Name: Saumitra Thakur (2020A4PS1468P) Blue Star Ltd

Weekly Report: (4th – 10th July,2022)

Project Progress Report

As a part of the productivity improvement project at Blue Star’s manufacturing plant, I read
a couple of research articles on the Lean manufacturing method which can be implemented
in the plant to improve productivity.
What is Lean Manufacturing:
Lean manufacturing is a production process that aims at maximizing productivity and at the
same time minimizing the waste associated with a manufacturing operation. Under the lean
principle, waste is characterized as anything that is not producing a useful output, which the
consumers are willing to pay for. Waste in industries, whether it is in the form of workers
being unutilized, production processes being inefficient, or resources being overused, leads
to a huge drop in productivity, and lean manufacturing tries to eliminate it.
Benefits:

• Reduced cost of operations

• Improved product quality
• Lesser lead time (lesser operation/manufacturing time)
All these benefits cumulatively contribute towards the improvement of productivity.

What comes under it?

The concepts of re-structuring the production processes, and standardizing the operating
procedures, in order to eliminate waste are key aspects of lean manufacturing.
“To achieve more by doing less, while holding customer satisfaction paramount” accurately
describes the spirit of lean manufacturing.

Core principles of lean manufacturing:

• Value
• Value Stream
• Flow
• Pull System
• Perfection
1. Value: This principle is primarily determined from the consumer’s lens. It is
essential to understand what exactly are the customers willing to pay for and
how much. Based on this the producers must try to minimize or eliminate the
features of the product which provide no useful value to the customers, and
thereby reduce the final cost of the product. This allows them to project prices
that are optimal for the consumers, and at the same time also allows the
organization to maintain a profit margin.

2. Value Stream: It refers to the entire product cycle, ranging from procurement of
raw materials to the dispatch of the final product. This principle deals with
identifying a scope of improvement in the various stages of the product cycle and
tries to eliminate any waste of resources/materials in the processes.

3. Flow: Creating a flow helps in reducing the manufacturing time by removing

operational barriers. The smooth functioning of the production processes is
extremely necessary to ensure that time delays are avoided and to achieve this,
streamlining the flow efficiently is the only way. Huge losses are incurred due to
operational lags and disharmonious manufacturing. These lags often occur, due
to an irregular flow or uneven distribution of workload, and hence maintaining a
constant stream is very helpful.

4. Pull system: This principle tries to establish a demand-driven work system. Here,
the production cycle starts only when there is demand, unlike the push system,
which acts on the basis of forecasted demand. The pull system is introduced to
avoid wastes/losses which might occur due to the inaccuracies associated with
the forecasts. If the forecasts go wrong, we may end up with too much product
as compared to the demand, thus leading to wastage, or we may end up
producing too less as compared to the demand which prevents us from making
the possible profits. Additional warehousing costs and disrupted service
schedules are some of the disadvantages of the push system which can be
eliminated by using the pull principle. To explain with the help of an example,
teams moving on to new tasks and projects only after meeting the demands of
the ongoing task comes under the pull system.

5. Perfection: Continuous improvement of the production processes with the help

of technological development and other simpler techniques like Kaizen can lead
to perfection. Lean manufacturing requires us to put in a continuous effort in
order to eliminate waste wherever possible and to find a perfect system for the
production cycle. It is the ultimate aim.
The different types of wastes under lean manufacturing:
I. Over Production: Producing more than what is required to meet the demand.

II. Over Processing: Providing features that the customer is unwilling to pay for.

III. Excess Inventory: Stockpiling inventory which ultimately gets depreciated.

IV. Waiting Time: Idle workers/ unused equipment.

V. Rework/ Correction: Waste of resources due to defects.\

VI. Intellectual: Unused talent/ mismatch of work and skills.

VII. Unrequired Transportation: Too much transportation of goods.

VIII. Motion: Unnecessary movement of people and equipment.

We must look out for these wastes in our production processes and try to eliminate them.
How to implement lean manufacturing in Blue Star?
There are primarily two approaches to inculcate the lean manufacturing method. One is to
actively find out instances of wastage in the production cycle and eliminate them one by
one or the other way is to improve the workflow and streamline the tasks efficiently. The
second way is an indirect approach, that naturally eliminates waste without us having to
actively find it out. Also, the latter approach is a system-wide approach and does not act on
individual wastes. Some of the widely used methods under these approaches are as follows:
a. Automation
b. Job Load Balancing/Line Balancing
c. Pull Processing
d. Visual Control
e. Flexibility
Commonly used Lean Manufacturing tools:
a. Kanban Boards
b. Control Charts
c. ‘Poka Yoke’ mechanism/ Error Proofing
d. 5S workspace organization

Conclusion: Lean manufacturing is an effective productivity improvement technique that is

best applied across the entirety of the organisation in order to provide maximum
performance efficiency.