Lean concepts

Project 10, an example of Lean Engineering Education at De La Salle University, involved the application of lean concepts and tools to improve the production process of a soap manufacturing company. 

Interaction, taking part in simulation exercises, watehing leetures, and having the opportunity to diseuss things in elass definitely helps enhance the learning experience and helps students better visualizing lean concepts. ... 

Standard work This is the foundation piece of continual improvement, safety, and respect for people. A focus on mandated safety standards, like JSAs, can help people understand the standard work lean concept. 

Lean concepts introduced new terms to the manufacturing world. To implement Lean... 

The applied lean concepts as discussed in this book relate to the safety design review provisions in ZIO, and a chapter on lean concepts follows the design chapter. 

Lean Concepts Opportunities for Safety Professionals Applied lean concepts are to eliminate waste, improve efficiency, and lower production costs. Elements of waste that should be addressed in the lean process are the direct and ancillary costs of accidents. This chapter Discusses the origin of lean concepts and how broadly they are being applied Gives examples of lean applications in which hazards and risks were not addressed Comments on the opportunity for effective involvement in lean initiatives by safety professionals and Outlines a unique merging of lean and safety through design concepts. An Addendum offers A Simplified Initial Value Stream Map To Identify Waste (Muda) and Opportunities for Continuous Improvement (Kaizen). 

Later in this chapter, comments are made on a catastrophe in which the management acknowledged in its own internally prepared report that its safety culture, over time, had been allowed to deteriorate. In Chapter 14, Lean Concepts Opportunities for Safety Professionals, reference is made to safety levels being diminished as lean concepts are applied. In discussions with several safety directors, it has been readily established that everyone is expected to do more with less and that bottom-line pressures weigh heavily. 

Chapter 14, Lean Concepts Opportunities for Safety Professionals, discusses how a company merged lean concepts into its design process. Design reviews are made at several stages as the design progresses. 

Applying lean concepts to eliminate waste, improve efficiency, and lower production costs has become popular with senior-level managements. Minimizing waste is the foundation on which the lean concept is built. In a lean endeavor, activities or processes that consume resources, add cost, or require unproductive time without creating value are eliminated. The lean concept can be described as striving for excellence in operations in which each employee seeks to eliminate waste and participates in the smooth flow of value to the customer. 

Discuss the origin of lean concepts and how broadly they are being applied. List the definitions pertinent to lean and relate them to injury and illness prevention. 

Discuss a successful merging of lean concepts and design concepts to show how safety, health, and environmental professionals can be extensively involved. 

Understandably, several terms associated with the lean concept are Japanese. Condensed definitions of these terms follow, a since they are applied in the design process discussed later in this chapter, as well as some other definitions that need to be understood. 

Value Stream Mapping is the written or computer-based identification of the sequence of activities and information flows to produce a product or deliver a service. This represents a vital step in the lean concept because it provides the opportunity for team brainstorming to identify activities that do not add value. Lean practitioners use value stream mapping to identify major sources of non-value-added time in a value stream envision a less wasteful future state and develop an implementation plan for future lean activities. An Addendum providing a Simplified Initial Value Stream Map appears at the end of this chapter. 

Minimizing handling and storing materials and work in process, and avoiding interruptions in the flow of work processes, are central in the lean process. Although all hazards and risks should be addressed in the lean concept, applying ergonomics principles, particularly, fits well as the Lean process moves forward. 

Progressive safety professionals will recognize this shortcoming—the nonrecognition of accidents as a source of waste by the appliers of lean concepts—as an opportunity to educate management on the advantage of including safety considerations as the lean process is applied. 

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