Job Shop Lean: A Viable

Approach to Adapt Lean for

High-Mix Low-Volume
Factories
Dr. Shahrukh A. Irani
Lean & Flexible, LLC
4102 Pensacola Oaks Lane
Sugar Land, TX77479
PHONE: 832-475-4447
EMAIL: [email protected]
WEBSITE: www.LeanandFlexible.com
Job Shop Lean: A Blending of Best Practices
LEAN: The ability to FLEXIBILITY: The ability
execute all the processing to adapt to changes in the
steps to produce any mix and volume of products
product without waste (1) in being produced
any step nor (2) between
consecutive steps

FOCUS: The ability to

produce a family of
different products whose
AGILITY: The ability to design and manufacturing
trade-off Flexibility and attributes are similar
Lean but remain profitable enough for them to be
while controlling costs, produced in a multi-product
quality and on-time delivery manufacturing cell (or
performance multi-product flowline)
 Challenges of Implementing Job Shop Lean
Product mix consists Unreliable or incomplete
of 100’s of different demand forecasts
products
Suppliers do not deliver
Manufacturing the right quantity at the
routings differ in right quality at the right
equipment, setup and time at the right price
run times, tooling,
gauges, etc. Customer loyalty is not
guaranteed
Facility has a
Functional layout Employee loyalty is not
guaranteed
Demand variability is
high Limited in-house
resources for employee
Order lot sizes can training
range from 1 to 100’s Production schedules
or 1000’s are driven by due dates
that are constantly
Multi-function flexible subject to change
automation requires Cross-training and Maintenance
highly skilled employee retention of diverse Planning, control and
operators and vendor may work against equipment scheduling for Make-To-
support each other is hard Order production is hard
Finding the product family associated with each Production bottlenecks could shift almost daily
Value Stream is a complex problem
Strategy for Implementing
Job Shop Lean
 Phases in Implementing a Lean Enterprise

A cell or focused factory can be designed if and only if the product family that
constitutes its Value Stream is clearly and correctly identified!
 Identify Part Families and Machine Groups

Click here to watch a video that shows how Click here to watch a video that shows how
Production Flow Analysis is used to identify the Production Flow Analysis is used to identify the
product family for a manufacturing cell. product family for a manufacturing cell.
Overview of Cellular
Manufacturing
How Orders Flow In a Cellular Layout

The shop layout IS NOT The shop layout IS

aligned with actual aligned with actual
product flow product flow
 Benefits of
Manufacturing Cells
Cells Significantly Reduce Batching (= WIP)
A Functional Layout is guaranteed to
generate significant amounts of the
Seven Forms of Waste
Cells Significantly Reduce Order Flow Times

The Flow Time for any order

produced in a Cellular Layout
will be significantly lower than
if it were produced in a
Functional Layout
WIP (Units) = Average Flow Time (days) * Throughput (Units/day)

This is Little’s Law!

Operational Benefits of a Manufacturing Cell
Order Flow Times reduced from 16 days to ≤ 5
days
Standard Lead Time quoted to customers was
reduced from 20+ days to 10 days
Annual labor hours spent on material handling
to/from the cell was reduced by 51 hours
The U-shape of the cell has machines on the
periphery and the tables for cleaning,
inspection, etc. in the center --- Flow of material
BEFORE in the cell is counter-clockwise and streamlined
The cell’s area was reduced from 2816 sq. ft. to
1410 sq. ft. --- The compact shape of the cell
prevents clutter from accumulating on the floor
The distance travelled by any order processed
in the cell was reduced from 618 ft. to 368 ft. ---
Each operator can tend to at least two machines
without any walking
The LOSE (Line Of Sight Efficiency) improved
from 0.286 to 0.714 --- A cell employee can see
progress of work on any order and quickly
AFTER communicate with other employees
Management Benefits of a Manufacturing Cell
OP OUTGOING RACK FOCUS: The cell’s team can complete and ship
EXPANDER DRILL DRILL
SAW any order for any part (or product) in its part
(or product) family in any quantity to any

BEAD
M/C
customer to reach by an agreed-upon delivery

GRINDER
date.
MILL

WELDING
FIXTURES FLEXIBILITY: The cell can produce any part

BENCH
WELDING FIXTURES
(or product) in its part (or product) family .
CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT CULTURE:
LATHE
The cell’s team has full authority to do projects
MISCELLANEOUS BENCH
to achieve performance metrics (SQDPC) set
by management.
WELD
BOOTH #4 WELD ACCOUNTABILITY: The cell’s team is
INSPECTION TABLE BOOTH #2
responsible for achieving performance metrics
(SQDPC) set by management.
OWNERSHIP AND AUTONOMY: The cell’s
INCOMING KIT RACK

WELD WELD
team has full authority to establish cross-
BOOTH #3 BOOTH #1
training programs, have a say in who gets
recruited to work in their cell, partner with
SHOP AID
other cells to share resources as-and-when-
STORAGE
needed, communicate directly with customers
STRAIGHTEN
CHECK &

INCOMING CHECK &

and suppliers, determine who does overtime on
STRAIGHT RACK
which days, etc.
CASE STUDY
Superior Completion
Services
What Was Easy To Do To
Implement The Pilot Cell
 Cell’s Champion is a “4H” Leader
• HEAD
– Understands how JobshopLean is to be implemented
– Thinks though a problem after we have argued over its solution
– Patient
• Not a hire-and-fire guy
– Not tight-fisted
• Accepts hiring requests if sufficient justification is provided

• HEART
– Willing to let his reports learn by failing
• Has faith in the ability of his reports to deliver
– Openly and often appreciates good work done by his immediate reports
• HANDS
– Leads off on a kaizen with goals and expectations then lets the team take over
– Has successfully implemented Lean practices in past jobs
– Demonstrates ideas with on-floor mockups and simulations
– Has no hang-ups about working on the floor as part of any CI team
• HOOVES
– Detests too many meetings
• “Let’s get out there on the floor to discuss this issue!”
– Does at least two gemba walks daily
New CNC Mill Bought for the Cell

BEFORE AFTER
Point-Of-Use Storage of Jaws and Ring Gauges
Stenciling Machine Put In the Cell

BEFORE

AFTER
Thread Protector Stand Put In the Cell
Company-issued Standardized Toolboxes
Right-sized Storage Containers Inside the Cell

Transfer batches are a

realistic alternative to
one-piece flow if cycle
times on different
machines are unbalanced
or demand lot sizes
change day-to-day
 “Water Spider” (Shop Logistics Lead)
Re-assigns a
Expert machinist Constantly monitors
machinist from
who can fill in for the jobs in the buffer
one machine to
another machinist area at the shop’s
another machine
on an as-needed bottleneck (Mills)
depending on job
basis
priorities

Delivers raw Advises

material Machine
pallets to Shop
every machine Manager of
NCR’ed
Moves jobs parts
from one
machine to
another Works with
machine all employees
Actively to keep the
participates in shop neat,
Switches jobs on machines on (or leads)
a JIT basis in response to clean and
problem- organized
sudden schedule changes, solving and CI
arrival of raw materials, etc. efforts
 Cross-Fertilization Between Silos

Outside Outside
Processes Vendors

Machine Shipping & Assembly

Shop Receiving

• Two employees from S&R now report • Managers of both

directly to the Machine Shop Manager. departments have daily
• They coordinate/synchronize morning huddles.
simultaneous processing of kits of • Could one manager
components that go into the same Line oversee both
Items departments?
 Production Controller and Shop Scheduler
Provides an estimate Plans Pre-Production Meeting with all departments
of Mfg Lead Time to (Estimating & CNC Programming, Purchasing, Machine Shop,
Sales based on their Shipping & Receiving (Inventory “Cage”), Assembly and
customer quote Quality) prior to the release of any job

Determines if there is capacity in the Machine Shop. If 1. Does backward scheduling

YES, then cuts a WO to process the job in-house; if with TACTIC from
NO, then places a PO with Outside Vendor (OSV) Assembly  OSV/OSP 
Machine Shop 
Breaks down each job into categories of Line Items: (1) Purchasing to generate a
Long Lead Time, (2) Require Testing, (3) Does not feasible schedule for every
require Testing, (4) Single Components, (5) Well job down to the component
Screens and (6) Buy Outs (and raw material) levels
2. Updates Job Board Tracker
1. Uses Rough-Cut Capacity Plan from TACTIC to for every new job
issue a Dispatch List to the Water Spider
2. Gives Dispatch List to Water Spider who uses (a) Communicates to the “Cage” to
his machining expertise and (b) situational start tracing the kit of parts
awareness of machine availability in the shop to (and related documents) to
dynamically load jobs on machines build the batch of oil tools in a
3. Coordinates with Water Spider to track job status Line Item, consolidates each kit
at component level because each Line Item is an to one pallet and roll the batch
assembly that requires a specific kit of parts of pallets into Assembly
Separate Queues of Orders for the Saw

Staging Area for Jobs to Cell #1

Staging Area for Jobs to Rest of the Shop

Shop Scheduling using DBR Method
 Capacity Planning and Scheduling

This chart helps to more effectively understand capacity planning and its impact on scheduling. Step one is
gaging how close estimates match reality. The dark blue bars represent per-cell capacity (the total hours available
for scheduling the lead-op. lathe). This is calculated by multiplying the combined cell’s expected availability
(uptime) by the total amount of time the shop is open for business. Here, for example, the team expected Cell 3 to
be in cycle for 43% of the 98 hours it was open for business (0.43 x 98 = 48). The red bars are scheduled hours i.e.
a total of every scheduled part’s lead-lathe, in-cut cycle time estimate. The light blue bars represent the same
metric, but only for jobs that actually ran. Here, we can see that Cells 1 and 2 (which are virtually identical) both
processed more unique part numbers than expected, while Cell 3 processed slightly fewer. With a perfect
schedule, all bars will match.
 Shop Performance Monitoring using OEE

This chart uses overlays of OEE performance and availability metrics to illustrate why the blue bars do not
match. For example, better-than-expected performance was not enough to make up for lower-than-expected
availability on Cell 3, which could have processed more parts. In Cell 7, the more dramatic mismatch in the blue
bars was due primarily to two factors: many parts with lengthy cycle times (which translates to fewer
interruptions for setup), as well as moving a particularly skilled employee to that work station. Both boosted
availability — and, by extension, the light blue, “scheduled hours released” bar — above initial estimates.
 Order Flow Tracking
The raw data came
from CIMCO

YELLOW ► Setup
GREEN ► In-Process

BLACK ► Non-Value Added Time

• Traveling between machines
• Pre-empted on current machine by
another job
• Machine breaks down
• In queue at the machine it needs
• Machine operator on break
• End-of-shift (Shop Closed)
• First Article Inspection
What Was Hard To Do To
Implement The Pilot Cell
Cellular Layout for the Entire Shop
“Monster Highway”

“Minion Lane”