Productivity & Process Improvement for EMC - Research Paper Example

2. According to the Japanese concept of muda or waste, the seven wastes in modern production processes relate to the following areas: (1) Transportation (2) Waiting (3) Inventory (4) Motion (5) Over-production (6) Over-processing and (7) Defects (Wilson, 2009). I would therefore look at improving the processes or reducing time, space and money spent in these areas. B. For the purpose of this project I propose that we concentrate on lean manufacturing as a fixed set of targets of objectives to be achieved.

The Excellent Manufacturing Company is a business enterprise that is a division of National Building Supply, itself a subsidiary of RedMag, an international conglomerate of diversified products. It produces cabinet hardware, decorative hardware, fasteners and other construction tools and elements that are used in the building industry. The production manager has set a productivity improvement target of 8 percent for the various departmental managers and the enterprise as a whole for the year. D. Since there are four main steps: (1) inspecting the manufactured parts; (2) separating the defective ones from the good ones (3) assembling the parts and (4) packing and shipping or warehousing them, automating the process of manufacture so that only good pieces are produced will automatically reduce wastage and defects. F. Automating the process through exact, zero defect manufacturing techniques may increase costs in the short run but would save on salaries and other overheads and increase productivity and reduce wastage in the long run.

It is a sure fire way to increase productivity by 8 percent or more in every department where automation and defect reduction is possible. It can be seen that as the number of processes in the Plasti-brack manufacturing department are not too many, some of these can be eliminated by concentrating on capital intensive zero defect