Transcript Summary Slide - Stockton University

Assembly Lines
DVD
What the DVD Shows:
• History of operations management (OM)
from 1910;
• How to arrange men, machines, materials,
components in an operation;
• The essential role of OM;
• How OM has evolved: Issues OM focused
on at different time.
How to Organize Manufacturing,
Not How to Manufacture
• This DVD shows the state of art of
organizing and managing process of
manufacturing, instead of manufacturing
technology.
• The ideas presented in this video can be
extended to services
OM Topics Touched in DVD
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Productivity
Mass Production
Division of labor and interchangeable parts
Production process
Layout
Quality
Human factor
Flexible system and Lean system.
Adam Smith, 1723-1790
Assembly Line
• Each worker does a few pieces of simple
tasks repeatedly;
• Workers stay at their workstations;
Products are moved intermittently on a
conveyer.
• A product stay with a workstation for a
fixed time (cycle time), which was as short
as 10 seconds.
Automobile Assembly
Process
A
H
F
A: Front-end body-tochassis assembly
H: Hood attachment
F: Fluid filling
S: Start-up testing
Figure 1.7
S
Henry Ford, 1863-1947
Characteristic of Assemble
Line
• All products on conveyer move
together;
• Workload of a workstation
<= Cycle time;
Bottleneck of Assembly Line
• The cycle time is limited by the slowest
workstation;
• The line cannot start unless every
workstation is ready;
• If one workstation is stuck (due to broken
machine, bad quality, sick worker,...),
whole line is stuck.
Effect of Assembly Line
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Lowered product cost;
Raised quality;
Increased productivity;
Generating jobs.
Frederick W. Taylor, 1856-1915
Problems Occurred
• With increased line speed in Ford at early
years of using assembly line, there came
problems:
– Workers were bored by doing simple tasks
repeatedly. But the company did not care
what workers thought but the pace of line;
– More absentees, and high turnover rate.
• Solution of Ford (1920’s):
– Raise worker’s salary.
Human Factor
• Raising salary solved the problem for a
while, but not forever.
• Improved role of human after WWII:
– Job enlargement;
– Job enrichment;
– Total quality management.
What Toyota Did in 1960’s –
1970’s
• Involve workers into operation process:
– Value analysis;
– Total quality control;
– Just-in-time production;
– Kanban system.
• Japan passed US in auto production and
quality in 1980s.
Kiichiro Toyoda, 1894-1952
Response of US
• US auto industry responded:
– Taking the approaches of OM which was
proved effective in Japan;
– Computer aided design and manufacturing.
• The most flexible elements in production is
“people”.