The barriers to lean implementation in high mix, low volume manufacturing - a marine diving engineering case study

The principles of lean thinking have been widely applied but lean implementing is notoriously complex and challenging. This case study takes place at Unique Hydra (Pty) ltd (Hydra), a high mix, low volume (HMlV) manufacturer specialising in marine diving engineering. lean implementation at Hydra attempted to transform the silo production system to a product focused system defined end-to-end. This case study is performed within the framework of action science. The functional heads of department are recognised as the existing change agents within the organisation and implementation is channelled through this leadership structure. A principled approach to lean implementation is adopted in order to ensure long term sustainability and drive the appropriate lean culture. lean implementation at Hydra is directed at the manufacture containerised dive systems (CDS) products. Cross functional office and factory teams are proposed to replace the existing functional silo system as a means of organising the value adding people and processes around products. All information related to production of CDS is stored and exchanged through a dedicated CDS information database. A combined push/pull scheduling system with limited work-in-progress and a supermarket supply stock management tool are used to schedule production. Visual management, A3 problem solving and 5S tools are proposed to continuously improve processes inside cross functional teams. As the challenges mounted it become clear that this attempt at lean implementation would be unsuccessful. The main objective of this research changed to describing the barriers preventing implementation. The barriers preventing the lean implementation include: the silo organisational structure, a problematic current state definition, the view of lean as a toolkit and concurrent organisational change initiatives.

Grantor dc:publisher.institution

Department of Mechanical Engineering

Year dc:date.issued

2012

Author dc:creator

• Isaacs, Devin

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Kahlen, F J

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/11427/10856

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/10856