• A case of Japanese automobile and machine tool industry.
• American and European car and machine tool industry designed a car or two-wheeler or a machine tool to last for next twenty to thirty years and to give consistent performance.
• Therefore, they multiplied the calculated dimensions by the factor of safety of two.
• This led to increasing dimensions of the
• Therefore, the cost of raw materials was double, the weight of the automobile or machine tool was heavier and less flexible and difficult to handle.
• As per the thumb rule, half of the cost of a automobile or a machine tool consists of raw materials and if it doubles the price of the final product also nearly doubles as all other costs are directly or indirectly related to the processing of raw material.
• Their view point was
(a)Is the customer going to use the same ‘car’ or the ‘two-wheeler’ for the next twenty or thirty years?
(b)Is the customer going to use the same ‘machine tool’ or the ‘manufacturing technology’ for the next twenty or thirty years? (c)Is the product development and upgradation of
technology going to be negligible in next two to three decades?
• Why design and manufacture a car or a
two-wheeler for twenty to thirty years
when you know that you are going to use
the same maximum for a period of four to
five years?
• Why manufacture a machine tool to last for
thirty to forty years when you know that
the technology for manufacturing is going
to change every five years.
• Thus, Japanese designed a car or two-wheeler for five years because that is normally the life span for which the product is effectively used.
• Therefore, Japanese used a ‘Factor of Safety’ of 1.25 instead of two.
• Their raw material cost was about 62.5% of the western design.
• The end product was identical in terms of product features and user friendliness.
• The price of the end product was proportionately lower by almost 30% to 35%.
• The automobiles were also lighter in
weight due to lower percentage of the raw
material used.
• This led to the reduction of dead weight to
be carried by the vehicle thereby
increasing the pick-up of the vehicle as
well as reduction in fuel consumption.
• The end result of practicing ‘muri’ was a
better performing product which is more
user friendly and priced much lower than
2. MURA
• The Japanese word ‘Mura’ means irregular, uneven or inconsistent.
• Either due to lack of interest or over enthusiasm we tend to deviate from the laid out standards leading to inconsistent actions.
• Such inconsistencies can lead to irrationality and waste.
• ‘Bottleneck Theory’ or ‘Theory of Constraints’ originate from the principle of mura.
• The bottleneck theory states that the neck
of a bottle or the least diameter of a bottle
decides the rate of flow out of the bottle.
• When applied to industry, this theory states
that the department in manufacturing chain
with least capacity decides the plant
capacity.
• The corrective action is strengthening this
weak department by increasing its capacity
by minimum investment.
• The result will be quantum jump in overall
performance of organization as the extra
capacity is already lying unutilized in other
areas.
• Goldratt’s “theory of constraints’ also
tends to be developed around the same
principle of ‘mura’.
• The theory states ‘the weakest link in a
chain decides the weight that can be lifted
by the chain.’
• The objective is to identify this weakest link and keep on strengthening it to make organization stronger and stronger and make it grow steadily. • Kaizen also uses ‘mura’ as a powerful
improvement tool.
• He prefers to use discrepancy instead of inconsistency.
• Discrepancy can be identified in areas like men, method, time, facilities, manufacturing aids, materials, production volume, inventory, place etc.
• Once this discrepancy is identified, it is
analyzed, and solution is found out to
eliminate the discrepancy leading to
culture of continuous improvement.
• Mura calls for minimum deviation
between the best and the worst product or
service.
• Minimizing the range of deviation and
minimizing the standard deviation in the
statistical process control.
3. MUDA
• ‘Muda’ means waste.
• Waste is any activity that does not add value.
• Juran has called all the activities that do not add value the Cost of Poor Quality (COPQ).
• Taichi Ohno of Toyota Motor Company has identified seven mudas or seven wastes which have been further modified to nine mudas.
• Elimination of these wastes reduces the cost of production, enhances productivity, reduces cycle
• These wastes are
1.Waste from overproduction 2.Wastes due to waiting time
3.Waste due to unwarranted transportation 4.Waste due to excess inventories
5.Processing waste or useless operation in processing waste.
6.Waste of motion due to unnecessary human movement.
7.Waste from product defects or defective parts.
1. Waste from overproduction
- Normally, the tendency of an organization is always to overproduce to ensure no shortage of material in the market under anny circumstance. - Or to fill up the idle plant capacity during lean
period.
- In today’s dynamic environments, products and services have shorter life cycle.
- If a product is in inventory for a long time, it may become obsolete in the market.
- It also may occupy plant capacity for products that are already there in the stock whereas some of the products for which customers are waiting cannot be produced due to this blockage of capacity.
- It leads to piling up of excess inventory, occupying more storage space, excessive material handling cost, interest cost on unsold stock etc.
2. Waste due to waiting time
- Any time wasted in waiting for the parts to arrive due to improper line balancing, or
- Waiting for job instructions due to improper planning. - These waiting time has to be identified and eliminated
from the system.
3. Waste due to unwarranted transportation
- Unwarranted transportation happens due to unplanned and improper plant layout leading to parts/materials being moved multiple times.
- If materials are not properly placed, they are difficult to find leading to further wastages.
4. Waste from excess inventories
- Normally, buffer inventories are kept to take care of inefficiencies like faulty sales forecasting, late deliveries from suppliers, delayed production etc.
- In the just-In-Time production system the inventory is progressively reduced to increase the operational efficiency.
- Excess inventory leads to increase in ICC .
- ICC consists of interest cost on capital invested in extra inventory, storage space, extra material and product handling, insurance, product pilferage and obsolescence.
5. Processing waste or useless operation in processing waste
- Processing waste occurs due to inefficient process design and improper technology.
- This can be improved by proper work study, method study, work measurement, incorporating proper technology and training to operators.
6. Waste of motion due to human movements.
- Unnecessary human motions can be eliminated by studying ergonomics and motion study.
- Incorporating simple human motions, proper arrangement of work place, proper location of operating switches, simultaneous and opposite movement of both hands leads to reduction of fatigue i.e. ‘Motion Muda’
7. Waste from product defects or defective parts
- The waste from product defects or defective part is major muda which not only affects the cost of production but also leads to the loss of sales due to customer dissatisfaction.
- This involves major cost of rejection, rework and replacement.
- The cost of an external failure is ten times the cost of detecting the same failure internally which is again ten times the cost of detecting the failure at the point of origin. - Hence the emphasis should be in the process control or implementation of the six-sigma practice which makes it almost impossible to produce a defective part.
8. Waste in the development of products
- Product features that do not add value to the product or service from the customer’s point of view or his needs and expectations are considered as waste.
9. Waste of opportunities
- A new organization may be performing better in terms of market share, purchasing prices, quality of goods produced, new technology, cheaper and better substitute raw material.
- Any loss due to not utilizing this potential area of gain could be classified as an area of muda.
→ The elimination of muri, mura and muda can be done as under:
(a) Benchmarking
(b) Strategic planning
(c) Business Process reengineering