MEEM 5655

LEAN
MANUFACTURING

Waste Identification using

COMMWIP
Job Overall
Date 01.23.2017

Submitted by:
Hemant Verma
hemantv@mtu.edu

CORRECTION
Some parts received at inspection station were sent back to previous stations
for the corrective actions. E.g. on day 1, one out seven parts was sent back to
final assembly.

OVERPRODUCTION
There was no balance between pull and flow between different stations. This means
there was definitely an overproduction at station where flow is

e.g. Some of the casting stations produced more parts on the first day than
required e.g. one of the LM23 stations produced 40 LM23 against the pull of
35 LM23 by the welding station. It means there was overproduction of 5
parts at LM23 station.

MOTION
This type of waste was one of the most prevalent wastes in the factory. Factory
layout was the main reason behind it.

There was too much motion of internal and external material handlers in the
factory e.g. customer was located too far from the inspection station and
motion of the external material handlers between inspection station and
customer is a waste. Similarly, motion of the internal material handlers
between the different stations in the factory is a waste.

MATERIAL MOVEMENT
As discussed in the previous section, there was too much movement of the
material that were not adding any value. e.g. material movement from final
assembly to inspection station is completely a waste as it is not adding any
value to the product. Similarly, material movement between other stations is
also a waste.

WAITING
This is also one of the most prevalent wastes in the factory. As discussed above
there was no balance between pull and flow. This led to waiting at many stations in
the factory.

e.g. Some of casting stations had to wait for long time due to non-availability
of the raw material on day 2.

INVENTORY
There were wastes associated with inventory in the factory.
 As discussed above there was not a balance between pull and flow. Which
lead to overproduction which is nothing but WIP inventory e.g. casting
stations were producing products in the batch of 20 but pull by the material
handlers was only 5. It led to waste associated with 15 WIP inventory.
Also there was excess inventory of raw material at casting stations. e.g. one
of the LM 23 station received inventory of raw material for 25 LM23 but they
could produce only 20 LM23 on day1. It means there was excess inventory of
raw material corresponding to 5 LM23.

PROCESSING
At macro level there were too many efforts by the persons in and out of factory that
were not adding any value from the customers point of view.

e.g. internal and external material handlers were putting too much efforts to
move the material from one station to other. But this processing was not
adding any value to the product. Therefore, it is a waste.
Also, based on the customer requirement and feedback, we can identify the
features of the product that customers do not value. Processing at different
stations in the factory corresponding to that features is a waste.