency and to be more innovative in reducing NPT during drilling operations; knowing that costs arising from NPT typically account for about 10% to 15% of total drilling costs, and can rise as high as 30%. In another words, drilling contractors will have to learn how to operate differently in order to weather the low oil price environment. The authors strongly believe in today's climate, lean manufacturing methodologies could offer the sought solution. Essentially, lean is a way of thinking centred on locating and eliminating unseen or unnoticed ‘waste’ occurring across the entire drilling operation. This work in hand demonstrates how the concept of lean manufacturing can be applied to reduce NPT of drilling operations. In this paper, drilling time for 6 workover and 3 drilling rigs has been analysed. A Pareto chart was used to analyse the NPT which accumulated to 27.6% in order to know the most common (highest occurring) sources of such NPT. The crew competency represented 42% of the total NPT, followed by 27.6% due to mechanical equipment failures, while wait on material accumulated to 17.2%, the operational equipment failures summed 12.7% and finally accommodation scored 0.5%. Next Ishikawa (fishbone) diagrams has been utilised to show the causes of imperfection in crew competency to identify these sources of variation. The analysis revealed areas of immediate intervention such as crew competency program and work related performance incentives. Therefore, training programs were created and work performance related promotions were introduced. Simply, authors believe these countermeasures have focused on causes behind how crew behave, which is the most difficult challenge of all. As without the proper behavioural principles and values, lean methodologies will be totally misapplied and fail to deliver results.This has resulted in 0% NPT materialised within 3 months only of implementing LEAN manufacturing methodology in drilling operation.In this paper, the LEAN methodology reveals an important tool which is able to find simple and effective solutions to the problems encountered in operations such as lack of performance and waste of time.

PurposeThe core principle of implementing Lean manufacturing is reducing waste through optimum utilization of all resources. In this research paper, the authors have examined the effect of implementing Lean practices on the overall productivity in central India-based manufacturing industries. The purpose of this research paper is to investigate the relationship between the implementation of Lean practices and overall productivity particularly in central India-based manufacturing industries.Design/methodology/approachA model in the integrated form is developed to illustrate how Lean manufacturing practices improve the overall productivity. Based on this model, a survey is performed to validate all hypotheses related to the conceptual model subject to various statistical tests.FindingsIt is established by the findings of this research that industries based in central India should implement the whole concept of Lean manufacturing practices to improve overall productivity. Industries should adopt the concept of Lean manufacturing in totality, not through the island approach.Originality/valueThe value of this research paper is to showcase the possibility for central India-based companies to become world-class industries. For this, an approach in the form of an integrated model has been developed.

The problem of implementation of the concept of Lean Manufacturing in the ceramic industry, based on the enterprise manufacturing ceramic fancy goods, is presented in this article. The most important information about the concept of Lean Manufacturing, as well as the current state of implementation of the Lean concept in the ceramic industry. Major barriers in the implementation of the Lean concept are identified and selected instruments of the Lean concept applied in individual areas of the waste elimination are assigned.

Aiming to improve market positions and increase production efficiency in Russian companies often encounter such obstacles as insufficient management level, depreciation of fixed assets, etc. In these conditions the concept of lean manufacturing offers proven approaches, the main idea of which is to reduce costs associated with the irrational use of time, material resources, etc. To reduce time losses, the production process should be organized so that it is as much like a continuous conveyor belt. The lean manufacturing system plays a significant role in the National Project "Labor Productivity and Employment Support", which has been implemented since autumn 2018. The success of lean manufacturing depends on the level of corporate culture and the ability of the team to self-organize. A prerequisite for the growth of production efficiency is a high dedication of personnel on the one hand, as well as a sufficient level of material and non-material incentives on the other hand. The concept of lean production as a unified system is intended for the flow-line form of production. In this case, "pull production» and «just-in-time» system is implemented. In the workshop and group form, separate elements of lean manufacturing can be used.