Lean Manufacturing for In-plant Printers

By David Jones

Lean in Action

University of California-Berkeley Printing Services has used Lean processes to reduce defects from 7 percent down to nearly 2 percent. Director Haron Abrahimi says his in-plant is concentrating on the eight wastes of Lean:

Defects
Overproduction
Waiting
Non-utilized Talents
Transportation
Inventory
Motion
Extra Processing

As a result of the shop’s efforts, Abrahimi says, overruns are now between 125 and 200 sheets for bindery makeready, compared to between 500 and 650 sheets previously.

“Waiting has been eliminated by right-sizing our operation and implementing continuous production flow,” he adds. “Most operators are cross-trained in other areas as to eliminate non-utilized talents.”

The in-plant has combined its CSR/prepress/production management/IT and bulk mail services to eliminate excess motion and wasted space, and to enhance communications with customers.

“Most client concerns are answered within a very short time frame,” Abrahimi says, “and if there are systems problems, IT is able to get involved immediately.”

As part of its Lean efforts, Printing Services relocated its shipping department 300 feet closer to the upstream bindery function and reduced the footprint of the shipping operation from 1,250 to 250 square feet. This reduced employee motion by 50 percent. An even greater (75 percent) reduction in employee motion was accomplished in prepress by reorganizing equipment and people to follow the flow of product through the operation.

The in-plant uses Business Process Analysis techniques to analyze and improve specific processes. “Swim lane maps” let the shop study processes that involve more than three functions and illustrate who does what. This helps eliminate over processing.

“It used to take us 24 to 48 hours to turn a proof around, but now they are completed within 12 hours, normally,” he says.

Printing Services has implemented just-in-time inventory and is working to liquidate older paper inventory.

“We are also running our offset presses with an average speed of 11,700 impressions per hour,” Abrahimi notes. “This is 3,700 impressions per hour faster than 8,000 impressions per hour of just a couple of years ago.”

Know Your Waste

To help organizations classify the waste within their walls, the Lean community generally recognizes the following categories of waste:

• Over Producing: Doing something that the next process can’t deal with in a short time.

• Defects/Rework: They can cost five times more to fix than getting it right first time.

• Excessive Movement (Materials/Products): Moving things costs money and time. Why are we doing it? Is the layout wrong? How can we get flow?

• Over Processing: Carrying out excessive scrutiny or unneeded actions. What are the real tolerances and why?

• Excessive Inventory/Storage: Holding excess inventory is like having money just sitting on a shelf. Plus there’s the danger of damage or obsolescence.

• Waiting: Slows production and wastes time that cannot be recovered.

• Excessive Motion: Can lead to repetitive injury incidents and is not changing the fit, form or function.

• Underutilized People: Ignoring suggestions or not asking workers how they could improve the process.

LEAN, THE practice of continually identifying and eliminating waste in an organization, is very often a misunderstood term or phrase. Too many people associate it with the phrase "Lean and Mean," which has become a euphemism for laying people off, working with too few staff, working staff long hours and micromanaging every activity to lower costs—often at the expense of quality. It's ironic, then, that the practice of Lean is the exact opposite of the phrase "Lean and Mean. Many credit Henry Ford for inventing the Lean concepts. Others say you have to go back to the Greek or Roman Empires. Wherever it started is interesting, but somewhat academic. What is important is how to use this powerful methodology and philosophy to improve any organization. Whether it's an in-plant, a hospital or a government agency, all can use Lean to give a better quality product or service at a low cost with on-time delivery.

The most famous organization utilizing Lean is The Toyota Motor Manufacturing Co. Toyota has been practicing and perfecting the concepts for more than 50 years and still maintains the continued improvement process. So if you are looking for a quick fix solution, Lean is not for you. But then again, we have seen what quick fixes and short-term thinking have done to our economy lately. Maybe we all need to have the long-term, mutual benefit mentality that is prevalent at Toyota.

Eliminate Waste

There are many facets to Lean, but for simplicity let's take a look at some fundamentals. First, let's talk about the concept of non-value added (NVA). In Lean this means an activity that does not change the fit, form or function of a product or service but utilizes resources and therefore increases costs to the customer. These NVA are all classified as waste.

An example in the printing world might be an operator searching to find the correct wrench to complete a changeover or make–ready. This time spent searching for things is classified as NVA or "Waste." (Toyota uses the Japanese term "muda.")

Other examples might be running excessively large batches through a process, creating situations where material or work in process (WIP) has to be constantly moved around and/or held in storage prior to completion. Meanwhile downstream processes are waiting for completed products to work on.

Waste is not confined just to the more easily identified manufacturing side of things but can manifest itself throughout the organization. An example might be inaccurate work instructions leading to waiting time or the generation of rework or, even worse, scrap product.

A simple test to see if an activity is NVA or not is to ask this question: "Would the customer be happy to pay for the activity I have just carried out?" If that activity was completing your time sheet, then an honest answer would be no; it's not value-added from the customer point of view.

Are You Expendable?

This leads to another, somewhat disturbing, realization: managers and supervisors, by the very nature of their activity, are classed as NVA. We cannot, of course, have organizations without those positions, but in Lean we need to need to be mindful of the real goal to provide the lowest cost, highest quality for the customer in the quickest time. Any supervisor or managerial activity that is not supporting that goal should be examined to see if it can be reduced or eliminated.

The last statement may have you now wondering if Lean is actually mean because it seems to advocate elimination of positions, particularly managers and supervisors. That is not the case, and to make the Lean philosophy and culture of an organization sustainable, no one should be let go because waste is reduced and improvements made. People need to be reassigned to engage on value-added tasks or to work on constantly reducing NVA for others. (i.e. managers, supervisors and HR should be challenging the systems to reduce as much waste as possible.)

Three Parts to Lean

So what is the strategy to become a successful operation like Toyota? There are three major elements to Lean that need to be addressed.

1. Company philosophy. To be a real Lean organization, the company philosophy needs to recognize that it currently has plenty of waste within its operation and that the managers and owners must embrace the concepts of Lean. This might mean letting go and allowing staff to use its initiative to recognize and make improvements.

2. Company culture. Lean culture is one that embraces problems and asks why an issue occurred, not who was responsible for doing it wrong. Changing the company culture as one implements Lean is one of the huge hurdles companies need to address.

3. Implementation. Lean technologies need to be learned and implemented. This is best achieved by formal training for all staff so everyone understands the basics and the need to change the way things are carried out. In addition to formal training, hands-on activities like value stream mapping (a process to identify where the best impact can be made) and Kaizen events (short, focused, staff-driven improvement activities) need to become part of the organization's goal to make improvements on a continual basis.

Becoming Lean is not an overnight or quick fix activity. There will be what appear to be insurmountable issues, many of which relate to the current company culture and philosophy. The implementation will take time. Toyota has been practicing Lean for 50 years, and its managers will tell you that they still can make more improvements.

Lean in the In-plant

Geoff Brandt, State Printer at California's Office of Publishing (OSP), which began its Lean journey in 2003, concurs with that assessment. Even though his in-plant has made excellent improvements, Brandt says the continuing challenge is to follow up and maintain the momentum.

"We are still dealing with the philosophical and cultural issues, and many of our staff who have been with us for many years still struggle with this new environment," he says.

Brandt also says that, in his opinion, "OSP has to keep going with Lean because the print world is going through immense changes, and Lean will enable us to be flexible and agile enough to cope with the rapid change in the industry." IPG

David Jones is the Development Director of Total Excellence in Manufacturing(TEiM) based in Sacramento California. TEiM specializes in assisting organizations world wide implement Lean and guide them through the technology, cultural and philosophy hurdles. TEiM's clients include several in-plant facilities including the Sate of California Office of Publishing. (OSP) and several other print-related packaging companies. David can be reached at:David@teiminc.com

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