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(+)+(+)
(+)+(+) S.M.I.L.E(sm)
(+)+(+)
(+)+(+) Setup Minimization Improves Line Efficiency
(+)+(+)
(+)+(+) The Lean Changeover e-letter
(+)+(+)
(+)+(+) Published monthly by Changeover.com
(+)+(+)
(+)+(+) Written by John R Henry, CPP
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### FEBRUARY 2006
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Announcements:

I will be speaking next week at InterPhex in San Juan. My
presentation will be "Make changeover lean AND quick" and will be
Friday 2/17 at 11:00AM.

TS3 is presenting a 4 day seminar titled "A Six Sigma Approach to
Product and Process Validation" in San Juan PR on April 4-7. I will
be doing a short presentation on Lean Changeover during the seminar.
E-mail Steve Zagarola at swzagarola@... for more information.

I will be teaching the "Packaging Technology" course at the
Polytechnic University of PR during the Spring Semester. First class
will be March 7 so there is still time to sign up. This is in the
graduate school of industrial engineering. I just finished teaching
the winter semester and it was a very interesting course. Visit
http://www.pupr.edu/ for more info.



SOME THOUGHTS ON...
SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT AND LEAN MANUFACTURING

I first remember hearing about Frederick Taylor and Scientific
Management while in grad school. We read some articles on the history
of management in one of my classes. I have since taught about Taylor
in my Operations Management classes for more than 20 years.

With all that learning and teaching, however, I had never actually
read any of his books. Part of it was availability and part of it was
probably some doubt about how useful something written 100 years ago
could be in today's world. I am happy to say that I have now
corrected this failure. Project Gutenberg has his books "Principles
of Scientific Management" and "Shop Management" available for free
download as text files. Access them here
http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/etext04/pscmg10.txt and here
http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/etext04/shpmg10.txt

Principles of Scientific Management is also available as a paperback
from Amazon.

While I am at it, let me put in a plug for the Gutenberg Project at
www.gutenberg.org This is an organization that collects text files of
out of copyright books and makes them freely available. They have
over 17,000 books of all types available for download.

Scientific Management is a term Taylor came up with to describe his
approach to the organization of how tasks are carried out in the
workplace. He believed far too much work was being done in relation
to the tasks accomplished. He set out to find ways to eliminate
wasted labor and wasted effort. (Sounds like Lean Manufacturing to me.)

One of his first examples involves the loading of pig iron ingots
weighing 92 pounds. The process could not have been more basic. The
handler would bend down, pick up the ingot, carry it to a railroad
car and drop it. Taylor studied the matter and believed that the
average handler should be able to move about 47 tons per day. At the
time, they were moving about 12 tons/day. The key was pacing the
work. Taylor found one worker who he believed would be particularly
open to improvement and offered him a raise from $1.15/day to $1.85
if he would only follow the instructions of a coach.

The coach would then tell the man when to pick up a pig, when to walk
and how fast and, most importantly, when to rest. By following a
strict work-rest regime, the man's output was raised to 47 tons per day.

There are a couple of lessons to be learned from this simple example.
One is that great increases can often be had from relatively minor
improvements. Another is that Taylor realized that most of the effort
in handling the pig came from simply holding it. The picking up,
walking and dropping took relatively little effort. Minimizing the
time that the man was actually holding the pig greatly minimized the
total effort.

Another important point was how important the human factor was in
this process. Scientific management has been painted as ignoring the
human factor. In this book Taylor stresses it's importance. In the
pig iron example Taylor stresses both proper selection of the person
to perform the task and how it is presented to them. If they had told
the man that they were going to increase his output from 12 to 47
tons/day he would have been very skeptical and would not have "bought
in" to the process. Instead they told him that they were going to
give him a raise and all he has to do is follow instructions.

In another section of the book Taylor tells of Frank Gilbreth's (of
"Cheaper by the Dozen" and "Therblig" fame) work improving the
performance of bricklayers. Most of the improvements were very simple
such putting the bricks to be laid at working height instead of on
the ground. This eliminates bending. I have always known that it is
preferable to avoid bending but Taylor put the explanation in simple
terms. When a 200 pound person bends over and straightens up, they
are lowering and lifting about 150 pounds. Yeah, I know, it is pretty
obvious. But I had never thought of it in that way before.

Gilbreth also worked with the mortar mixture. Normally a brick is
laid then tapped into place. A slightly thinner mix allowed the
bricks to be set in place with minimal or no tapping.

Taylor is often associated with the phrase "One best way" and rightly
so. He believed and showed in his work that while there may be many
different ways to perform a task, there will always be one that is
best. (Remember that "best" can have a variety of dimensions such as
speed, cost, quality and so forth). Management's job is to find that
way and teach it to the employees.

In fact much of his philosophy focuses on teaching in addition to
doing. Running a shop must be separated into various functions. There
is the worker, with varying degrees of skill, who actually does the
work. There is management which has the responsibility for
determining what is to be done and how it is to be done. In addition,
there must be "teachers" who show the workers the proper methods.
Taylor laid great emphasis on this teaching function. Today we may
call it coaching, facilitating, training or something else. In the
end it all comes down to teaching and may be one of the most
overlooked skills in many organizations.

Scientific management has gotten a bad rap over the years. Too many
people think it exists to squeeze more work out of the workers. In
one sense it is. Too many managements have used it as an excuse to
make people work harder and expend more effort. This is a mis-use.
Taylor clearly shows that the goal of scientific management, properly
applied, must be more productivity with less total effort.

Don't be scared by what you may have heard about "Taylorism" and
scientific management. Read this book. It is fairly short (130 pages)
and packed with valuable information. If you don't get at least 1
idea you can put to work, I will refund every penny you paid for this
newsletter.


TIP OF THE MONTH...
GATOR GRIP SOCKET

To the maximum extent possible changeover should be toolless. Where
tools can't be eliminated, they need to be reduced. The Gator-Grip
Universal Socket can be used to replace a variety of sockets and
other wrenches. It consists of a socket with spring loaded rods. It
will fit down over any bolt, screw or other fastener and
automatically grip it.

It is available most places where tools are sold. Here is their website
www.gator-grip.com





Best,

John R Henry CPP

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