Question:

All organizations, regardless of industry, can implement lean operations. In the organization where you currently work, an organization where you worked previously, or one with which you are familiar, describe an operation that you would consider NOT to be lean. In other words, describe a process that you would say has a lot of waste in it. Then, if you were to “lean out” that process, what would it look like after you were done? What wastes would you eliminate? How would you do so? How would this benefit the overall operations of the organization? Answer these questions in a 7 pages paper, not including the cover and reference pages. Be sure to include 2-3 outside sources.

How a printing press can reduce it’s waste and productivity problems through Lean Management Techniques

Introduction to the Printing Press

Al-Efan printing press began its operations in the year 1996 and served many customers in the city of Riyadh. Among hundreds of printers in Saudi Arabia, Al-Efan has a reputation for being one of the leading commercial printing presses of the city. It has a pre-press section and post-press section to take care of the unique needs of the customers and aspires to be a one-stop solution provider to the customers for concept development, design of graphics, high-quality printing on various kinds of papers, post-press activities such as binding, folding, sorting, personalization, etc. Al-Efan always benchmarks its services to international standards, but somehow could not achieve its target.

The Challenges

Though the customers patronized the Al-Efan printing press, the company had various manufacturing defects and delays. The problems nagged the founder and chairman, Al-Abbassi, of the Al-Efan. The press began operations with 12 employees in the year 1996 and now has about 75 employees. Even with additions in the workforce, Al-Abbasi noticed exorbitantly high wastage of consumables, production defects and delivery errors. A sizable amount of paper is discarded as waste after printing, business cards, flyers, brochures, manuals, etc. the number of incidents of the production flaws such as ink spillage, uneven colours, etc. have crept into the production system. In recent time, the wrong consignment has been delivered to the customer, which created huge financial loss as well the reputation (Rothenberg & Cost, 2004). Specifically, the flexographic label printing division had frequent problems with die changeovers. The works observed that the change of dies took about a minimum of four hours and may extend up to seven hours depending on the complexity of the work or the mess up in the plate loading process. A downtime of five hours is unaffordable to the press due to decreased productivity, increased cost and loss of reputation among the customers (Uribe, 2008).

The poor quality of print production also added cost to the company financially and caused the loss of business. The printing problems included blurred images, bleeding colours, and fading. The management decided to rectify the problems with including technological solutions along with process improvements (Gehman, 2003).

The Solution

Al-Abbassidid some research and pondered on the solutions to improve production processes (especially the die/plate changing process) and reduce wastages in a holistic manner. Many colleagues and industry representatives suggested implementing lean manufacturing methods to reduce wastage of resources and time. During discussions, it was found that loss of productivity is manifested in many ways.  For example, the underutilized production capacity of printing machine and overproduction of print materials are forms of waste. The founder was not aware that an unused printing machine can be considered as waste if it does not add any value to the customer (Womack & Jones, 2003). The founder was impressed by the earlier case studies of the Lean Techniques and decided to implement the system.

A brief about Lean

The Lean production system adopts a holistic approach rather than solving individual issues. Continuous improvement and respect for employees are the two major principles of Lean management. The system can be implemented in any organization irrespective of the size of the enterprise, in any type of company (even in financial organizations such as HRD Fund are eligible) and in any cultural environment (Cooper, Keif & Macro Jr, 2007).  The primary goal of this approach is to eliminate waste and thereby increase productivity. In Lean, waste is not only about the physical residue in production, but it also covers equipment, resources, and actions that are of no value to the customer.  The approaches of Lean consider people as one of the main ingredients in improving the system. The people must be encouraged, empowered and aided to think creatively and implement the plans cooperatively. The usual punch line of Lean to the employees is ‘do more with less’. The principles of Lean are simple to learn and apply and do not require expensive training and consultations (Sayer & Williams, 2012).

The recommendation for the LEAN implementation

Some of the major Lean management tools are 5S, Total Production Maintenance (TPM), Process Mapping, Kaizen, Just in Time Production, Five Whys, etc.( Business Knowledge Source, 2010). For solving the waste and productivity issues of the Al-Efan printing press, the following steps are recommended.

At the flexographic printing section, the die changing process created a bottleneck for the production. In many manufacturing facilities, machine setups create wastes. A typical setup is preparing printing equipment or process for starting a printing cycle. And, setup time is considered as the sum of the time elapsed between the last work and the beginning of the next work due to the preparation for the equipment set up or process (Albert, 2004).  In the printing industry, the Lean practice has contributed a term called SMED (single minute exchange of die), a technique to reduce setup time and make the machine ready for work (Chen & Meng, 2010)

With a combination of the use of ergonomic tools and techniques of 5S (sorting, setting in order, shining, standardizing, sustaining), the SMED may be designed. The SMED will help to reduce the setup time and increase productivity.  In many organizations with the use of SMED, the setup time was reduced from hours to a few minutes (Chen & Meng, 2010). Faster setup time not only reduces downtime but also increases productivity; and when this is applied throughout the organization where multiple printing presses are installed, the gain will be tremendous.

For improving the quality of the product such as blurring of the graphics, fading of colours, etc. a TQM (Total Quality Management) may be implemented. The tool of five whys is an apt choice to begin the TQM, which promotes a strong prominence of process measurement and control as a medium for uninterrupted improvements (Arumugam & Goyal, 2008). Five-Why Analysis helps the TQM team to explore the causes of a problem by making them ask five why questions repeatedly which relates to the problem.

The five whys technique is helpful to sustain the exploration of the original cause of the problem is identified (Bonacorsi, 2007).   A team identified for solving the production issue be involved to carry out the 5 Whys analysis. The questions may include the following.

Why the printed document does is smudgy?

Why the three colours are not mixed and superimposed appropriately?

Why the printing plates are not mounted on the spindle or rollers?

Why the tracing notches are not accurately placed on the plates?

Why the tracing notches are having flaws? Etc.

The answers to these questions will help to understand the problem accurately and trigger solutions to the people involved in the production process. Based on the solutions generated by the production team or Lean team, the improvement action must be carried out until the desired results are achieved. The total improvement process may be documented as a guide to other teams and to internalize the learning.

The probable takeaways

Applying lean manufacturing principles can help the printing press to reduce wastage, inefficiencies and costs.In order to avoid the production bottlenecks, the old printers may be replaced with technologically advanced machines and simultaneously, the lean principles have to be practised.  There are bright chances that this hybrid approach shall reduce the cycle times, improve production flow that is smooth and continuous, increase capacity utilization, reduce costs and improve profits (Oakland & Tanner, 2007). The results of Lean implementation has demonstrated enormous potential for printing organization to reduce set up time (waste), increase time available for value-addition, and thereby increase the confidence of the employees.

Apart from improving the efficiency of the manufacturing system, the business as such may experience a surge. In many organizations where Lean is implemented, the organizational culture of the company has dramatically changed. After the implementation of the Lean, managers from the different department are likely to communicate often and solve the issues by working together (Shah & Ward, 2003). Managers and employees may develop a culture of developing clear schedules and goals in manufacturing.  The practice of five whys will deepen the understanding of the organizational issues among the employees.

Conclusion

One prominent tool the Lean program focuses is a 5S implementation in the printing company. The 5S tool is critical for establishing a diagrammatic workplace. The 5S components i.e. sort, set in order, shine, standardize, and sustain has applications in every aspect of the organization and gives confidence to the managers that any issue can be solved (Gapp, Fisher, & Kobayashi, 2008). In short, sort helps to align resources and tools; the set in order element brings logical order to the daily operations. The shine principles remind the employees to follow safety and cleanliness, and the standardization step prompts the people to search for the best practices and preserve it as the cornerstones of performance (McManus, 2008).  Finally, the best practices are perpetuated through the regular audits, training and self-discipline.

References

Albert, M. (2004). Setup reduction: At the heart of lean manufacturing. Modern Machine Shop, 76(11), 66-66.

Arumugam and Goyal. (2008) “Newspaper Aims to Improve Printing: A TQM Case Study.” Six Sigma: Quality Resources for Achieving Six Sigma Results, available at https://www.isixsigma.com/tools-templates/capability-indices-process-capability/capability-and-performance/, Accessed on 11^th December 2016.

Bonacorsi, Steven.(2007). 5 Whys Analysis, Ezinearticles, October 7, 2007. Available at http://ezinearticles.com/?5-Whys-Analysis&id=772552, Accessed on 11^th December 2016.

Business Knowledge Source (2010). “Lean Manufacturing Techniques.” Available at   http://www.businessknowledgesource.com/manufacturing/, Accessed on 11^th December 2016.

Chen, L., & Meng, B. (2010). The application of setup reduction in lean production. Asian Social Science, 6(7), 108-113.

Gapp, R., Fisher, R., & Kobayashi, K. (2008). Implementing 5S within a Japanese Context: An Integrated Management System, Management Decision. 46(4): 565-579.

Gehman C. (2003). Print production workflow: A practical guide. Paramus, NJ: NAPL

McManus, Kevin (2008). “Top 10 Tips for 5S Success”. Great Systems, March 15, 2008.

Oakland, J. S., & Tanner, S. (2007). Successful Change Management. Total Quality Management & Business Excellence, 18(1/2), 1-19. doi:10.1080/14783360601042890

Rothenberg, S., & Cost, F. (2004). Lean manufacturing in small- and medium-sized printers (PICRM-2004-04). Rochester, NY: Printing Industry Center at RIT.

Sayer, N., & Williams, B. (2012) Lean for Dummies. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sones, Inc.

Shah R, and Ward P T (2003). Lean manufacturing: Context, Practice Bundles, and Performance. Journal of Operations Management. 21: 129–149.

Uribe, J. (2008). Print productivity: a systems dynamics approach (PICRM-2008-05). Rochester, NY: Printing Industry Center at RIT.

Womack, J., & Jones, D. (2003). Lean thinking: Banish waste and create wealth in your corporation. New York: Free Press.