A review of Kojo Kanri magazine.doc

7/28/2019 A review of Kojo Kanri magazine.doc

1/5

A review of Kojo Kanri magazine, 10/96 (Vol. 42, No.

11)

Michel Baudin, 11/18/96

"Kojo Kanri" (factory management) is a monthly magazine published in Japan by Nikkan

Kogyo and discussing JIT/lean production subjects for the benefit of production

supervisors and managers. It contains nitty-gritty case studies as well as reports on theimprovement strategies of major companies. The big red Pokayokebook, among others,

stated life as special issues of Kojo Kanri. To our knowledge, this magazine has no

equivalent in the US or Europe.

The 10/96 issue was dedicated to a series of articles about 101 things shop floormanagers should notdo, covering the following major areas in about 205 pages:

Productivity Quality management

Cost management

Quantity and delivery management

Labor and safety

Information management

I took a closer look at the productivity section, where I expected to find a list of behaviors

that plant and manufacturing managers actually engage in but shouldn't. On that score, Iwas disappointed: the list of "don'ts" is really a checklist of "do's," rephrased as "Don't

neglect A" or "Don't overlook B." The exhortation to apply time and money to specific

issues also begs the question of how much of each and how to balance multipleobligations. The body of articles in that section contains suggestions on this matter.

Following are:

A translation of Kojo Kanri's 10/96 summary table of productivity "don'ts" . Most

of the points are self-explanatory. For those that aren't, a paragraph of discussion

is attached.

For comparison, my own list of 5 plant manager "don'ts."

Kojo Kanri's 10/96 summary table of productivity "don'ts"

Management area ProblemsManagement

tasks/tools"Don't" items

People The "3Ms": unevenness,unreasonableness, waste.

The 7 types of waste:

overproduction, waiting,

Efficiency analysisProcess analysis

Time & motion

study

1. Don'toverlook the

"3Ms."

2. Don't empty
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2/5

transportation,processing, inventory,

motion, defects.

Errors and slips.

QC methodsResource

management

Load planningStandardization

the operators'work of all

substance.

3. Don't neglectpreparation,

training andpractice.

4. Don't skimpon time and

money for

improvementactivities.

5. Don't skimp

on ways to

improve

motivation.Equipment/facilities Failure rate.

Low efficiency.

Flow analysis

Layout analysis

Product-Quantityanalysis

Efficiency

management

1. Don't base a

new layout on

"insight" oron extension

of current

layout.

2. Dont' makeTPM the

work of one

department.

3. Don't skimp

on time and

money for

setup timereduction.

Materials Reject rates.Quality problems.

Shortages.

Control chartsActivity index

Standard stocks

1. Don't neglectoverproductio

n.

2. Don't

overlook theproduction of

defectives.

Information Information too late or in

error.

Standardized,

systematiccommunication.

JIT through

1. Don't

procrastinateon

communicatin
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3/5

Kanbans g information.

2. Don't neglectthe JIT

philosophy

Improvement and

standardization

Disregard of standard

operations.Low-hanging fruit

improvement proposals.

Increasing rigidity ofprocedures.

Rules for promotion

and maintenance ofstandard operations

Target numbers for

proposalsMachine capability

analysis

1. Don't ignore

standardoperations.

2. Don't neglect

improvement.

3. Don't castmethods in

stone.

Don't empty the operators' work of all substance. What the article says is that JIT/leanproduction reverses the trend towards lower skills and simpler operator tasks that was

parodied in Chaplin's "Modern Times." The ultimate goal is to have operators focused onimprovement, innovation, and development, while all the routine work, both value-added

and non-value-added, is automated.

Don't base a new layout on "insight" or on extension of current layout. What the

article says is that necessary changes in equipment layout occasion large losses whenthey are designed too quickly, based on someone's insight or on extending the current

layout. It proposes the following evaluation criteria:

1. Clear goals and objectives.

2. Scale and level settings for the change. How many years into the future should thenew layout be able to respond to production demand?

3. Type of flexibility in volume and product variety.

4. Processes in flow lines with minimum distance between operations, particularlyfor major, representative products.

5. Ease of management and supervision, and efficiency in all dimensions of people,

machines, materials and methods.

6. Consideration of installation costs and improvement in the efficiency of spaceutilization.

7. Attention to safety and the environment.

The main methods needed for layout design are:

1. Product-Quantity (P-Q) analysis to determine the breakdown of products byvolume.

2. Material flow analysis, to determine how raw materials go through every stage of

work in process to become finished goods.


4/5

3. Activity analysis, to determine the specifics of how parts go in and out of every

machine, and move between machines.

My list of plant manager "Don'ts"

This list is narrower in scope and not intended to be a thorough audit checklist, but it is

based on actual observations of things managers do that they would be better off notdoing if they want to implement JIT/lean production.

1. Don't fire everybody who does "nonvalue-added" activities. The term

nonvalue-added can be misleading. Just because an activity does not change a part

doesn't mean it can be eliminated. If you fire the people who move parts betweendepartments or tools between Resharpening and Machining, you just burden the

production workers with thoses tasks, which disrupts the value-adding work they

would otherwise do. As you move to JIT/lean production, some aspects of the

necessary support work may actually grow. For example, preparing parts andfeeding them to the assembly line may end up using more people than before.

2. Don't overestimate what workers can do. Many managers jump from a

traditional attitude of not thinking that operators have any idea of value to theopposite extreme of relying on "empowered" operators for the basic design of the

production system. This is equally misguided. Even with classroom training,

operators will not design cells, assembly lines, or production control systems.Their input and their creativity are needed in such areas as the detailed design of

work stations or in setup time reduction, but not to reinvent the results of 40 years

of JIT/lean production practice. Operator participation in improvement projectsneeds to be thought through with realistic expectations.

3. Don't spend all your training budget on methodology courses. Improvementmethods are best learned on-the-job through actual projects, with limited

classroom training. The core process technology of the company, on the otherhand, is best taught in a classroom. Employees are typically hungry for this type

of knowledge, and a better understanding of what the machines do improves their

effectveness, be it as a basic level for operators or an advanced level forengineers.

4. Don't get involved in detailed engineering discussions. Managers who are

former engineers sometimes can't resist the temptation of contributing to technicaldiscussions. When managers do this, most of their subordinates will agree to

anything the boss says; the others will make a point ofdisagreeing systematically.

No one will evaluate the idea on its own merits as if it came from a peer.5. Don't "cherry-pick" items for implementation. The implementation of JIT/lean

production is a big project, involving many tasks. It is tempting for managers to

select a few that look easy and postpone the rest. This is a mistake for two

reasons. First, what looks easy -- 5S for example -- isn't necessarily so. Second,JIT/lean production is a consistent whole, and the benefits of implementing only

one aspect of it are limited.


5/5

Getting Kojo Kanri: If you can't read Japanese, don't bother. If you can, mail order Kojo

Kanri from the Kinokuniya bookstore in San Francisco, at (415) 567-7625.

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A review of Kojo Kanri magazine.doc