"Continuous Processes Can Be Lean"
Manufacturing Engineering
June 2007, pp. 103-109
In examining the application of Lean's concept of the Seven Wastes to process industries, the author says that for the most part the wastes of overproduction, inventory, transportation, waiting, and movement are much less fruitful areas for improvement than in discrete manufacturing settings. The areas to focus upon are the wastes of defects and of over-processing.
The perfect process value stream is one where all the machines are:
- Capable—able to produce within the quality specifications of the downstream customer
- Available for production with no unplanned downtime
- Efficient—consume the minimal necessary energy and raw materials
- Adequate—possess sufficient capacity to meet demand
The main root cause of waste in process industries is poor mechanical condition of machines. The process-improvement tool used to restore machinery to optimum mechanical condition is a Maintenance kaizen event. To sustain the improvement, the company must practice total Productive Maintenance (TPM).
The second leading root cause of waste is suboptimal operation. Determining the optimum setting to run the machine is usually done through Six Sigma and Design of Experiments (DOE).
Poor machine design and obsolete technology are two other causes of waste in process industries. Improving machine design/technology is an engineering issue.
Back to top of page
