Managing the Shopfloor: Subjectivity, Masculinity and Workplace Culture (Degruyter Studies in Organization).

In this first comprehensive departure from the time-and-motion dictums of Frederick Taylor's Shop Management that have influenced management practices for most of this century, Kiyoshi Suzaki offers a framework for successfully conducting business at its most crucial point-the shop floor. Drawing on the principles of holistic management, where organizational boundaries are smashed and co-destiny is created, Suzaki demonstrates how modern shop floor management techniques -- focusing maximum energy on the front line -- can lead to dramatic improvements in productivity and valueadded-to-services. The role of management today, Suzaki argues, is to eliminate its own responsibilities by thinking of the organization from the genba, or shop floor, point of view. In this challenge, Suzaki claims, organizations need to collect the wisdom of people by practicing "Glass Wall Management," where organizations become transparent, enabling employees to contribute maximum creativity as opposed to blocking their potential with what he calls "Brick Wall Management." Further, to empower individuals to selfmanage their work and satisfy their customers, Suzaki asserts that they all should learn to manage their own "mini-company," where everybody is considered president of his or her area of responsibility. Front-line supervisors, Suzaki shows, must develop a mission and goals and share them both up and downstream. He cites examples of the "shop floor point of view" -- McDonald's Corporation's legal staff learning how to sell hamburgers and fix milkshake machines; Honda's human resource staff training on the assembly line -- that narrow the gap between top management and the shop floor. By upgrading people's skills, focusing on empowerment, and streamlining processes, Suzaki illustrates that an organization will realize concrete improvements in quality, cost, delivery, safety, morale, and ultimately, its competitive position.

Standard work is an agreed upon set of work procedures that effectively combines people, materials, and machines to maintain quality, efficiency, safety, and predictability. Work is described precisely in terms of cycle time, work in process, sequence, time, layout, and the inventory needed to conduct the activity. Standard work begins as an improvement baseline and evolves into a reliable method. It establishes the best activities and sequence steps to maximize performance and minimize waste. In this book you will learn about: The characteristics of standards Key benefits and applications of standardization Standard work concepts and calculations Standard work steps and documentation Using standard work manuals, charts, and worksheets Cell staffing (line balancing and full work) Productivity's Shopfloor Series books offer a simple, cost-effective approach for building basic knowledge about key manufacturing improvement topics. Like all our Shopfloor Series books, Standard Work for the Shopfloor includes innovative instructional features that are the signature of the Shopfloor Series. The goal: to place powerful and proven improvement tools such as pull production techniques in the hands of your entire workforce.

Kanban is the name given to the inventory control card used in a pull system. The primary benefit of kanban is to reduce overproduction, the worst of the seven deadly wastes. A true kanban system produces exactly what is ordered, when it is ordered, and in the quantities ordered. It is essentially a dynamic work order that moves with the material. Each kanban identifies the part or subassembly unit and indicates where each one came from and where each is going. Used this way, kanban acts as a system of information that integrates your plant, connects all processes one to another, and connects the entire value stream to customer demand. Kanban for the Shopfloor provides a working manual for those seeking to implement this method of production control in any operation. It defines the various terms and methods employed in kanbans, and illustrates how when adhered to, kanban is an element of continuous improvement that ultimately leads to the ideal of one-piece flow." In addition to reducing the waste of overproduction, kanban will help your company increase flexibility to respond to customer demand, coordinate production of small lots and wide product variety, and simplify the procurement process. About the Shopfloor Series: Put proven improvement tools in the hands of your entire workforce! Progressive shopfloor improvement techniques are imperative for manufacturers who want to stay competitive and to achieve world class excellence. And it's the comprehensive education of all shopfloor workers that ensures full participation and success when implementing new programs. The Shopfloor Series books make practical information accessible to everyone by presenting major concepts and tools in simple, clear language and at a reading level that has been adjusted for operators by skilled instructional designers. One main idea is presented every two to four pages so that the book can be picked up and put down easily. Each chapter begins with an overview and ends with a summary section. Helpful illustrations are used throughout. Other topics in the Shopfloor Series: Kanban, 5S, Quick Changeover, Mistake-Proofing, Just-in-Time, TPM, Cellular Manufacturing

In a "pull" production system, the final process pulls needed parts from the previous process, which pulls from the process before it, and so on, as determined by customer demand. This allows you to operate without preset schedules and avoid unnecessary costs, wastes, and delays on the manufacturing floor.Pull Production for the Shopfloor introduce

The philosophy of kaizen, which simply means continuous improvement, needs to adopted by any organization seeking to implement lean improvements that go beyond cost cutting. Kaizen events are opportunities to make focused changes in the workplace. Kaizen for the Shopfloor takes readers through the critical steps for conducting a very effective kaizen event: one that is well planned, well implemented, and well documented. As the newest addition to the Shingo Prize Winning Shopfloor Series, Kaizen for the Shopfloor distills the complexities of jump starting lean processes into an easily accessible format for those frontline employees who make lean possible. About the Shopfloor Series: Put proven improvement tools in the hands of your entire workforce! Progressive shopfloor improvement techniques are imperative for manufacturers who want to stay competitive and to achieve world class excellence. And it's the comprehensive education of all shopfloor workers that ensures full participation and success when implementing new programs. The Shopfloor Series books make practical information accessible to everyone by presenting major concepts and tools in simple, clear language and at a reading level that has been adjusted for operators by skilled instructional designers. One main idea is presented every two to four pages so that the book can be picked up and put down easily. Each chapter begins with an overview and ends with a summary section. Helpful illustrations are used throughout.

In today’s competitive global environment, manufacturers are offered with unprecedented opportunities to build hyper-efficient and highly flexible plants, towards meeting variable market demand, while at the same time supporting new production models such as make-to-order (MTO), configure-to-order (CTO) and engineer-to-order (ETO). During the last couple of years, the digital transformation of industrial processes is propelled by the emergence and rise of the fourth industrial revolution (Industry4.0). The latter is based on the extensive deployment of Cyber-Physical Production Systems (CPPS) and Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) technologies in the manufacturing shopfloor, as well as on the seamless and timely exchange of digital information across supply chain participants. The benefits of Industry 4.0 have been already proven in the scope of pilot and production deployments in a number of different use cases including flexibility in automation, predictive maintenance, zero defect manufacturing and more. Despite early implementations and proof-of-concepts, CPPS/IIoT deployments are still in their infancy for a number of reasons, including:• Manufacturers’ poor awareness about digital manufacturing solutions and their business value potential, as well as the lack of relevant internal CPPS/IIoT knowledge.• The high costs that are associated with the deployment, maintenance and operation of CPPS systems in the manufacturing shopfloors, which are particularly challenging in the case of SME (Small Medium Enterprises) manufacturers that lack the equity capital needed to invest in Industry 4.0.• The time needed to implement CPPS/IIoT and the lack of a smooth and proven migration path from existing OT solutions.• The uncertainty over the business benefits and impacts of IIoT and CPPS technologies, including the lack of proven methods for the techno-economic evaluation of Industry4.0 systems. • Manufacturers’ increased reliance on external integrators, consultants and vendors. • The absence of a well-developed value chain needed to sustain the acceptance of these new technologies for digital automation.In order to alleviate these challenges, three European Commission funded projects (namely H2020 FAR-EDGE (http://www.far-edge.eu/), H2020 DAEDALUS (http://daedalus.iec61499.eu) and H2020 AUTOWARE (http://www.autoware-eu.org/)) have recently joined forces towards a “Digital Shopfloor Alliance”. The Alliance aims at providing leading edge and standards based digital automation solutions, along with guidelines and blueprints for their effective deployment, validation and evaluation. The present book provides a comprehensive description of some of the most representative solutions that offered by these three projects, along with the ways these solutions can be combined in order to achieve multiplier effects and maximize the benefits of their use. The presented solutions include standards-based digital automation solutions, following different deployment paradigms, such as cloud and edge computing systems. Moreover, they also comprise a rich set of digital simulation solutions, which are explored in conjunction with the H2020 MAYA project (http://www.maya-euproject.com/). The latter facilitate the testing and evaluation of what-if scenarios at low risk and cost, but also without disrupting shopfloor operations. As already outlined, beyond leading edge scientific and technological development solutions, the book comprises a rich set of complementary assets that are indispensable to the successful adoption of IIoT/CPPS in the shopfloor. The book is structured in three parts as follows: • The first part of the book is devoted to digital automation platforms. Following an introduction to Industry 4.0 in general and digital automation platforms in particular, this part presents the digital automation platforms of the FAR-EDGE, AUTOWARE and DAEDALUS projects. • The second part of the book focuses on the presentation of digital simulation and digital twins’ functionalities. These include information about the models that underpin digital twins, as well as the simulators that enable experimentation with these processes over these digital models. • The third part of the book provides information about complementary assets and supporting services that boost the adoption of digital automation functionalities in the Industry4.0 era. Training services, migration services and ecosystem building services are discussed based on the results of the three projects of the Digital Shopfloor Alliance. The target audience of the book includes:• Researchers in the areas of Digital Manufacturing and more specifically in the areas of digital automation and simulation, who wish to be updated about latest Industry4.0 developments in these areas.• Manufacturers, with an interest in the next generation of digital automation solutions based on Cyber-Physical systems.• Practitioners and providers of Industrial IoT solutions, which are interested in the implementation of use cases in automation, simulation and supply chain management.• Managers wishing to understand technologies and solutions that underpin Industry4.0, along with representative applications in the shopfloor and across the supply chain.