1. You will learn a brief history of manufacturing approaches employed and the background and philosophy of lean production. You will also learn the concept of waste and that the quest for truly lean production is a journey and not a destination.
2. The need for strategy, alignment with other corporate or plant objectives, and preparation for lean production will be presented.
3. You will learn some evaluation techniques that one can use in preparation for and use in learn production activities.
4. You will learn a set of approaches used in implementing lean production in production operations. While these tools are often useful, they are not an end in themselves and they are not necessarily the essence of lean production either.
5. Concepts as workplace organization, pull production, cellular arrangement and layout improvement, visual management, quick change, mistake reduction, employee involvement, need for employee creativity and motivation for lean implementation will be discussed and examples will be given.
6. Methods for promoting success in implementing lean transformations will be discussed.
7. The change process, why some change processes fail and the importance of culture will be presented.
8. You will have an opportunity to enrich the learning of yourself and others by completing a book report and a possible project report.

Homework:

There will be an assigned book report. Some students may elect to complete a project during the course for extra credit.

Examinations:

There will be two quizzes during the course and a final exam.

Grading:

For students that choose to complete a project, an additional 10 percent may be added based upon the quality of the project report.

1. What is lean production? – Introduction, background, and lean thinking.

2. Importance of philosophy, strategy, culture, alignment, focus and systems view. Discussion of Toyota Production System.

3. Lean production preparation – System assessment, process and value-stream mapping – Sources of waste.

4. Lean production processes, approaches and techniques.—Importance of focusing upon flow. Tools include:

   •  Workplace organization – 5S.

   •  Stability.

   •  Just-In-Time – One piece flow – Pull.

   •  Cellular systems.

   •  Quick change and set-up reduction methods.

   •  Total productive maintenance.

   •  Poka-Yoke – mistake proofing, quality improvement.

   •  Standards.

   •  Leveling.

   •  Visual management.

5. Employee involvement – Teams – Training – Supporting and encouraging involvement – Involving people in the change process -- communication -- Importance of culture.

6. Startup of lean processes and examples of applications.

7. Sustaining improvement and change, auditing, follow-up actions.

   
   

As textbooks for the course students may wish to choose to use one or both of the following two books:

The Toyota Way Fieldbook, Jeffrey Liker and David Meier, McGraw-Hill, 2006. ISBN: 0-07-144893-4

Lean Production Simplified, Pascal Dennis, Productivity Press, 2007. ISBN: 9781563273568

A book report will be assigned. Books must be drawn from a book list distributed at the beginning of the course. An application project may be elected for extra credit.

Lean Thinking, James Womack and Daniel Jones, Free Press, Revised Edition, 2003. ISBN: 0-684-81035-2

The Machine That Changed The World, James Womack, Daniel Jones, and Daniel Roos, Rawson Associates, 1990. ISBN: 978-0743299794

The Toyota Way, Jeffrey Liker, McGraw-Hill, 2004. ISBN: 0-07-139231-9

Value Stream Management, Don Topping, Tom Luyster, and Tom Shuker, Productivity Press, 2002. ISBN: 1-56327-245-8

NCSU has recommended minimum specifications for computers used for classes. Depending on your computer needs, we recommend your computer meet or exceed the following minimum specifications below.

PCs must have an Intel-compatible 1 GHz processor, 512 MB RAM, 60 GB hard drive with 1 GB free space available, 256 Color Display, CD-ROM drive, 1024x768 (min.) video adapter, sound card, and speakers. The operating system should be Windows XP Pro. Real One Player Basic (available free online) and high speed Internet connection such as cable, DSL, T1 or LAN will be required for EOL courses.

MAC users must have a G4 processor with firewire and USB factory built-in, 512 MB RAM, 60 GB with 1GB free space available, 256 Color Display, CD-ROM drive, 1024x768 (min) video adapter, sound card, and speakers. The operating system must be MacOS 10.4 (minimum) along with the above RealOne and Internet specifications above.

For more detailed information on computer specifications and recommendations, please refer to our website at: http://engineeringonline.ncsu.edu/currentstudents/computeraccess.htm

Dr. Wilbur L Meier Jr., Professor
Department of Industrial Engineering
Daniels Hall 400, Box 7906
NCSU Campus
Raleigh, NC 27695-7906

Phone: 919-515-1815
Fax: 919-515-5281
EMail: wmeier@nc.rr.com