5.14.2008

Wastes in Manufacturing - 93 Years Ago

Still plowing through Installing Efficiency Methods, by C.E. Knoeppel. Wish he was around today, he is probably rolling in his grave silently cursing all of us for not taking his words of wisdom to heart. 93 years ago, he wrote this book mostly based on his experience in foundries, hardly a high volume, low variety kind of manufacturing that we all wish we had. Who am I kidding, a lot of us do have that! Yet he identified these 15 wastes in manufacturing. Perhaps in this list, you will recognize a few as our eight wastes identified in Lean Manufacturing and made popular by Taiichi Ohno of TPS fame:

Knoeppel's 15 Wastes - from 1915:

  1. Delays - "...mean a loss of money. As most of them can be eliminated, study of their causes is worth while."
  2. Rejections - "Rejected work is a waste of the worst kind..."
  3. Manufacturing Changes - "machines broken up because of rush order, incomplete designing..."
  4. Idle equipment - "the burden...must be absorbed by those that are working...means a loss in production."
  5. Inefficiency of Management - "...beyond the control of workmen is something that should be closely watched, for so long as it is in evidence maximum results are out of the question."
  6. Inefficiency of Workmen - ditto.
  7. Changes in operation - "When changes are necesseary in the tasks set before the men, the real reasons should be invesetigated in order to reduce them if possible to a minimum."
  8. Purchase failures - "waiting for material purchased is one of the most annoying things to contend with and is a much larger factor in manufacturing than many have any idea of. It means delayed shipments, rush and hustle, loss of business, night and Sunday work, interference with plans made and numerous extra machine changes."
  9. Delayed shipments - "The reputation for prompt delivery is the desire of every concern. The aim is therefore to wathc this in an effort to improve the shipping so as to enable the concern to retain the good will of the trade."
  10. Faulty Movement of Material - "Managers fail to realize how easy it is to waste money in moving material."
  11. Poor arrangement of equipment - "The efficiency of each unit may be high, but when inter-relation is considered, loss due to faulty arrangement is apparent."
  12. Complaints - "While many men are unreasonable, the majority do not kick without having something to kick about. Where there is smoke there is fire, and analysis aims to find the fire."
  13. Lack of Co-operation - "Success in increasing efficiency is largely dependent upon securing the full co-operation of men and shop management. If there is an absence of this essential, the engineer should know it, and why."
  14. Faulty planning - "Anything which interferes with the most efficient planning will cause loss, confusion, and delays. As these are the very things which the engineer must eliminate if his work is to be successful, he will have to find the faults preparatory to elimination."
  15. Congestion at machines - "This often holds a shop back and blocks progress. Whether the trouble is lack of equipment or the fault of the shop is something the engineer can only ascertain through analysis."
Any parallels here to the eight wastes? Please, leave your comments!

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