Management and Production Engineering Review

This paper introduces the Lean School, a Learning Factory, along with a “game” of physical

simulation that is developed in it. All this is focused on teaching-learning, both of students

and professionals, of the potential advantages offered by the implementation of the Lean

Production in the organizations.

The participants gain a practical experience, based on experimental learning, which gives

them a better understanding of the principles and tools of Lean philosophy.

This physical environment is not limited to theoretical teaching, but goes beyond and implements

a production system near a real one. It starts from a configuration of a production

plant with an unbalanced system and throughout the different iterations, called productions,

introduces and implement the Lean principles, which makes its participants acquire

not only knowledge but also the skills needed to implement an efficient production in their

organizations.

All the constituent elements of the system will be described briefly: the product, the variations

thereof, the initial design with its layout, as well as the subsequent productions, and

the results of learning of each one.

Maritime freight transport represents an effective solution, allowing to ensure a low-impact

service both under an economic and a sustainable perspective. As a consequence, in the last

ten years, an increasing trend of goods transported by sea has been observed. In order to

improve the terminal containers’ performance, recently published scientific studies shown

the applicability of the ‘lean logistic’ concept as a strategic key for ensuring a continuous

improvement of the logistic chain for inter-/intra terminal containers’ activities. According

to this approach, the adoption of a dry port can positively affect terminal containers’ performance,

but this requires resources and investments due to inter-terminal activities (e.g.

transport of the container from port to dry port and vice versa). The purpose of the study is

to develop a mathematical programming optimization model to support the decision making

in identifying the best containers’ handling strategy for intermodal facilities, according to

lean and green perspectives. Numerical experiments shown the effectiveness of the model in

identifying efficient material handling strategies under lean and green perspective.

The application of the 5S methodology to warehouse management represents an important

step for all manufacturing companies, especially for managing products that consist of

a large number of components. Moreover, from a lean production point of view, inventory

management requires a reduction in inventory wastes in terms of costs, quantities and time

of non-added value tasks. Moving towards an Industry 4.0 environment, a deeper understanding

of data provided by production processes and supply chain operations is needed:

the application of Data Mining techniques can provide valuable support in such an objective.

In this context, a procedure aiming at reducing the number and the duration of picking

processes in an Automated Storage and Retrieval System. Association Rule Mining is applied

for reducing time wasted during the storage and retrieval activities of components

and finished products, pursuing the space and material management philosophy expressed

by the 5S methodology. The first step of the proposed procedure requires the evaluation

of the picking frequency for each component. Historical data are analyzed to extract the

association rules describing the sets of components frequently belonging to the same order.

Then, the allocation of items in the Automated Storage and Retrieval System is performed

considering (a) the association degree, i.e., the confidence of the rule, between the components

under analysis and (b) the spatial availability. The main contribution of this work is

the development of a versatile procedure for eliminating time waste in the picking processes

from an AS/RS. A real-life example of a manufacturing company is also presented to explain

the proposed procedure, as well as further research development worthy of investigation.

Lean is one of the systematic approach to achieve higher value for organizations through

eliminate non-value-added activities. It is an integrated set of tools, techniques, and principles

designed to optimize cost, quality and delivery while improving safety. In Vietnam,

industry waste management and treatment has become serious issue. The aim of this research

is to present the effective of Lean application for industrial wastes collecting and

delivery improvement. Through a case study, this paper showed the way of Lean tools and

principles applied for wastes management and treatment such as Value Stream Mapping,

Pull system, Visual Control, and Andon to get benefit on both economic and environment.

In addition, the results introduced a good experience for enterprises in Vietnam and other

countries have similar conditions to Vietnam in cost saving and sustainable development in

waste management.

The scientific goal of this article was to confirm the thesis that efficient complaint management

can be one the company’s competitive advantage elements of in the sphere of logistic

customer service. The theoretical part of the article presents basic foundations related to

complaint management process as an important element of post-trade sales process in customer

service. The research part presents an example of the implementation of efficient

assumptions of the complaint management process on the example of a construction industry

manufacturing company. Guidelines for the design and implementation of an effective

and efficient complaint handling process are presented. An example of process analysis is

done using appropriate quality tools.

Indian SMEs are going to play pivotal role in transforming Indian economy and achieving

double digit growth rate in near future. Performance of Indian SMEs is vital in making

India as a most preferred manufacturing destination worldwide under India’s “Make in India

Policy”. Current research was based on Indian automotive SMEs. Indian automotive SMEs

must develop significant agile capability in order to remain competitive in highly uncertain

global environment. One of the objectives of the research was to find various enablers of

agility through literature survey. Thereafter questionnaire administered exploratory factor

analysis was performed to extract various factors of agility relevant in Indian automotive

SMEs environment. Multiple regression analysis was applied to assess the relative importance

of these extracted factors. “Responsiveness” was the most important factor followed by

“Ability to reconfigure”, “Ability to collaborate”, and “Competency”. Thereafter fuzzy logic

bases algorithm was applied to assess the current level of agility of Indian automotive SMEs.

It was found as “Slightly Agile”, which was the deviation from the targeted level of agility.

Fuzzy ranking methodology facilitated the identification & criticalities of various barriers

to agility, so that necessary measures can be taken to improve the current agility level of

Indian automotive SMEs. The current research may helpful in finding; key enablers of agility,

assessing the level of agility, and ranking of the various enablers of agility to point out the

weak zone of agility so that subsequent corrective action may be taken in any industrial

environment similar to India automotive SMEs.

A robust manufacturing sector is imperative for achieving sustainable and inclusive development.

Also, in the Indian context, Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) are

of vital importance due to their contribution to GDP, exports and employment. Indian

Government has launched many schemes to vitalize and improve the competitiveness of

Manufacturing MSMEs. ‘Lean Manufacturing Competiveness Scheme’ (LMCS) is a huge

step aimed to act as a catalyst for lean adoption by Indian MSMEs. This paper uses SAP

LAP framework to address critical questions regarding lean adoption by Indian manufacturing

MSMEs in the context of the government scheme ‘LMCS’. The study adds to the

existing body of knowledge on lean manufacturing that emphasizes on the importance of

soft issues while implementing lean. It also benefits the stakeholders by suggesting suitable

actions that can be taken to further improve the competitive priorities of MSMEs.

The implementation of milk-run in Indonesia has been started since 2005. As a developing

country, there is a challenge to operate milk-run smoothly especially in urban area due to

severe traffic congestion and unfavourable road condition in some areas. This research aimed

to analyze the practice of milk-run operation in one of the biggest Japanese automotive

companies in Indonesia. Transportation Value Stream Mapping (TVSM) is applied in order

to perform just-in-time delivery in the supply chain before operating milk-run. It is discussed

that this company still need to continue in improving milk-run operation. The operation

system needs control and integration from manufacturer, supplier and logistics partner.

The advantage of milk-run operation is cost reduction and also support green logistics in

decreasing emission of carbondioxide (CO2) by reducing the number of trucks used.

This paper reports a new multi-item planning and scheduling problem in a job-shop production

system with the consideration of energy consumption. A mixed integer linear programming

is proposed to integrate planning and scheduling with the consideration of energy

aspect. In this study a new operational constraint is considered in the tactical level because

of the huge interest given to energy consumption and its strong link existing with production

system. To evaluate the performance of this model, computational experiments are

presented, and numerical results are given using the software CPLEX and then discussed.

In the era of Industry 4.0, the automation of processes in the life cycle of a product seems

to be a necessity. Although programming CNC machines with CAM systems make it possible,

it is necessary to effectively acquire knowledge about the programming process and

technological requirements for effective automation. The paper presents a method for decomposition

of knowledge about the CNC machine programming process based on acquiring

knowledge from various sources, both from technologists as well as on the basis of analysis

of archival CNC control programs. To decompose the programming process, it is proposed

to apply the knowledge model described by various attributes. Verification of the method

is shown in the process of knowledge decomposition for manufacturing special production

tooling.

The dynamics of the processes taking place in an environment, which is rendered in the

altered perception of the character of this environment, induces a need to find answers to

the following questions: (1) How do managers perceive an environment in the dimensions of

stability/ changeability and friendliness/unfriendliness? (2) Is there a correlation between

the stability/changeability and friendliness/unfriendliness of an environment, i.e. if an environment

is more stable, is it perceived as more friendly, and if an environment is more

changeable is it perceived as unfriendly? (3) Does environmental stability/changeability as

well as friendliness/unfriendliness exert any influence on organizational effectiveness? In

an attempt to answer the above quoted questions, the article’s objective has been defined

as a discussion on the interdependencies perceived by managers between an environment’s

dimensions of stability/changeability and friendliness/unfriendliness (analysed in terms of

institutional categories) and the organizational effectiveness of Polish enterprises.

The managers evaluated the legal environment as the least stable. In their opinion, that

milieu was also more intimidating than friendly. Concurrently, a technological environment

was perceived by the respondents as the most stable and favourable. The results of the

effected research allow forming a conclusion concerning the existing correlation between

the friendliness and stability of particular categories of an environment, at the same time

pointing out to the occurrence of correlations between stability/changeability and friendliness/

unfriendliness of some categories of an environment and the organizational effectiveness

of the examined enterprises.