IE 5617 Lean Concepts and Application
HW1
Cendur Abithan (002105669)
1.
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Work culture:
Japan: Auto workers and management work together and trust was paramount.
America: tension amongst labour workers and union members. Labour workers had too
much leverage due to the Union Contract.
Teamwork makes the dream work:
Work in small groups.
A team leader is always around to lend a helping hand when things wouldn’t go as planned.
A fellow teammate who listens and collaborate ideas who also could take over when a
worker gets tired or to relieve monotony.
Kaizen: the concept of continuous improvement calls for the workers to collaborate and
constantly look for ways to improve the production process. Reinforcing such habits by
incentives in the form of bonuses
No time to waste! : Time the steps down to the second and use it as a marker for efficient
flow
The line must go on: a cardinal rule is to never stop the line/flow for any reason
whatsoever.
Quality: fix a problem at the first encounter so that you won’t suffer later. By prioritising
Quality over quantity, Toyota made sure the amount of defects is kept as low as possible.
This eliminates redundancy that arises in the form of repair time, extra cost for fixing the
defects and wearing away of parts in the process
Andon cord: it is pulled whenever a worker is met with a problem. The team leader shows
up to solve the problem as quickly as possible without stopping or disrupting the production.
The line stops when the problem is not fixed. Once fixed the cord is pulled again and the line
resumes.
2. Curious as to how the line goes on no matter the severity of the problem faced and how the
Andon cord works hand in hand with this concept.