Kaizen in Logistics and Supply Chains by Coimbra Euclides

Author:Coimbra, Euclides [Coimbra, Euclides]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: McGraw-Hill Professional
Published: 2013-04-27T00:00:00+00:00

Example 2

Another interesting example of applying the TFM model involved organizing flow in the supply of a car assembly line. Car assembly lines involve thousands of components. The size and variety of parts they handle make them far more complex than the preceding electronics example. In a car assembly line, there are very small parts, such as screws, together with big parts, such as bumpers. The variety is created by the potential options in the models and colors of the cars. Just to supply the bumpers is paradigmatic, in the sense that their color must match the body color, and the number of options is so varied that the only possible method for line supply is junjo (“sequence”).

In these lines, you can have all the various types of borders of line, namely:

Kanban front supply (in subassemblies)

Kanban rear supply

Junjo front supply (in subassemblies)

Junjo rear supply

Junjo kit supply

In terms of mizusumashi lines, the usual ones for this situation include

A train of wagons with shelves supplying small and medium plastic containers with 60-minute-cycle inside kanban loops

A train of wagons with pallets on wheels supplying big containers with 20-minute-cycle inside kanban loops

A train of wagons with wheeled bases with special fixtures supplying parts with variable-cycle inside junjo loops

AGVs to transport kit containers from picking supermarkets

The types of supermarkets seen in car assembly flow plants include

Flow racks (also called kanban racks) for small and medium-sized plastic containers and pallets of plastic containers

Big containers on wheeled bases at ground level

Special trolleys with junjo parts

Originally, Toyota flow assembly lines were organized mostly using the kanban type of border of line and all the necessary supply logistics. Since the early 1990s, the company has evolved to the junjo type, with kitting border of lines. As the range of options and models increases, the size of the kanban borders of line has to increase with it. This begins to hurt productivity, so the junjo form of supply becomes an attractive solution.

A Toyota press release issued in 2006 said:

Toyota Motor Corporation has introduced a new material-handling system based on kitting to reduce complexity and improve quality in assembly areas. A spokesman for Toyota Motor North America said the kitting system was being introduced on “more and more lines” at the Georgetown facility and elsewhere in North America. He said it was “not a complete sea change” in parts presentation and wasn’t applicable to all production areas.

At Georgetown, the correct parts for a particular Camry or Avalon are selected into a tray that is placed inside the car as it heads down the line. Because part selection is done upstream, assemblers can “focus on the quality of installation,” according to the Toyota spokesman. Variety and the resulting complexity have proliferated as more and more features are offered to customers. For instance, before the new system was introduced for the current generation Camry and Avalon, team members had to choose between 24 varieties of sun visors.

The switch also eliminates reaching, stretching, and searching for parts by assembly operators. The new arrangement also makes training operators and material handlers easier because the job responsibilities are narrower.

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