Non-Value Adding Practices and Inefficiency Pockets - Essay Example

The group spent a substantial amount of time on data collection and understanding the challenges and the constraints of the existing layout, cutting, and printing processes. Basing their data collection on data related to the number, nature of problems, materials, space, and distance, the group members collected data, classified, tabulated, and then drew important insight from the data. The group also made an attempt to use software so as to understand the arrangement. The group members, therefore, decided to make some improvements through relocation of facilities, adjustments in processes, and to also study the supporting processes bearing in mind the interests of the printing workers. The following are some of the techniques that were used for the study.

1. Critical observations of processes related to drawing, plate preparation, single-color, and multi-color printing, folding, cutting, packing, and special operations such as lamination if need be.
2. Systematic Questioning Techniques of Work Methods and measurements to understand the why, the what, the where, the when, the who, the how much, and the how many of a situation. This was quite helpful in understanding the challenges or the constraints, the requirements, and other important details of the situation.
3. The use of 7QC tools such as Pareto analysis, cause and effect diagram, and relationship diagrams.
4. The application of the direct time study to specify the standard amount of time for each task.
5. The use of various flowcharting techniques is meant to understand the flow or the movement of staff, materials, and machines. This helped in establishing the relationship between different departments of an organization.

3.2 Methodological Steps

This section gives the steps that the group members followed to achieve the objectives mentioned in chapter 1 through keeping different ergonomics bearing in mind the safety principles of workers.

1. The first step is to understand the situation so as to choose the project that will be studied.
2. The second step is to collect the data. To collect data, the group visited the press many times and used the monthly data of a number of products and costs so as to understand the differences of various products produced by the ABC printing press.
3. The third step is to understand the challenges or the constraints. Our main challenge or constraint was the existing place limitation, space for each department, and the number of machines available.
4. The fourth step was analyzing our problem. We analyzed our problem from two perspectives. First, we studied the processes with respect to major products and the rooms or facilities where these processes are done. This was meant to understand and analyze the differences between process flow and existing layout. Secondly, since the nature of work is human/machine interface and consists of a lot of physical bending, based on feedback and surveys, the team members decided to analyze and attempt to design/modify workstations from ergonomics and work method point of view.

The constraints and the challenges found specifically in the printing press and the challenges found generally in the printing press can be handled from different perspectives through the use of various methods. The following section gives several alternative design options and methodologies.

3.3 Alternative Design Methodologies
To prioritize the major products produced by the printing press, so as to estimate the standard time of each task and to map the processes of these products, the group members used different methods. Also, investigation related to the layout by the process was used so as to improve the efficiency of workers by reducing total traveling distances and total traveling time.

Problems of the printing industry can be handled from different perspectives, and for this reason, the treatment also varies. For instance, a number of printing-related problems can be solved by choosing appropriate ink. Alternatively, a number of printing-related problems can be solved from a technology perspective.

For this reason, one of the alternative methodologies that can be used in this project is printing technology. This means that we can solve problems using the technology of the printers and other machines. Another approach that can be effectively used is the chemical treatment approach which can handle different types of inks that are used in the printing press.

Apart from the above two methodologies, there are other methods or techniques that can also be very useful and applicable in the areas of an industrial printing press. These other methods or techniques include simulation, Operation Research and Heuristics, Lean Principles, and the Optimization method. The members of this group are unanimously agreed that applying lean principles in this printing press situation will help, a great deal, in reducing the various types of waste generated by the printing press.