See discussions, stats, and author profiles for this publication at: https://www.researchgate.

net/publication/309493079

KAIZEN IMPLEMENTATION FOR COST REDUCTION IN MANUFACTURING

PROCESS PRODUCT "DRIVER CONTROL BOARD"

Conference Paper · July 2014

CITATIONS READS

11 5,194

3 authors:

Constantin Bungau Florin Blaga

University of Oradea University of Oradea
79 PUBLICATIONS 709 CITATIONS 77 PUBLICATIONS 126 CITATIONS

SEE PROFILE SEE PROFILE

Gherghea Ion Cosmin

University of Oradea
15 PUBLICATIONS 56 CITATIONS

SEE PROFILE

All content following this page was uploaded by Gherghea Ion Cosmin on 15 February 2021.

The user has requested enhancement of the downloaded file.

 2014 International Conference on Production Research – Africa, Europe and Middle East
3rd International Conference on Quality and Innovation in Engineering and Management
KAIZEN IMPLEMENTATION FOR COST REDUCTION
IN MANUFACTURING PROCESS PRODUCT "DRIVER CONTROL BOARD"

C. BUNGAU, F. BLAGA, C.GHERGHEA

University of Oradea, University str. nr.1, Oradea, Romania

Abstract
This paper aims to present an advanced operational management technique, which is achieved by implementing
simplified the environment of workplace by reduce waste and pointless activities, improving the quality, efficiency and
safety work. The operational technique is implemented in Lean production, identified as Kaizen. Research shows the
results obtained in a manufacturing process, drawing it out to reduce costs by improving process after implementing
Kaizen techniques through instrument A3, spaghetti diagram and cause-effect analysis.

Keywords:
kaizen, spaghetti diagram, fishbone diagram, A3.

1 INTRODUCTION • “Seiri” – sort, select;

The conclusion of studies that have been carried out is
that the greatest costs of the fabrication processes are
caused by inefficient management, which does not take
into account the rigorous design of processes by means of
methods that eliminate losses.
Most companies are orienting towards the growth of profit,
ignoring the elimination of losses, which would lead to the
increase of the value and profit generating activities [1].
Today, special care is taken for the strategy of continuous
improvement, which is named “kaizen” in Japan (“kai” –
change, “zen” – for the better). Masaaki Imai, also known
as “Lean Guru”, was a pioneer and leader of spreading the
kaizen philosophy worldwide [2].
The kaizen strategy aims to gradually and continuously
improve the quality of products, services, productivity and
competitiveness, by means of the implication of the entire
staff [3].
The main purpose of the kaizen philosophy consists of the
costs reduction and production increase by 50-100% (in
some cases the production increased up to 400%) by the
elimination of losses (“muda” is the Japanese term) [9, 10].
There are two activities in kaizen philosophy:
• Activities that create added value;
• Activities that do not create added value.
The elimination of losses yields the increase of the value
creating activities in the total flux of the activities. Any
activity that aims to the increase of the value creating
activities will improve the working conditions, and this is
why Lean Manufacturing is based on the increase of the
work productivity (activities that add value), by the
identification of the losses in order to eliminate them [11].
It has been proven statistically that the losses (activities
that do not create value) which occur during a process are
found in a 95% ratio and only 5% as value (profit – value
creating activity, for which the beneficiary “pays”) [13].
1.1 Instruments that are used in kaizen technique
The 5S method is an advanced technique of operational
management, a kaizen component, which aims to create
and maintain an organized, clean and high-performance
space at the work-place [9].
The 5S come from the initials of five Japanese words,
which are able to create a clean work place, to improve the
quality, efficiency and safety, and to reduce losses and
activities that do not create value.
The 5S are:
• “Seiton” – stabilize, arrange;
• “Seiso” – shine, clean;
• “Seiketsu” – standardize;
• “Shitsuke” – sustain.
The implementation of the 5S is closely connected to the
PDCA principle (Plan-Do-Check-Action) [15].
The A3 report is one of the most simple and usual tools
that are used in kaizen, by means of which one can attain
the identification and solving of a problem, analysis,
correction of an action or of a plan of actions. It implies the
use of a big sheet of paper and of graphic tools. The A3
reports contain information that show the overall image of
the current situation of the work place [8].
Value Stream Mapping is one of the most important
techniques that are implemented in a Lean enterprise,
because it is frequently used for the understanding and
continuous improvement of the materials and information
fluxes within a Lean organization [7].
Value Stream Map (VSM) is the exemplification of the
entire production process, including the materials and
information flux from the receiving of the order till the
product delivery, and aims to identify losses [5].
Value Stream Mapping is a kaizen component that is used
to visualize the entire technological process, which helps
to identify the activities that create value and the activities
that do not create value which need to be carried out
although they generate losses [14].
The Fishbone diagram is an analysis instrument that
characterizes a certain procedure, also named as
Ishikawa diagram because it was developed by Kaoru
Ishikawa, resembling to a fish skeleton. This diagram
shows the primary and secondary causes of a certain
effect (symptom), and this is why it is also named as the
cause-effect diagram [4].
Within such a typical diagram, the problem to be solved is
noted in the “head” of the fish, then the causes are lined
along the “bones” and groups by categories. The
supplementary causes can be added on new branches.
The main objective of the Fishbone diagram is to
graphically illustrate the connection between a result and
the facts that led to its occurrence [12].
This instrument features two primary objectives:
• Identification of the main problems;
• Identification of the zones with limited information.
The advantage of the Fishbone diagram is that it helps to
analyze and identify the primary causes, to stimulate the
participation of the group, to emphasize the relations
between the cause and effect, to show what can be
changed, and the ones that research the problem are
acquiring new knowledge about that certain process and
determine the zones that need further information [6].
The Spaghetti diagram is also named as “Physical
Process Map”, “Point-to-Point Flow Chart”, or “Work-flow
Diagram”, because it shows the route of a product or
document.
The Spaghetti diagram helps to visualize all the
movements of a product, person or document, so that the
losses caused by certain movements can be identified.
The following aspects must be taken into account in order
to implement this kaizen technique:
• The processes are recorded, then certain specific
questions are asked if these activities are not
concrete;
• Each flux is traced, even if the diagram gets very
heavy;
• The time of each activity is recorded;
• The bottlenecks are identified;
• The names of the involved staff, the data and other
beneficial information for continuous improvement are
recorded;
• The mileage is calculated;
• A diagram of the ideal state of the flux is built,
eliminating the identified losses.
2 RESEARCH
The research is carried out for the “driver control board”
fabrication process, taking into account the increase of the
economical efficiency and the elimination of risks, by
means of losses identification and elimination.
Figure 1. Fishbone diagram for the “travelers paper” analysis.
About this improvement action, one can distinguish the
elimination of some tracking documents and product
history along the fabrication process. The elimination of
papers was made based on scanning of the respective
information directly from the code marked on the product
and on the administration by means of electronic product
monitoring.
Figure 2 shows the practical way to organize the process,
using an accompanying document for each plate (process
before implementation of kaizen in area layout).
The second A3 report was aimed to reduce the
transportation time of product within section, by means of
In this case, these losses are caused by:
• The “paper traveler” costs at assembly, necessary for
the product identification;
• The transportation time of product within the section.
Two A3 reports were made. In the first report, the
Fishbone diagram was used in order to eliminate the
“yellow foil”, and in the second report the Spaghetti
diagram was used in order to reduce the transportation
time of the product within the section. Thus, the first A3
report was aimed to reduce the costs by elimination of the
yellow foil. These “yellow foils” are allocated to each
product unit, which represented a high cost. These foils
indicate the process that has to be carried out for each
product unit. The total cost of the foils, the time spent for
printing them and the costs of the printing cartridges are
very high.
By means of the Fishbone diagram (figure 1), the following
negative aspects were identified:
1. Human resource:
• Supplementary costs for the filling operator
2. Methods:
• An automated tracking system is not allocated, for
each unit it is necessary to print a “yellow foil”,
• Complete the traveler for each process step.
3. Materials:
• Cartridges are used to print the yellow foils;
• Paper is consumed;
• ESD foils are consumed;
4. Time evaluation:
• Work time is lost because of foil filling.
Spaghetti diagram, and the reduction of risks of product
identification at final delivery.
 2014 International Conference on Production Research – Africa, Europe and Middle East
3rd International Conference on Quality and Innovation in Engineering and Management

One
paper
travelar
for each
unit

Figure 3. Area layout after kaizen process.

Figure 2. Assembling process before kaizen, using “paper
traveler”.
Figure 3 shows the process after the implementation of
kaizen in order to eliminate “yellow foils” in area layout. All
the units are now stored on the trays without using any
Traveler. The automatic tracking system will help us to
identify if the unit is at right operation or not.
Figure 4 shows, by means of Spaghetti diagram, the route
of the packed product within section. It can be seen that
there are two routes towards the checkpoint for three plate
types. Also, the same storage areas are used to store
various types of materials, which yields to the risk of
mixing materials.

Figure 4. Spaghetti diagram, the initial route of the product within section.

Figure 5 shows the Spaghetti diagram after the
implementation of kaizen procedure. The routes of the
products in the fabrication process have been reduced.
Also, storage zones have been settled for each type of
material.
3 CONCLUSIONS
The implementation of kaizen procedure in the studied
case implied:
• Implement the automatically traceability system;
• Training for all the operators on how to use the
new traceability system;
• Training for all the handlers on how many
travelers need to be printed after this action;
The results of the kaizen implementation consist of costs
reduction, shortening of the routes for the products during
fabrication process, more efficient organization of the
storage zones.

• Remove the all the travelers;

 Figure 5. Spaghetti diagram, route of the product within section after kaizen implementation.
4 REFERENCES
1. Ajit Kumar Sahoo, N. K. Singh, Ravi Shankar, M.
K. Tiwari, Lean philosophy: implementation in a
forging company, Int J Adv Manuf Technol
36:451–462, (2008).
2. Bungău, C., Lucaciu, I., Pancu R., Ganea
M.,Kaizen implementation to reduce production
loss (waste), Revista de management şi Inginerie
Economică (Review of Management and
Economical Engineering) ISSN 583-624X, (2009).
3. Colin Herron, Paul M. Braiden, A methodology for
developing sustainable quantifiable productivity
improvement in manufacturing companies, Int. J.
Production Economics 104 143–153, (2006).
4. Emad M. Kamhawi, Knowledge management
fishbone: a standard framework of organizational
Enablers, Journal Of Knowledge Management,
VOL. 16 NO. 5, pp. 808-828, Q Emerald Group
Publishing Limited, ISSN 1367-3270, (2012).
5. Fawaz A. Abdulmalek, Jayant Rajgopal, Analyzing
the benefits of lean manufacturing and value
stream mapping via simulation: A process sector
case study, Int. J. Production Economics 107,
223–236, (2007).
6. Gheorghe Ilie, Carmen Nadia Ciocoiu, Application
of fishbone diagram to determine the risk of an
event with multiple causes, Management
research and practice Vol. 2 Issue 1 p: 1-20,
(2010).
7. Ibon Serrano Lasa, Carlos Ochoa Laburu, Rodolfo
de Castro Vila, An evaluation of the value stream
mapping tool, Business Process Management,
Journal Vol. 14 No. 1, pp. 39-52, (2008).
8. John Shook Managing to Learn, Using the A3
management process to solve problems, gain
agreement, mentor, and lead, The Lean
Enterprise Institute Cambridge, MA, USA, (2008).
9. Jennifer A. Farris, Eileen M. Van Aken, Toni L.
Doolen, June Worley, Critical success factors for
human resource outcomes in Kaizen events: An
View publication stats
empirical study, Int. J. Production Economics
117, 42–65, (2009).
10. Masaaki Imai, Gemba Kaizen: A Commonsense,
Low-Cost Approach to Management, (1997).
11. Mahmoud Houshmand, Bizhan Jamshidnezhad,
An extended model of design process of lean
production systems bymeans of process
variables, Robotics and Computer-Integrated
Manufacturing 22, pg. 1–16, (2006).
12. Mayur S. Desai, Ronald A. Johnson, Using A
Fishbone Diagram To Develop Change
Management Strategies To Achieve First Year
Student Persistence, S.A.M. Advanced
Management Journal, ProQuest Central pg. 51,
(2013).
13. Richard J. Schonberger, Japanese production
management: An evolution—With mixed success,
Journal of Operations Management, Volume 25,
Issue 2, Pages 403-419 SUA, (2007).
14. V. Ramesh, K.V. Sreenivasa Prasad, T.R.
Srinivas, Implementation of a Lean Model for
Carrying out Value Stream Mapping in a
Manufacturing Industry, Journal of Industrial and
Systems Engineering Vol. 2, No. 3, pp 180-196,
(2008).
15. Walton, Mary. The Deming Management Method,
Perigee Books/Putnam Publishing Group, New
York, (1986).