Daily Archives2016 December 20

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This is a comprehensive overview of the main aspects of lean manufacturing, which is a very popular approach to help businesses, especially manufacturing, to reduce waste and increase efficiency.

The old way of thinking was to work harder, and produce more. The Lean approach is focused much more on eliminating waste and inefficiencies, which will increase quality and production as a result.

Main areas of focus

• Lean manufacturing
• 5S
• Six sigma
• Kaizen
• Value Stream mapping

Lean manufacturing is the general term that encompasses the other topics. Each of the various aspects of lean are like spokes of a wheel, each one supports the other to make the wagon roll.

5S

By far, the easiest program to begin the lean journey is 5S. This is because of the straight-forward nature of the application. Once a company embraces 5S in an integrated manner, the benefits are readily apparent.

5S is much more than slogans and banners, as are all the lean programs. It takes a huge commitment on the part of everyone involved to make it work. Once the decision has been made to move forward, top management needs to become visibly and actively involved. This direct involvement will act as a reinforcement for the workforce so they will feel a part of the program.

Six Sigma

Six sigma teaches how you can monitor and measure your progress, or lack thereof. It is a more scientific and specialized methodology than 5S.

Many lean consultants specialize in the application of six sigma. With their help, you can reap huge rewards by eliminating scrap and waste of all type. The rate of defects will dramatically decrease as the monitoring system is implemented.

The Motorola Corporation is actually the creator of this very useful and popular program. When the name Six Sigma is capitalized, it is because it is a registered trademark of Motorola.

Value Stream Mapping

Value stream mapping is a powerful tool to help visualize the entire lean manufacturing process. It might appear complicated at first, but, as with other aspects of your program, when it is broken down into small steps it is really quite simple.

Many things that are taken for granted take on a totally unique perspective once seen in a new light. Value stream mapping does just that: it helps you to visualize where you currently are and where you ultimately intend to arrive. If you don’t know where you are going, how can you ever get there?

Kaizen

This is Japanese for continuous improvement. Actually, there are subtle meanings to this, but for our purposes, this is what it means.

One very popular methodology is the Kaizen blitz. These are like mini-events that strive to bring about lean changes. This is a great way to make incremental progress in your quest for perfection.

The Toyota car company is credited with the continuous improvement idea, and it has made them the most efficient automotive company in the world.

Lean manufacturing is here to stay and will increase in popularity with all types of companies, not just manufacturing.

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Source by Randy Hough

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Many people love the idea of a hybrid but are concerned about the hybrid performance in the dead of winter. In order to answer this question I took a Kia Hybrid on an extended 2 day demonstration. Lots of people write about how the Kia Hybrid operates in winter in places like Vancouver, or Chicago, but Winnipeggers will only trust a true Winnipeg test so now we are giving it the true Winnipeg in January test. By the way average Winnipeg temperature in January is between -23 and -13 degrees C.

The Kia Optima Hybrid that I drove was a 2012 hybrid that carried a MSRP of $30,895 plus freight, fees and taxes. Currently at time of writing Kia is showing a $3400 rebate on this vehicle which brings it level with its non hybrid counterpart.

When I was given the keys to this vehicle, it was 6pm at night, so it was dark already. The car was parked in the back lot where it had been sitting unused for the last 30 days or so. It was a cold January evening (-18 degrees C) and the car was sitting under 6 inches of snow and parked behind a plow windrow that was 8 inches high. After clearing the windshield and the drivers door I hopped in and pushed the quick start button. It started up right away and the seat quickly adjusted to the preset position. I let it warm up for a minute while I brushed the rest of the snow away from the top of the vehicle. When I hopped back in the vehicle I turned off the traction control and spun my way out of the snow that I was parked in. I drove the car up to the building and put a license plate on it. When I returned to the car it had already heated up. This was much quicker than I had expected and I was impressed.

The number one thing that customers want to know when dealing with a hybrid is what is the fuel economy. Will it save enough fuel to pay for itself? The second is how long will the battery last and how much will it cost to replace it?

Let me address the second point first. In Canada, Kia has put a 96 month 160,000 km limited warranty on the entire hybrid system. So if your battery fails within the first 8 years or 160,000 km it will be covered. This will mean that for the majority of consumers, battery life, and replacement value are non-issues.

Kia Optima Hybrid is in the Guinness Book of World records for “Lowest fuel consumption, 48 U.S. states: gasoline hybrid car” verified by a Guinness World Records adjudicator. In this display they achieved an average of 3.3l/100km. The one thing that we find in Winnipeg in January driving through the heart of the city is that you can throw energuide ratings out the window. No matter what vehicle you drive, ratings will actually be about 75% of actual gas mileage. Others may argue this but with my driving style and vehicle use I generally find these numbers are accurate no matter what vehicle I drive. This was true with the Optima Hybrid. Energuide ratings for this vehicle are 5.8 l/100km for city driving. Energuide ratings for the non-hybrid Optima are 8.6l/100km. The true mileage that I found for these two vehicles under this condition were 8.1 for the Hybrid and 11.7 for the GDI Optima. The Optima Hybrid still saves considerable fuel in Winnipeg in winter over its non-hybrid brother. One disclaimer though is that the vehicle did not run as an electric vehicle until about 17km into the trip so it was sitting between 11 and 12 l/100km until the last km in which it started running completely off the EV and average gas consumption plummeted.

So for those who ask the question if the Hybrid will pay for itself, in this application the answer is resoundingly yes. Current rebates on the Hybrid make this vehicle priced about the same as the Optima EX. Therefore, costs of purchasing are approximately the same regardless whether you choose Hybrid or Gasoline Direct Injection (GDI). If the vehicle is driven 100,000km with this difference in fuel consumption, the savings will amount to $3780. This number is based on fuel at $1.05/liter. Savings will be greater at a higher gas price. Remember that this is based on winter driving alone. This will increase for anyone who commutes more than 20km per trip. As stated the EV motor started running after 17 km so gas mileage started to improve considerably. At the other end of the spectrum, if you are using your car just to go to the store and get a loaf of bread, you may not notice any winter savings. I will note that while driving the Hybrid in summer, I was running on full EV by the time I went around the block.

So for all those that ask me if a Hybrid can stand up to our Winnipeg winters I will say “definitely”. It cold weather started after a long sit, it handled well on snow covered roads, it saved fuel over the long run, and it is priced competitively with the non-hybrid version.

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Source by Darren P Somersall

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Bellsonica Auto Component Pvt Ltd., the Maruti-Suzuki joint-venture with Bellsonica Corp., is expected to reduce the contribution per vehicle of Maruti’s existing sheet metal suppliers.

The joint-venture was set up in July last year and is setting up a plant in Manesar, near Maruti’s new production plant. Maruti-Suzuki holds 30% in the joint-venture with the rest held by Bellsonica – one of Suzuki’s traditional suppliers in Japan.

The biggest loser is expected to be Jay Bharat Maruti, Maruti’s traditional medium-sized sheet metal components supplier. Along with Caparo Maruti, Mark Auto (now SKH Metals) and Rasandik Industries, JBML accounts for most of Maruti’s sheet metal requirements. JBML is one of Maruti’s top five suppliers in terms of value.

Bellsonica’s Indian venture is likely to overlap the most with JBML’s share in Maruti’s sheet metal component requirements, supplying the same type of components. Sources pointed out that JBML, which supplies around 90 sheet metal components for the just launched SX4 saloon, was offered less than 20 components by Maruti for the Model P, a small car under development by Suzuki, slated for launch in October 2008, to be manufactured in Manesar and slated for export to the European market. Maruti is targeting exports of 150,000 units per year of exports of the Model P, apart from huge domestic consumption, once it is introduced. The Model P will also be badged as a Nissan and that will account for 50,000 units as well.

Ironically, Bellsonica has been one of JBML’s technology providers in the past. BML is not the only probable loser because of Bellsonica’s Indian venture; Caparo Maruti, Mark Auto and Rasandik Industries are all likely to see their average content per vehicle with Maruti go down in the near future.

In another development, the four sheet metal suppliers were amongst the top ten worst rated suppliers at a recent Maruti supplier convention.

Not surprisingly, the sheet metal suppliers have been working at increasing the share of non-Maruti business in their total revenue. JBML has established a number of companies under the “Neel” umbrella which are responsible for non-Maruti businesses. These include a joint-venture with Thai Summit. JBML is already supplying to Tata Motors, Toyota, Ford, Ashok Leyland, Honda and several two wheeler companies as well as Tier 1 suppliers like Delphi.

Caparo Maruti is also aggressively expanding beyond Maruti. It is already supplying to General Motors and Eicher Motors and is looking at expanding to other OEMs as well.

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Source by Deepesh Rathore

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One of the most popular platforms in the tuning market. Whether you’re looking to go road racing,auto cross, drifting, drag, or just plain fast the Nissan 240sx is one of the best giant killers around.

Introduced in 1989 the 240sx has everything a great sports car should. Rear-wheel drive, independent suspension, disc brakes, and a light weight chassis. Extremely popular in its native Japan the 240sx has been well known among many for years as an ideal tuning platform. The one major drawback however as seen by many is that when it came to our shores in the U.S. Nissan loaded these cars with the KA24DE which by all means is a perfectly decent engine and has a lot of tuning capability, but considering that in Japan they were selling with the much more popular and more powerful SR20DET its hard to not feel like we got cheated a little.

Fortunately for us however one of the best parts about the 240sx and most Nissans for that matter is that they are amazingly good candidates for engine swaps. The most popular swap around is the turbo charged SR20DET, but people are also cramming in everything from skyline motors to even LS1 out of corvettes. The 240sx is just one of those chassis that can not only handle the new found power but also keep its great handling characteristics. Also due to the 240sx being such a hot platform for tuning there is basically an unlimited supply of parts from mild mods to full tilt race setups.

Tips on buying one: The first gen cars are going to be the ones that will fall into the sub-$1000 dollar price range and there are still plenty of un-modded cars out there to be found for cheap. However keep in mind that these cars are still sought after and a clean chassis will command a decent price. A good tip for those of you looking to do a swap already is to find an unfinished project that somebody else let bite the dust. Doing this can allow you to save some major cash on parts and maybe even have a good head start on getting the car where you want it to be faster. For those of you with performance in mind I would recommend staying away from the convertible models as they tend to be much heavier and have less chassis rigidity.

So if you are looking for your next tuner project its tough to go wrong with a 240sx no matter how many there are out there you can always have a chance to make it your own and have something that is fun to drive and different.

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Source by Brian Ostrowiak

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The Ford Pinto was Ford’s first domestic subcompact car. It was marketed in 1970 with competitors being the AMC Gremlin, Chevrolet Vega and imports from Volkswagen, Datsun and Toyota. It was a very popular car with 100,000 units delivered by January 1971. A version produced under the Lincoln Mercury name was called the Bobcat.

The Pinto used powertrains proven in Europe but the Vega had an innovative aluminum engine that caused problems. Robert Eidschun’s design of the exterior of the Pinto was chosen which was unusual because most cars consist of style elements from many designers. The Ford Pinto offered an inline 4 engine and bucket seats. And entry level Pinto was $1,850 which made it the cheapest Ford since 1958.

Seating in the Pinto was low to the floor compared to the imports. Body styles were the two door coupe, a hatchback called the Runabout and a two door station wagon. A top of the line Pinto Squire had faux wood sides. Road & Track magazine did not the suspension and standard drum brakes but loved the 1.6 L Kent engine. The Pinto was available with a choice of two engines and Ford changed the power ratings practically every year. The Ford Pinto Pangra is a modified sporting Pinto produced by Huntington Ford in California and only 55 were sold in 1973.

The Ford Pinto is most well known for it’s design problem that allowed the fuel tank to be easily damaged in a rear end collision. Deadly fires and explosions were common occurrences in rear end collisions. The Pinto had no real bumper or reinforcing structure between the rear panel and gas tank. In some collisions the gas tank would be thrust forward into the differential which had protruding bolts that could puncture the tank. Also the doors could jam during an accident due to poor reinforcement. This led to the Pinto’s nickname as a barbeque that seats four.

The Ford Pinto memo is the cost benefit analysis that Mother Jones magazine obtained that they claimed Ford used to compare the cost of an $11 repair to the monetary value of a human life. This characterization of Ford’s decision as a disregard for human life led to lawsuits though Ford was acquitted of criminal charges. The NHTSA ruled in 1974 that the Pinto had no recallable problem but in 1978 Ford initiated a recall providing a dealer installable safety kit that put protective plastic material over the sharp objects thereby removing the risk of a gas tank puncture.

The Ford Pinto has the dubious honor of being on Time magazine’s list of the fifty worst cars of all time.

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Source by Christine M. Breen

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Poka yoke refers to a Japanese concept invented by Shigeo Shingo in the 1960s for Toyota as a means to prevent the company for making any errors. The word comes from “poka” meaning mistake, and “yokeru” meaning to avoid. The first term was actually called “baka-yoke” or fool-proofing, until it was formally changed later on when a worker was offended by its derogatory meaning.

The goal of poka yoke is to have zero defects and to prevent making any defective products. The concept is generally utilized in the manufacturing industry but it’s also applied in offices, hospitals, and other businesses that are vulnerable or have the potential to commit errors.

Poka yoke can be easily utilized in your business. It can be implemented with a variety of simple instruments like warning devices, notifications, paper, fixtures, and so on. They serve as preventive measures to prevent people and machines from conducting mistakes. These devices should be easy to install, provide instant prevention and feedback, can function independently, and can be used by everyone.

A poka yoke presentation would reveal that unlike conventional inspection techniques, the practice does not cause any delay in the manufacturing process. Since it falls under the lean manufacturing methodology, little time is needed to ensure each product is free from defects. Given its time-saving capability, It causes a business to be more productive.

Employees engaging in a poka yoke presentation and applying the concepts in their task encourage them to consistently solve problems and make quality products. Plus, It enforces employees to be effective workers, preventing errors and getting zero defects. What does this mean? The need or the rate for reworking and repairing products is drastically reduced. Having faulty products represent waste and errors that could’ve been easily avoided. The objective of this is to constantly satisfy the customer at a minimum cost and with no waste.

It’s a fact that it needs a lot of devices to be effectively implemented. The difference lies in the fact that compared to conventional inspection methods, the devices are significantly less costly. Zero defects at a fraction of the cost of conventional methods; what more can you ask for? Engage your workers in a poka yoke presentation and see the difference.

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Source by Cristal Mcmeans

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Everybody in the business world is familiar with the Japanese word ‘Kaizen’ and it refers to the process of effecting continuous improvement in a business organization. Quality of products cannot be improved in one or two steps. Every business organization should strive to introduce improvements in every stage of the production process and there will always be room for further improvement. By introducing improvements, the production process becomes easier and more cost effective. The profits of the company increase and the company will have the edge to compete with any other company in the market.

There is another word, Kaizan, which sounds similar but is entirely different in meaning. It refers to the unfair practice of falsifying business records and it is illegal in many countries. By cooking the books, the company tries to cheat the authorities and the public. The company’s only aim is to make money by hook or by crook. In practice, no improvement takes place in the business organization and whatever it tries to portray is market hype.

In a competitive business world where everybody is trying to make profits, only a very few people understand what kaizen means. It is therefore necessary to explain the tools of kaizen and the healthy business practices to make improvements in the production process.

The most difficult obstacle to overcome while implementing improvement is the business culture. Talking about improvements will not bring about quality in the company’s products; there have to be concrete steps taken to change the existing business practices.

Kaizen, in its real sense is not merely about reducing the workforce and trying to create an image of a prosperous company among the public. These efforts may result in some short term benefits but they don’t improve the quality of the company’s products.

Toyota, the leading manufacturer of vehicles, which doesn’t give false and unrealistic promises to its customers is an example of a company in which kaizen is practiced earnestly. Its mission statement simply states that the company will be fully responsible for its actions and the quality of its products.

To achieve product quality, waste must be eliminated at all levels of the production process. It includes efficiency in accounting, workforce, marketing and so on. The company should aim at long-term goals rather than short-term ones. The business organization as a whole, starting from the top to the bottom, should be responsible for bringing about continuous improvement in its production process.

Konusuke Matsushita once explained why Western companies are doomed to fail. He attributed strict adherence to Theory X as the main reason for the failure of Western companies. Western companies exclude the working class from decision making process and the employees are forced to work like machines. There is no unity between the workers and the management in Western companies. Such companies will fail to bring about any improvement in the quality of their products.

Kaizen, on the other hand, emphasizes unity among all and respect for each other. It recognizes the fact that the backbone of a company is its work force. It, therefore, takes all possible means to improve the quality of the workers. To improve the quality of products, the company should respect not only its workers but all other people who the company has dealings with as well. This is one area where the Western companies miserably fail. They put forward lame excuses for lack of respect for its employees and customers.

Any step taken to improve the quality of services and products must be based on long term goals. Quality improvement is possible only if every individual in the company is committed to improving the quality of its products. It is the mindset of people that has to change most in order to achieve quality improvement.

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Source by Steve Wilheir

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Promoting preferred body shops is standard procedure for many insurance companies. If you are insured by one of the insurance companies that has preferred body shops, you are already the prime target for this trap.

Insurance companies negotiate with body shops. They will offer the body shop a large amount of claims work. The body shop must agree to do the work for lower negotiated labor and parts pricing. Body shops look at the deal and see that even though their profit margin might be lower per car, they will get more business.

The body shop will usually have to agree to use cheap aftermarket parts, which are of inferior quality to the Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) parts. OEM auto parts have to pass strict inspection with the US Department of Transportation to be installed on a new vehicle. Aftermarket parts do not undergo such inspections. They might fit your car, but are arguably of lower quality than OEM parts.

It’s a great deal for the body shop, as they get more business. It’s a great deal for the insurance company, as they lower claims costs.

The insurance company will tell you that if you agree to have your car repaired in their preferred body shop, they’ll guarantee the repairs, and make the repairs happen quicker.

But just because your car LOOKS good after the repairs doesn’t mean that all of the identical repairs were done to return your car to its pre-loss condition. In many cases, the body shop cuts corners with the encouragement of the insurance company.

So, who is in the trap?

The policyholder who has an automobile claim after a wreck is in the trap! Your car may be less safe after repairs using aftermarket parts, and certainly will sustain a drop in value after the repairs.

Here’s the Escape Strategy

There is NOTHING in most car insurance policies that forces you to accept the preferred body shop of your insurance company. Check your policy to be sure.

After the wreck, insist that the wrecker tow your car to a body shop of your own choice. If you do not know a reliable body shop, insist that they tow the car to the closest dealer of your car’s make. For example, if your car is a Toyota, have them tow it to a Toyota dealer.

Have your chosen body shop write an estimate, using only original manufacturer’s parts.

The insurance company’s adjuster or auto appraiser can come to the body shop of your choice to write his estimate. Make sure he gives you a copy of his estimate.

Once you have seen both estimates, insist that the estimate using original manufacturer’s parts be used. By doing this, you can be certain that your vehicle will be repaired to “like kind and quality” to its pre-loss condition.

If you have experienced a car wreck, no matter if you were at fault or the other driver, you need to know winning insurance claim strategies. The insurance company will not tell you the claims process, but I will. I will show you how to take control of your insurance claim, and add hundreds or even thousands more dollars to your claim settlement. For more information, go to the website listed below.

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Source by Russell Longcore

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Before we discuss kaizen real life implementation case studies let’s first understand what kaizen is exactly and how it helps companies in beating up competition in the market and coming on top like they never imagined before.

According to experts kaizen means the process of bringing non- stop improvements in the organizations. Kaizen is very flexible and its elements can be allocated easily in management, services, manufacturing and engineering. If its elements are implemented accurately then it will help a company utilize its limited resources to the maximum in order to attain optimum profit. It also makes it possible for the companies to eliminate waste and eradicate unnecessary work. It teaches the employees to show their best of capabilities and attain rewards in return. The kaizen basically consists of numerous scientific approaches which work really well in all sorts of organizations whether it is a big multinational like Toyota or a small company of two rooms only.

Mentioned below are examples of some of the companies that applied kaizen principles and experienced massive success shortly. We will explain you how good kaizen is by giving examples of three companies:

Canon is a Japanese company that decided to implement kaizen in order to make place in international market and expand the horizons of their operation to many countries that they had stepped into yet. To attain this, Canon made use of matrix management system on various small activities with the purpose of reducing waste and motivating the workforce to work at optimum level. With time they increased the number of techniques they were applying and experienced great growth. For instance, with the help of kaizen applications those were applied in production system, production assurance, personal training and quality assurance the entire growth in monthly productivity they witnessed was equal to 3%.

Fidelity investments is another company that successfully used kaizen applications and faced success. The company offers a large number of financial services, in order to bring more improvements in their system the company the CEO of the company, Johnson tough it would be a great idea to introduce Kaizen. To do this he made several small groups each representing a different business unit. Employees were then trained and motivated to utlitize their resources to the maximum. The employees consisting of leadership qualities were given encouragement so that they can take up the responsibility of achieving the goals. The performance overall was analysed on quarterly and monthly basis and then improvements were introduced accordingly. Gradually as changes were brought in the company it was seen that profitability also increased along the side.

Gold Seal Engineering Products is an automotive company in India that exports to many countries of the world. The company with the aim to cut the production time and cost by 33% implemented the kaizen’s principles of 5s. In the first six months it was seen that production outcome increased by 45% while the production time reduced by 25%, the wastage was minimized by 75% and machine down time was brought down from 89% to 60%.

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Source by Sam Miller

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Did you know that there are repossessed car auctions online, where you can find extremely cheap cars in a very good condition?

Buying a car from a government auction can help you save thousands of dollars. In fact, it’s not uncommon to find cars up to 95% off their regular price. Every day, thousands of vehicles like SUV’s, motorcycles, MPV’s, trucks and RV’s get seized by banks or government agencies. It costs a lot of money to the government to store these vehicles and this is the reason why they reduce the price so much in order to sell the cars as quickly as possible.

But, how do these automobiles end up in an auction?

Many times these automobiles were bought by individuals through bank financing loans, which they failed to pay off. So, the banks repossessed them to minimize their losses. Other times, these vehicles get confiscated from people who have committed crimes or any form of fraud.

So, how can you find your dream car in an auction?

The problem with these auctions is that they are not usually widely publicized. They simply come and go and you don’t even know that they exist. One solution to this problem is to start looking for auction listings in your local newspaper.

However, if these classified ads are inside a widely read newspaper, many people will see it and you may end up facing a lot of competition. Also, if there are many bidders the price of the vehicle will increase.

The best way to locate a car auction is to visit an online database. There, you can start your search by brand like Honda, BMW, Ford, Toyota, Audi and so on, by type such van, sedan, mini-trucks and of course by location and price.

This way you will be able to find your dream vehicle as fast as possible and from the comfort of your own home. These databases ask you for a small fee, but the good news is that they let you conduct as many searches as you wish.

You can use these websites to locate the vehicle, but before you commit to buying it, you need to make sure that it’s in a good condition. Also, you need to decide ahead of time how much money you are willing to spend. If you are the highest bidder, the auctioneer will expect you to pay for the full amount. However in most cases, they do accept credit cards and personal checks.

If you see people who change cars all the time without being millionaires, online repossessed vehicle auctions are probably the answer. Many times you can find a vehicle with only 1-2 thousand dollars, even though its retail price is $20,000.

Now pay close attention here!

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Source by David M. Jacobs