We knew already of some wastes – for example, inspection adds no value. Why not just get the process right and then we needn’t carry out this activity? Similarly, why expedite our suppliers when, if we had chosen good partners and had a true partnership with them, this would not be needed? Why move items to a dedicated packing area if we could perform the packing in tandem with the assembly operation for the product and eliminate this movement? Why move parts from one end of a factory to another, and back again, if a little more thought in laying out the plant differently might take out this activity?
So, JIT became Lean when it was recognised that parts arriving only when required and only in the quantities required is only a part of the story.
Essential Vocabulary
1. Material Requirements Planning
– планирование потребности в материалах2. Manufacturing Resource Planning
– планирование производственных ресурсов3. stock
4. sophistication
sophisticated
5. lead time
– время между размещением заказа и получением материалов от поставщика; время между началом производственного процесса и изготовлением первого изделия или всей партии6. inventory
7. just-in-time (JIT)
– система «точно в срок»8. breakthrough
9. highlight
highlight
10. counterpart
11. batch
12. order
order
13. set-up
set up
14. offset
offset
15. workload
16. Master Production Scheduling
– главный план-график производства17. accounting
accounting
18. accounting conventions
– учетные правила19. compliance
comply (with)
20. quality circles
– кружки качества21. demand
demand
demanding
22. failure
fail
23. expediting
expeditor
expedite
24. work-in-progress (WIP)
– незавершенное производство, полуфабрикаты25. cycle time
– время рабочего цикла26. layout
lay out
27. waste
waste
28. dedication
dedicate
dedicated
29. lean manufacturing
– рациональное производствоExercise 1. Answer the following questions.
1. What were the news from Japan that amazed the US manufactureres and scholars around 1980? 2. What was the company that pioneered the development of the Japanese manufacturing principles? 3. Why did the US companies manufacture components and parts in large batches? 4. Why did the US companies hold safety stocks? 5. What were the ideas of the US quality gurus that the Japanese successfully applied? 6. What other contributors to improved quality did the JIT approach consider? 7. What was the underlying principle of the quality circles? 8. Why were partnership relations with suppliers so important? 9. Why does it make economic sense to eliminate variety? 10. How did the Japanese shorten cycle times? 11. What was the basic idea of