Purists might preach against mixing information technology (IT) with Lean manufacturing, but automation professionals like Darren Hogg aren’t listening. The IT director atWIKA Instrument Corp.(www.wika.us）在佐治亚州劳伦斯维尔（Lawrenceville），发现它不仅可以支持精益原则，而且这些原则至少可以超越制造业。由于越来越多的制造商也做出了这一发现，因此这种理念已经发展成为一种精益思维，渗透到企业的每一个活动，包括信息管理。结果可能令人惊讶。
Wika就是一个很好的例子。在2001年发起了精益制造计划后，该温度和压力仪器的制造商很快发现，实现其效率目标将不仅仅需要移动设备。管理层意识到，它需要扩大主动性，以包括其所有业务流程。该公司现在每月的业务流程平均每月大约有两次Kaizen活动，这与制造流程相同。
重点的变化是一个重要的战略决策，因为间接劳动和与业务相关的流程的高昂成本很高。此外，“我们可以在大约四分钟内产生量规，”霍格说。“从客户的角度来看，这确实是增值。”必要时，订单进入和组织的其余部分，它们对产品的价值几乎没有价值。
To focus the company more sharply on the customer, management decided to change its chief performance metric from production efficiency to on-time delivery. The move would solve some of its biggest problems. “We were roughly 60 percent on time, so customers were constantly calling us asking where their orders were,” recalls Hogg. Not only did the lateness generate a measure of dissatisfaction, but fielding the calls also was consuming resources.
After mapping the order-fulfillment process, the kaizen teams were able to streamline it. For example, one way was to remove three to four days from the order entry process and load orders directly to manufacturing. “Taking four days out of my business process translates into four days of cash because it allows me to get the customer the product faster,” notes Hogg. Another team tuned the company’s Dynamics AX 2012 enterprise resource planning (ERP) system fromMicrosoft Dynamics(www.microsoft.com/en-us/dynamics/default.aspx) to generate better delivery dates. Now, the company ships 95 percent of its orders on time.
This ability to adapt the ERP system to support kaizen events was an important reason why Hogg decided to implement it in 2006. When selecting new software, his rule of thumb is find a package that will give you 80 percent of what you want and to tailor it over time. “You don’t want to spend years looking for the perfect one,” he says. Because the perfect one for a particular business probably does not exist anyway, he advocates using kaizen events and other Lean techniques to improve it over time through small incremental changes that take 30 days or less to institute.
但是，霍格对他的哪些变化有选择性。他说：“如果变更至关重要，那么我们将修改软件。”“如果我们确定不是这样，那么我们将与软件可以做什么。”
Hogg选择Microsoft ERP系统的另一个原因是它可以支持看板的能力，并从批处理处理转向订单流量。由于该公司的销售量增加了一倍以上，并开始要求客户订购较小的订单，因此生产订单从2001年的约14,000增加到2005年的约160,000。现在是七个。
霍格说：“为了支持增加的流量，我们需要一个系统的反应速度比旧的反应更快。”由于很难找到一个，“我们开始认为也许精益的大师詹姆斯·沃马克（James Womack）和丹尼尔·琼斯（Daniel Jones）是正确的，因为我们应该将计算机系统完全抛弃。”然而，他在2005年改变了主意，当他发现动态斧头和一个附加包时eBecs(www.ebecs.com), a Microsoft integrator in Norcross, Ga. “The kanban functions allowed us to pull the materials to order directly to the manufacturing cell.”
Even though IT continues to play an important role in Lean manufacturing at WIKA, Hogg still takes seriously the spirit behind the advice given by Womak and Jones. “Computer systems can be data-hungry monsters that consume a lot of your time entering data that doesn’t really add much value,” he says. “You have to be careful to give it just enough data to provide the key performance indicators that you need for driving improvement and executing to the customer’s needs.”
自动化您的费用
霍格并不孤单地认识到信息管理可以提供精益制造的支持的价值。瑞安·金（Ryan King），IT主管ARPAC(www.arpac.com）伊利诺伊州席勒公园（Schiller Park）也看到了它。实际上，自从四年前他在ERP系统中发现了编程工具以来，他的使命是将其部门从必要的成本转变为底线的贡献者。他说：“为此，它不仅可以插入打印机，更换监视器并修复老鼠。”“它必须通过应用技术来改善流程。”
By developing what he calls Lean Automated Processes (LAPs), King and his team have led the packaging machinery manufacturer and service provider on a Lean journey. They have been looking for opportunities to eliminate waste by identifying what employees should not be doing, and what the ERP system fromEpicor软件Corp.(www.epicor.com) of Irvine, Calif., could be doing. Then, they have been deploying information technology to automate these business processes.
第一个候选人参与处理paperwork and routine interactions with suppliers. “Every interaction costs money,” notes King, especially when you can have hundreds a day. “If you can fulfill your needs without having a buyer talk with a supplier, you’ve saved yourself time that could be better spent on other tasks, such as contract pricing, interacting with new suppliers, and problem solving.”
一个很好的例子是使用Epicor ERP中的工具开发的电子看板系统。为了开始使用新机器订单，员工扫描条形码。该软件会自动创建采购订单，通过电子邮件提醒供应商，并在网站上发布订单和包装单，以便零件将以工具包到达。它还可以抓取任何必要的图纸。金说：“而且我也使应付账款的作品自动化了，因此我们不必再次输入数据来支付供应商。”
“It used to take more time to do the paperwork than to create the part,” he notes. “Now it’s all done with one swipe of the bar code.” ARPAC estimates that the kanban tools available in Epicor have saved the company 15 work-hours a week just by automating the paperwork, which amounts to approximately $11,700 per year.
从帮助King开发一些在线门户网站的工具中获得了更多节省。一个例子是Arpac供应商库存系统（AVIS），该门户网站用于管理商店大量消费的零件内部库存。门户网站不仅允许供应商在ARPAC监视其库存，而且还可以通过电子邮件提醒适当的供应商，当库存下降到预定的水平。然后，供应商登录AVIS网站以访问采购订单，以及为ARPAC接收部门带有条形码的包装单。如今，有40多家供应商使用该门户，而ARPAC不再需要专门用于管理库存的专职人员。
Better manufacturing
ERP系统中可用的工具并不是消除非增值活动的唯一手段。一些自动化供应商还提供软件，可帮助用户避免使用冗余任务，同时将供应商的组件融合到其设计中。系统集成器Inter-Strap(www.inter-strap.com) in Hato Rey, Puerto Rico, for example, is using the MTpro software fromBosch Rexroth Corp.(www.boschrexroth-us.com) of Charlotte, N.C., to select linear motion products, configure pneumatic cylinders and mechatronics systems, lay out packaging lines, and generate bills of materials and budgets.
当设计人员从库中选择组件时，该软件会处理尺寸并检查零件是否属于的尺寸，例如确保驱动模块适合选择的特定输送机。Interstrap工程经理Antonio Fernandez Salas估计该工具平均将设计时间缩短了约75％。
萨拉斯报告说，为医疗设备制造商设计包装解决方案的速度比传统的计算机辅助设计（CAD）软件快800％。当零件从洁净室通过斜槽出现时，包装台每一侧的三名工人都将这些零件放在盒子里，然后盒子到达主线进行称重，密封和托盘。该软件的速度使设计师有时间迭代设计，以产生效率，从而将包装工的数量降低40％。
尽管这样的设计工具当然可以帮助系统集成商传递其产品，但许多其他软件包可以提供以优化整个工厂和供应链的信息。通用智能平台公司。(www.ge-ip.com) of Charlottesville, Va., reports that it is organizing its Proficy suite of industrial software around a more generic version of the Toyota Production System that its consulting business is developing.
“丰田生产系统专门针对汽车及其大批量自动生产线，”运营管理离散解决方案产品经理Rich Breuning解释说。尽管该模型适用于GE的设备业务，但它并不适用于GE的其他一些更复杂，更长的制造周期业务，例如喷气发动机和燃气轮机。因此，自动化供应商已将制造模型扩展到将相同的概念应用于更广泛的应用程序。
Now that the model has been developed, the company has been rolling out solutions within GE businesses over the past several years to prove the concept. “Now, we are taking it to key customers,” says Breuning. So far, it looks promising, judging by the results coming from Nissan North America Inc. The automaker is reporting that its new plant in Canton, Miss. has quality and uptime approaching Six Sigma and it was able to bring the plant online with an engineering staff that was s quarter the size of its competitors’. IT certainly has had no trouble supporting Lean thinking there.
Bosch Rexroth(www.boschrexroth-us.com)
Epicor软件(www.epicor.com)
GE智能平台(www.ge-ip.com)
Invensys(http://iom.invensys.com)
Microsoft(www.microsoft.com/en-us/dynamics/default.aspx)
Subscribe to Automation World's RSS Feeds for Feature Articles
