Kenichi Iida

Study on the Utilization of Digital Manufacturing for Production Operations

Digital manufacturing (DM), which has developed rapidly in recent years, is premised on use in planning operations, and it is not utilized in production operation. There are many challenges to the application of DM in production operations, such as the incapacity of a supervisor at a work site to effectively implement the manufacturing-line model developed using a DM, in a planning operation. Therefore, we propose a system that makes it possible to redesign work plans and support improvement activity by simply inputting values in accustomed standardized work tables, namely, process capacity tables, standardized work tables, and standardized work combination tables, of three types of workers, instead of inputting a large quantity of complicated parameters. Less examination time is desirable at production sites, and we added a tool that enabled the graphical display of execution processes and results. Moreover, we added a system that made it possible to alter Microsoft Excel database inputs, such as the number or arrangement of DM processing machines. This paper describes the proposed system and its method of implementation.

Study on Standardized Work Suitable for Smaller Enterprises

Many smaller manufacturers utilize production systems such as “individual production” and the “production of many models in small quantities.” In the processes for the “production of many models in small quantities” by multi-skilled workers, a manufacturer cannot make good use of the management method with standardized work tables used by large enterprises. Thus, it is necessary to develop ways to find standardized work that is suitable for smaller enterprises. Therefore, we investigated two kinds of factories that utilized flexible manufacturing procedures for the “production of many models in small quantities,” and considered their work instructions, work contents, changeover methods, workers’ abilities, etc. One of the compared processes was a case where there was defined standardized work, which was not observed. In the other, a QA (quality assurance) network was created to guarantee the quality. Based on the investigation results, we formulated improvement plans, had the supervisors review them, and clarified the characteristics of their problems. The results revealed areas where much attention was required to find standardized work for such processes. In addition, we made it possible to support the specification of difficult tasks and the renewal of standardized work by extending a standardized work table for the entry of workers’ actions. This paper reports a method to define and make good use of standardized work tables and standardized work combination tables, i.e., a way to find and use standardized work based on the results of the previously mentioned factory investigation.