Lean production and competitive startups

The Fosbury Effect

The year 1968 passes, and we are in Mexico City, on a splendid sunny day, contemplating the men's high jumps from the stands of the Olympic Stadium. The public coming from different corners of the planet observes with enthusiasm the numerous tests that are being interspersed. The attendees watch with great enthusiasm the height to which the different competitors reach, seeing if the athletes of their countries will continue in the fight for the podium and if a new Olympic record is registered.

Everything happens normally. Suddenly the surprise, after decades during which the jumping technique consisted of running towards the bar and throwing himself forward making a roller movement, an Englishman that very few knew and took into account, named Dick Fosbury, surprises everyone, own and strangers, running towards the bar and throwing themselves back to her. Result, a new Olympic and world record. Gold Medal for this English until that moment unknown.

What do you think was the reaction of the other competitors? Of course, you are correct. They asked for the disqualification of the English athlete. Let's clarify: the Olympic rules had and still have a series of prohibitions, but none prevent the use of new jumping techniques. The complaints were ignored, and Fosbury was enshrined on the podium.

From that moment on, athletes began to practice and use this new technique, and today it does not matter what color their skin is or which country represents all athletes, both men and women, participate in athletic competitions using this new technique of jump named in homage and I remember the one who first implemented it “Fosbury jump”.

Applying these concepts to the area of ​​production, administration and management of companies, this implies that it is necessary to adopt the new techniques if the company is to be kept in competition, it is no longer useful to perfect the old methods.

With regard to the management of companies, something similar has happened. While large Western companies were taken by surprise by Japanese corporations, the first thing Western managers did was request measures from the government against what they considered unfair practices, dumping, subsidies from the Japanese state, low salaries of Japanese workers, labor exploitation, among many others. Result: none of the complaints had real sustenance, the Japanese workers although in a first stage had low incomes, today they are among the best paid in the world. The harmony and quality of working life is high and far superior to most Western countries (with the exception of Scandinavia). To be specific: Japanese companies have imposed themselves on world markets,triumphing not only over the automotive and electronics industries of the United States, but also beating the Swiss companies in the field of watchmaking and the German in optics, and just to mention them as a few examples.

Today Western companies competing on a world-class level have adopted, in whole or in part, Japanese management systems. From Xerox, through Ford Motors, GM, Texas Instruments, Harley Davidson, and Motorola have not only accepted the challenge, but also began to adopt what in the West has come to be called "Lean Production" or lean production system.

Competitors from around the world participate in today's markets, as in the Olympics, but only those who adopt the most competitive management systems and philosophies are in a position to succeed.

The entrepreneur, as well as the athletes, may refuse to implement the new systems and concepts, they may pretend or want to compete with the same techniques that their grandparents and parents did, or with those that were taught to them in school or university, they can continue with the same products, services, processes and management systems that led to victory in the past, but they will have to face the consequences.

What until yesterday was a profitable management system, such as the systems based on the ideas of Taylor and Ford, no longer serve for these new times of global competition, where variety, flexibility, speed, quality and good prices are demanded.

In the development of species on the planet, only the fittest managed to survive changes in the environment. Excavations, museums and books do not allow us to know the species that no longer exist, in the same way objects, books and newspapers, magazines or books make us know companies that no longer exist.

The lack of adaptation of companies to changes in their environment is a harbinger of what will happen to them, just as it has happened to tyrannosaurs or dinosaurs.

Techniques are just that, just techniques. That no matter where they come from, they must be adopted without being better, in order to at least be able to participate in the competition. The adoption of a management system does not ensure success, but it allows at least trying to reach it.

Nobody in their right mind would pretend to use the best Formula One car of the 1960s to compete against today's Formula One cars. The worst of the current ones is several times higher than those of those years. The same happens with the companies and the management systems adopted. Trying to survive using systems and methodologies out of context will make them disappear just as what happened with prehistoric animals, and as such they should only remain in the memory of their owners, employees and clients.

Going back to the beginning, the complaints were useless, today everyone adopts the method used for the first time by Fosbury as a technique. In the business world, management systems and methodologies, including human resources, sales, marketing, logistics, production and finance, change and entrepreneurs and managers must adapt to these changes if they intend to continue with life in the medium and long term.

QUESTION 1

YOUR COMPANY CONTINUES WITH ROLLER JUMPING OR HAS IT SWITCHED TO JUMPING ON THE BACK?

In other words: are you still running the company with the old methods or are you doing it with the new ones?

Questions to warm up

If you are in a position to answer NO to all of the following questions, then you can enjoy the happiness of being a member of a world-class company, your company is excellent and you are on the competitive podium.

1. Are you concerned about how to satisfy all those who are related to your organization? Do you have doubts about the fulfillment of the expected results for your business this year? Do you feel victim of continuous and unpredictable change? Is your initiative of total quality and Continual improvement losing its momentum? Are you facing relentless or growing competition? Are you concerned about your ability to satisfy and develop customer loyalty? Do some of your products or services become obsolete much faster than you had imagined or planned? Is your product development cycle time too slow to keep up with or catch up with your competitors? Are your processes generating waste, delays, defects,need for rework or other excessive costs that can be avoided? Does your organization need breakthrough improvements to become a world-class entity offering world-class products and services? Are your employees restless, seemingly unengaged, indifferent or hostile? Are you losing market share to national and / or foreign competitors? Are you worried about new global competitors? Are you worried about the internal climate of your company? Do you feel continually threatened by restrictions or financial or banking problems? Ratios and indices for quality, productivity, customer satisfaction, market share, value added per employee, and return on assets show signs of deterioration and deterioration?and return on assets show signs of impairment and deterioration?and return on assets show signs of impairment and deterioration?and return on assets show signs of impairment and deterioration?and return on assets show signs of impairment and deterioration?indifferent or hostile? Are you losing market share to domestic and / or foreign competitors? Are you worried about new global competitors? Are you worried about the internal climate of your company? Do you feel continually threatened by restrictions or financial problems or Do your various ratios and indices for quality, productivity, customer satisfaction, market share, value added per employee, and return on assets show signs of deterioration and deterioration?indifferent or hostile? Are you losing market share to domestic and / or foreign competitors? Are you worried about new global competitors? Are you worried about the internal climate of your company? Do you feel continually threatened by restrictions or financial problems or Do your various ratios and indices for quality, productivity, customer satisfaction, market share, value added per employee, and return on assets show signs of deterioration and deterioration?market share, value added per employee, and return on assets show signs of deterioration and deterioration?market share, value added per employee, and return on assets show signs of deterioration and deterioration?

If you answered YES to any of the above questions, then you need to determine how you are running your business.

Traditional Companies versus New Competitive Companies

Every entrepreneur or manager must and needs, imperatively, to know if his company or organization responds to the traditional canons or is already focused and on track within the new concepts. Paradigms that until very recently served to do business and achieve strategic advantages have ceased to be useful for decades, but today this extends to all companies and organizations, and not only to those that operate at the level of international competition and are among the largest companies in the world.

The full boom of the global economy, the need to make the best use of scarce resources, the great development of information technology, and the new instruments and methodologies promoted by the Business Schools as well as by consulting firms and companies in tip, make it necessary to mark a clear line of separation between a before and an after in the management of organizations.

To clearly understand these differences, it is necessary to analyze their differences aspect by aspect in order to become clearly aware of how the company is being managed, which may show a traditional approach for some issues and for others a marked evolution and trend towards high competitiveness.

1. Quality. While the traditional company favors the inspection and subsequent correction of parts or manufactured final products, the new competitive company gives precedence to prevention, thus generating significant decreases in costs due to internal and external failures. The traditional company generates the products through successive stages of adjustments and rearrangements, while the new needs clearly mark the obligation to generate the products “the first time”, that is, to design and adjust the processes, train personnel and generate mechanisms to produce products without failures, not requiring product corrections. This is due to the fact that the managers of traditional companies see quality only as the task of detecting faults, preventing them from reaching the consumer.On the other hand, in the new management, the objective is to aim at prevention, destined as said previously to the generation of products and services right the first time.

2. While traditional entities have as a paradigm that higher quality implies higher costs, new organizations clearly see that an improvement in quality is the reason for lower costs. Better quality leads to higher productivity and consequently lower costs, causing greater profitability for the company. While the need to produce at a level of quality compatible with the lowest possible cost of quality was considered, currently it has been shown that reaching Zero Defect implies achieving the lowest cost of quality, since achieving that level of quality generates a strong increase in sales.

3. While the traditional Western company is focused on short-term results, competitive companies focus their efforts on continuously improving their processes. That is why it is said that the former focus on the short term while the latter concentrate their efforts on the long term.

4. Regarding the training of personnel and managers, the traditional company considers it as an expense while the new conception sees it as an investment, through which the positive flow of funds will increase in the future.

5. While traditional companies are organized around functions, new competitive companies are organized around processes. For this reason, the former emphasize the specialization of workers and employees, while the latter emphasize the importance of versatility.

6. Traditional companies base their operation on the sum of individual tasks. On the contrary, the competitive ones base the effort on teamwork.

7. The level of participation of personnel in management marks another important difference between one type of organization and another. Some (the traditional ones) do not grant or do so in a very restricted way, while the others make it a fundamental tool for improving productivity and quality.

8. Whereas the old ways of managing required the worker to stick to tasks, today both a physical and a mental task are required of him. The worker thus ends up leaving his brain at the entrance of the company every day.

9. Traditionally, supervisors are selected based on their performance, when what corresponds, and is what is currently advised, is to select them based on their leadership and motivation capabilities. Thus, in the first case, the supervisors focus on a task of inspection and communication of orders, while in the second case, it is about inspiring, motivating, supporting, coordinating and acting as a facilitator.

10. In traditional companies creativity is systematically obstructed, while in ultra-competitive companies there is a tendency to promote it, breaking down barriers and motivating staff to contribute their ideas and innovations, for which they are not only trained, but also trained. it institutionalizes it with means such as Quality Control Circles and the suggestion system.

11. In traditional organizations, organizational behavior is not taken into consideration, something that is taken into account when managing highly competitive institutions.

12. While traditional companies or organizations manage staff applying Theory “X”, the new competitive companies do so under Theory “Y”. The former consider individuals as lazy, indolent, lacking in motivation, for which their behavior and industry must be closely controlled. While Theory "Y" considers individuals exactly on the opposite side, that is, they are people who seek to transcend through their work, are aware of job responsibilities and want to apply their talents and creatives to the service of the company.

13. Typically traditional companies have managers who suffer from the so-called “trained disability”, which consists of viewing the company and its environment based on their various academic or technical training. This brings a lack of fluidity in communication between the different sectors, and a lack of adaptability of the company to reality and changes, since the company generally adopts its own approach of who runs the company. Thus, if the CEO is a Finance graduate, no matter what the activity of the company is, if it follows a traditional profile, the management of the company will revolve around financial thinking and analysis.

14. The foregoing leads to the new organizations managing human relations in the company, with all that this implies in quality of working life and increased productivity, while the traditional ones do not allow for the necessary management of such relations.

15. Workers tend to satisfy their bosses in traditional management models as opposed to seeking to satisfy the wants and needs of internal and external customers. In this second version, the bosses are the ones who tend to serve the employees and workers so that they have all the necessary resources to fully satisfy customers.

16. Traditional companies totally put aside the management of organizational culture, while the latter place a strong emphasis on its management and development.

17. Traditional companies are focused on production and sales, while the demands of the present and the future force entities to focus on the consumer through marketing. The fact that the traditional ones are focused on production does not imply that they have high levels of productivity. This leads them to want to increase their profits via a significant increase in sales, when in fact they can achieve much better results by reducing the levels of waste.

18. In terms of maintenance of machinery, equipment and installations, traditional companies give preponderance to a reactive attitude in the sense of correcting problems as they occur. On the side of competitive organizations, the attitude assumed is the opposite, preponderance is given to prevention and prediction.

19. Partly due to quality problems, as well as the inconveniences generated by the long preparation times, the high number of breakdowns, the low reliability of the suppliers, the organization of internal processes, and the maximum The productive capacity leads to high levels of inventories with low levels of turnover and consequently high costs of maintaining inventories and products in process, which motivates lower levels of profitability. As a counterpart, highly competitive companies concentrate their efforts on solving the fundamental causes that originate the existence of security inventories or inventories generated by the characteristics of the process, also producing goods according to their specific demand.This is how the traditional ones are identified as producers of goods by “push” and the second by “drag”.

20. Traditional companies have numerous suppliers for each type of supply, citing reasons such as: possible stoppages in production due to breakdowns, lack of inputs, or strikes by workers by suppliers; as well as making suppliers compete with each other to improve both prices and services. In the new competitive models, the demand tends to be focused on unitary suppliers for each supply, emphasizing the reduction of total costs, resulting not only from the prices of inputs, but also from their quality, reliability of deliveries in terms of terms and quantities, and commitment of suppliers in the design stages of new products.In addition, long-term cost reductions are usually programmed following the experience curve.

21. Traditional companies tend to focus production processes on processes (grouping of machines dedicated to the same tasks) while in new production systems the processes are focused on products.

22. Traditional companies have long preparation times, which is why they produce in long series that motivate the accumulation of inventories. The OCs reduce to a minimum or even eliminate preparation times, thereby making production more flexible, generating products in short series, leading to lower inventories.

23. Production aimed at lowering costs through the full use of machines, equipment and personnel in the case of traditional organizations, as opposed to the use of resources to the extent that the specific demand generates said need.

24. Competitive organizations concentrate their efforts on eliminating all those processes and activities that generate waste, or what is the same, that do not produce added value for customers. In opposition to this, organizations that do not respond to the competitive model give rise to the existence and creation of unnecessary and unproductive processes and activities.

25. The old-fashioned entities do not carry out a work of continuous improvement, thus showing a continuous loss of competitiveness compared to their competitors. Organizations imbued with the new management spirit make continuous improvement a fundamental strategic objective, which allows them to obtain significant competitive advantages.

26. The companies that respond to the old management models sell waste in order to recover part of its value, the new organizations concentrate their attitude on analyzing the reason or cause of such waste in order to prevent it from being generated again. in the future.

27. Regarding the attitude towards the change of one type or another of companies, the former (traditional) clearly adopt a reactive attitude, while the others manage the change adopting a proactive attitude with which they not only tend to anticipate changes but to self-generate them to become the center of the scene.

28. While traditional organizational models tend to be structured around tall pyramids, with reduced sections of control, favoring vertical organization with a high degree of centrality when making decisions, competitive companies tend to show an organizational pyramid flat, with wide sections of control, where horizontal organization with high levels of decentralization is privileged. In the models with the highest level of competitiveness, generally represented by high-tech companies, the organizational structure has the structure or conformation of a network.

29. Regarding the pyramidal approach of organizations, while traditional companies reflect a typical pyramid with the base at the bottom, implying the characteristic of a company in which orders are generated in the upper strata, going down to the lower levels to put it into action. In the new organizational models, the pyramid is inverted, meaning that the highest hierarchical levels of the organization must support those who daily must serve the organization's external customers and consumers with their work. This model is also usually represented by concentric circles in which the center of the circle is occupied by consumers, which implies that the organization must revolve around consumers and their services.

30. OTs (traditional organizations) have an information system focused on financial aspects, whereas OCs (competitive organizations) build information systems around financial and operational aspects, as well as those linked to consumers, personnel and competitors. (benchmark).

31. OTs tend to monopolize information in managements and chiefdoms in order to increase their personal power, in OC information flows naturally favoring empowerment.

32. In the OT, planning and strategic administration are lacking, in contrast to the OCs in which they assume a fundamental role.

33. In COs, planning and management is carried out around values, visions and missions, something that does not happen with OTs.

34. OT privileges mechanistic, logical-rational thinking, in contrast to OC in which lateral, organicist and systemic thinking also takes place.

35. OT lacks a system for problem solving and decision making. In the OC systems and methods are used aimed at better problem solving and decision making.

36. OTs are not focused on loyalty, whereas the new types of organization give the loyalty of employees, customers and investors a critical importance.

37. Internal audit is fundamentally dedicated to internal control and the protection of traditional financial items in the case of TOs, in the case of COs the vision is noticeably broadened by also covering all those aspects that have financial implications, be it this directly or indirectly.

38. OTs mostly carry out financial audits, whereas CBs carry out, apart from the aforementioned, also operational, quality, productivity, cultural and social audits.

39. In the OT, the managers carry out their work in the offices acting with their backs to the operational areas. In COs, managers systematically visit the workplace trying to identify activities or feasible processes for improvement; in addition to maintaining direct contact with employees and front-line workers to hear their concerns and concerns.

40. OTs tend to be highly normative organizations unlike COs which are guided by objectives, thereby favoring greater empowerment for employees.

41. OTs lack both statistical analysis and statistical process control (SCP), in contrast, OCs base their analysis, problem solving, decision making and process improvement on statistical data and statistical process control.

42. OTs only have a traditional costing system, whereas OCs have systems such as ABC (Activity Based Costing), Horizontal Accounting Systems, Kaizen Costing, and Poor Quality Costing (or Quality) in place.

43. While TOs pursue short-term profits as their main objective, POs try to achieve the highest degree of satisfaction for consumers by increasing the relation: quality / price, and with it the value generated for customers and consumers..

44. The TOs base the selection of personnel often on cronyism or internal politicking, contrary to the new organizations which focus on the analysis of the aptitudes and attitudes of the candidates.

45. Budgets in OTs are based on historical data, while OCs pursue improvement as their fundamental objective with budgeting.

46. ​​Design and development of products and processes based on Joint Engineering is what is appreciated in new competitive companies, as opposed to a segmented work and by functions typical of traditional companies. In this way, companies like Toyota manage in less than 2 years to develop a design that most Western automobile companies usually take an average of 3 years.

47. At present and even more in the future, ecological factors will constitute a fundamental issue both when designing products and services, and when designing and developing the respective production processes. For this reason, OCs give great value and importance to ecology by certifying their processes with the ISO 14000 standards.

48. While OTs produce massively and highly standardized goods, competitive companies try to satisfy the requirements of each individual or market segment.

49. Highly competitive companies conveniently manage brands, something that traditional companies do not do.

50. As in the previous case, while competitive companies manage intellectual capital, OTs do not.

51. TOs do not manage risks or do so in a piecemeal and incomplete manner. The POs give risk management a preferential place when making decisions and analyzing the situation.

52. The competitive companies par excellence practice benchmarking in a systematic way in order not to lose sight of their competitors, nor to neglect the best practices that are developed in the market.

53. Highly competitive companies make the theory and practical application of company economics, financial engineering, logistics, operations research and economic engineering, fundamental tools to improve their performance. OTs completely ignore these matters, thereby missing many opportunities to improve the long-term average profitability of their operations.

54. Highly competitive companies make the use of the Internet and Intranet a fundamental axis in their analysis and strategic projects.

From a point by point evaluation of your ongoing company, you will know how traditional or competitive it is in terms of management. If your business is about to open, you can take into account all the essential aspects so that your company is a highly competitive company from the beginning.

According to studies and research, a traditional company has unproductivities that represent 25 to 35 percent of its turnover. On average, they use twice the necessary labor force, four times more physical space than the average competitive companies use, and they have terms in their processes that are much longer than OCs.

The best way to differentiate one from the others is by seeing them through Alvin Tofler's models and parameters, since the former can be classified as representative organizations of the Second Wave, while the latter are the so-called Third Wave organizations.

2nd QUESTION

DOES YOUR COMPANY RESPOND TO THE TRADITIONAL WAY OF MANAGEMENT OR THE NEW WAY BASED ON HIGH COMPETITIVENESS?

A company can be classified as a winner, survivor, or loser. To know for sure how your company is classified, you must observe its performance in relation to the following areas:

• Return on assets Aggregate value per employee Market share Customer satisfaction Customer satisfaction

3rd QUESTION

DO YOU KNOW THE VALUES FOR YOUR COMPANY? DO YOU MONITOR THEM PERMANENTLY? HOW DO YOU FIND YOURSELF IN RELATION TO THE MAIN NATIONAL AND FOREIGN COMPETITORS? HOW DO YOU FIND YOURSELF IN RELATION TO YOUR DIRECT OR CLOSER COMPETITORS?

Change and its management

First of all we have the variety. No more offering the Ford T and any color as long as it is black. It is enough to see both at the level of products and services an endless variety.

Let's see:

• Sports shoes for different sports, socio-economic segments, sex Cell phones of multiple brands and styles Automobiles Television channels: five black and white channels. Today with cable and satellite systems we have 80, 90 more than 100 channels.

Product or service life cycles are getting shorter or shorter.

• Think how long the Ford Falcon lasted on the market, or the black phone.

We are in the age of the nanosecond. Everything is required not quickly, but quickly. We live in an age marked by speed. Speed ​​to manage a credit, speed to move, speed to cover insurance, speed to service in banks and supermarkets, speed of entry into hotels, speed of product growth (car, telephone, cell phones, Internet), speed to communicate, speed in the delivery of inputs, speed in the development of designs.

This has given rise and life to boxes with bar readers, reengineering processes in banks and insurance companies, computer-aided design systems, ATMs, internet services, highways, broadband, It is also a time marked by the abundance of information. Abundant number of television channels, newspapers and magazines, in different languages, countries and for all tastes. Exorbitant increase in new books. All this facilitated by new technologies.

The consumer seeks safety and comfort, leading to the appearance of new services and / or new ways of marketing it.

The globalization process began after the Second World War, but accelerated in the eighties and especially in the nineties. The factors that contributed the most to increasing globalization include:

1. The reduction of trade barriers and the rise of world trade The standardization of goods and services and a certain homogenization of tastes worldwide The shrinkage of geographical space. Improvements in telecommunications and transportation substantially reduced long-distance rates, international travel costs and times, and air and ocean freight costs. The world seems smaller. The collapse of the communist system and the end of the cold war. Related to the previous point is the world movement towards liberalism: democracy in politics and free market in economics. This trend implies the reduction of the role of the State in the economy and its increasing privatization.The Third Industrial Revolution that involves drastic changes in technology, organization and social and political relations.

At the scientific and technological level, we contemplate the development of teleinformatics, with a continuous decrease in the costs of microprocessors at the same time as their potential increases, and in the same way the capacity or size of the broadband increases rapidly. Consequently we have that Moore's Law tells us that every eighteen months, the price of computer chips is cut in half, and their strength doubles. While Gilder's Law foresees that in the future (the next 10 years) the bandwidth of communication systems will triple every 12 months.

Everything related to digital technology is constantly getting faster, smaller and cheaper. In 1980, a gigabyte of memory cost several hundred thousand dollars and took up almost an entire room. Now it fits in a credit card-sized device and costs less than $ 200.

The development of materials engineering and genetic engineering is revolutionizing all fields of productive activity, ranging from high-strength metals, to the use of ceramics, and through new drugs and developments in the agricultural field.

On the one hand, in social matters, there are large migratory movements in all continents with their consequent socio-cultural changes and the effects on the demand for products. And on the other hand, the participation of women in the labor and professional field accelerated worldwide, and as a consequence in economic and consumer matters.

Technological development has put an end to the old economic axioms and gives life to new ones. It is abundance and not scarcity that governs the interconnected economy. Duplicates, replicas and copies circulate in excess. Anything that can be done can be done in abundance. This abundance generates value, allows opening closed systems and unleashes an immense number of opportunities.

Consider the first fax machine to turn the conveyor belt around 1965. Despite millions of dollars spent on R&D, the machine was worthless. Zero. The second fax machine that was manufactured immediately caused the first one to appreciate. There was someone to whom you could send a fax. Since the fax machines are connected within a network, each additional fax machine that is delivered increases the value of all the fax machines that were operating before this one. This is called the fax effect. The fax effect dictates that abundance generates value.

So when you buy a fax machine, you are not just buying a $ 200 machine. With your $ 200 you are buying the entire network of all the other fax machines in the world and the connections between them - a very valuable value. higher than the cost of all machines considered individually. The first fax machines cost several thousand dollars and were connected to only a small number of machines, and therefore were not very valuable. Currently with US $ 200 he buys a fax network worth 3,000 million dollars.

In the interconnected economy, the more abundant things are, the more value they acquire. This new concept is directly opposed to two of the most important axioms inherited from the industrial age.

First old axiom: Value comes from scarcity. Take the symbols of wealth from the industrial age: diamonds, gold, oil, and academic degrees. All of them were very precious because they were rare.

Second old axiom: When things are abundant, they lose their value. For example, rugs. At one time they were handcrafted items found only in the homes of very wealthy people. They were no longer symbols of status when their manufacturing process was mechanized and machines were introduced. The traditional law was fulfilled: abundance reduces value.

The logic of the network puts a complete twist on this industrial lesson. In an interconnected economy, value comes from abundance, just as the value of fax machines increases as the use of faxes becomes more widespread and the number of units sold increases. Power comes from abundance. Copies are cheap. All items that can be copied, both tangible and intangible, adhere to the law of price inversion and become cheaper as their manufacture improves.

QUESTION 4

HOW YOUR COMPANY IS MANAGING ISSUES SUCH AS:

• THE SPEED (controls the speed of processing, the speed of attention, the delivery times; are your customers satisfied) THE VARIETY (with what variety of products and services it has, to what extent it monitors the needs of customers and consumers, such as offerings of competitors) THE LIFE CYCLE OF PRODUCTS AND SERVICES (in which stage of the life cycle are your different products and services) THE POSITIONING THAT YOUR PRODUCTS OCCUPY IN THE MINDS OF CUSTOMERS AND CONSUMERS HAS STRATEGIC PLANS CONCERNING THE DEVELOPMENT OF NEW PRODUCTS (Research and Development), THE EMERGENCE OF SUBSTITUTE PRODUCTS, THE APPLICATION OF NEW TECHNOLOGIES, HAVE STRATEGIES CONCERNING BUSINESS AND TRADE VIA INTERNET.TO WHAT EXTENT HAVE DEMOGRAPHIC CHANGES HAVE ALTERED OR MAY ALREADY ALTER THE DEMAND FOR YOUR ASSETS. DO YOU RIGHTLY TAKE INTO CONSIDERATION THE NEW REALITIES OF THE INTERCONNECTED ECONOMY?

Paradigms. Your recognition

What is a paradigm? One way to conceive a paradigm is by defining it as mental glasses through which we perceive reality or the environment. Those glasses are made up of our beliefs, habits, experiences, learning, among others.

As long as these glasses (paradigms) help us to interpret reality and act effectively, they are useful, but if we continue with ideas and preconceptions that do not respond to the new realities, they will constitute an obstacle to our growth and development.

The strategy is to become aware of our paradigms, and those of competitors and consumers.

QUESTION 5

WHAT ARE YOUR PARADIGMS?

• DO YOU BELIEVE THAT GREATER QUALITY CAN ONLY BE ACHIEVED IN EXCHANGE OF HIGHER COSTS OR LOWER PRODUCTIVITY? DO YOU CONSIDER THAT RECORDING FAULTS AT THE PARTS PER MILLION LEVEL IS SOMETHING IMPOSSIBLE? DO YOU CONSIDER THAT EMPLOYEES AND WORKERS ARE INDIVIDUALS, WITHOUT ANY REASONS OF IDEAS DO YOU THINK THAT THE WAY TO ENSURE THE QUALITY OF THE PRODUCTS SHOULD BE BASED ON THE INSPECTION OF THE FINISHED PRODUCT? DO YOU THINK THAT THE WAY TO ENSURE THE QUALITY OF THE PRODUCTS SHOULD BE BASED ON THE INSPECTION OF THE FINISHED PRODUCT? WORKER SHOULD NOT HAVE ANY PARTICIPATION AND SHOULD ONLY BE LIMITED TO OBEYING ORDERS IN EXCHANGE OF A PAY?THAT INCREASING RESULTS IN THE SHORT TERM IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN IMPROVING PROCESSES? DO YOU CONSIDER TRAINING EXPENSES AS AN EXPENSE? OR DO YOU CONSIDER THEM AS AN INVESTMENT? DO YOU CONSIDER IT IMPOSSIBLE TO GREATLY REDUCE SETUP TIMES OR TOOL CHANGES? PRODUCTION FOCUSED ON FUNCTIONS AS THE MOST PRODUCTIVE?

Kaizen

The Kaizen strategy is the most important and transcendental concept in the Japanese administration, becoming the main key to its competitive success. Kaizen means ongoing improvement that involves everyone. Kaizen is everyone's business.

Increase in the cost of supplies and energy, greater demands from customers and consumers in terms of variety, quality, delivery times and prices, shorter life cycles of products, greater awareness of environmental pollution by consumers and state agencies, growing ecological problems, constant increase in competition worldwide, have given and give rise to the need for a production system that based on continuous improvement, systematically pursues detection, prevention and elimination of the different types of waste.

Kaizen and the other side of the coin that is Just in Time have come to be developed in the West as Lean Production (Lean Production) or Calitividad.

Kaizen is a philosophy and management system that pursues continuous improvement in each and every aspect and segment of the organization. Improvement of processes, improvement of products, improvement of services, improvement of people, improvement of office tasks, improvement, improvement and more improvement. Improve as a philosophy. Philosophy and work ethic focused on discipline, simplicity, practicality, humanism and efficiency.

It is a system that aims to achieve the highest quality, at the lowest cost and with the ability to deliver variety, quantity, and at the appropriate place and time the products and services demanded by customers and consumers.

For Kaizen, quality comes first, and it is this quality that allows achieving high levels of productivity that make cost reduction feasible.

Specific examples regarding the times required for changing tools will allow us to see with total clarity the analogy between production systems and athletic events, between the roller jump and the “Fosbury” jump.

Working with Shingo and his SMED techniques in 1970, Toyota determined that the time to change the die on a 1,000-ton stamping press was four hours. Researching the practices of other companies, Volkswagen was found to change the same die in 2 hours (an external benchmark). In less than six months, Toyota had cut changeover time to an hour and a half. Three months later, the order came to reduce it to three minutes. In the end, the time was reduced to one minute and four seconds.

Toyota found that SMED was more helpful than reducing die swap. The decision was made to master small batch production to eliminate waste from excess production and improve customer response. The reasoning was that the less time it takes to make a change, the less time it takes to deliver what the customer wanted, rather than choosing from inventory. To achieve these goals, SMED was essential.

So Shigeo Shingo represents for tool changing technique what Dick Fosbury represents for high jump. Just as the back jump replaced the roller jump, the SMED replaces the previous methods.

Similarly, the Lean Production System is replacing the Taylorian and Fordist systems at world-class level.

QUESTION 6

WHICH PRODUCTIVE SYSTEM DO YOU OPERATE WITH?

Kaizen operates from the synergy of six systems:

• TQM - Total Quality Management JIT - Just in Time Production SystemTPM - Total Productive Maintenance Small group activity (such as Quality Control Circles) Suggestion System Policy Deployment

Total Quality Management

The objective pursued by Total Quality Management is to achieve a process of continuous quality improvement through better knowledge and control of the entire system (product or service design, suppliers, materials, distribution, information, etc.) so that the product received by consumers is constantly in correct condition for use (zero defects in quality), in addition to improving all internal processes in such a way as to produce goods without defects the first time, implying the elimination of waste to reduce costs, improve all internal processes and procedures, customer and supplier service, delivery times and after-sales services.

Quality Management involves all sectors, it is so important to produce the article that consumers want, and to produce them without failures and at the lowest cost, as to deliver them in a timely manner, properly serve customers, invoice without errors, and not produce contamination. Just as the quality of the inputs is important and for this purpose the aim is to reduce the number of suppliers (reach one per line of supplies) in order to ensure quality (avoiding the costs of verifying quantity and quality), fair delivery on time and the amount requested; thus, the quality of the workforce is also important (a workforce without sufficient knowledge or not suitable for the task will imply costs due to lack of productivity, high turnover, and training costs).This quality of labor as well as the quality of inputs or materials affects both the quality of the products, as well as costs and productivity levels.

Quality is no less important in areas such as Credits and Collections. The quality of this is essential for the continuity of the company. It is of little use to produce good products and sell them if later there are difficulties in the collection or these are made at a high cost.

Quality and productivity are two sides of the same coin. Everything that contributes to enhancing quality has a positive impact on the productivity of the company. The moment quality is improved, the cost of the warranty to the customer decreases, as does the cost of revision and maintenance. If you start by doing things right, the costs of technological studies and the arrangement of machines and tools also decrease, while the company increases the trust and loyalty of customers.

John Heldt, consultant for companies in Quality Cost systems said: "Reducing the cost of poor quality will increase your overall profit more than if you doubled sales." And he added: “Most companies spend more than three times their profit on poor quality. Cut your cost of poor quality in half and you'll at least double your profits. ”

Lee Iacocca affirms that “Fortunately, quality and productivity are two sides of the same coin”. You might think that quality improvement could only be achieved in exchange for an increase in company costs. In fact, the opposite is true. The costs incurred by adopting the Total Quality management mode are lower than the savings that it produces, both directly, in terms of eliminating wasted time, effort and materials throughout the company, and in the increase in sales, derived from of greater competitiveness and better relationships with customers. In this regard, William Conway, CEO of Nashua Corp., states: “As quality increases, productivity increases. Consider the impact on productivity at all levels if all the people and machines in the business worked right the first time, every time.The same number of people could do a lot more work. The high cost of the inspection may be directed to productive activities. Repeated jobs, obsolete materials, waste, would be eliminated. The administrative efficiency would be much greater ”.

Poor quality has a powerful effect on the company, leading to a cost of more than 20% of their sales in companies not aware of it. Most of these costs have been hidden. The visible costs of poor quality, such as rejections, rework and warranties, represent only the tip of the iceberg, the most important part of the costs remains invisible or hidden and is therefore more difficult to assess.

Industries have the freedom to commit to quality control. It is a decision of the managers. In our capitalist economy there is the freedom to fail in the face of competition and the freedom to go bankrupt. In addition, from competitiveness in quantity, everyone welcomes competitiveness in quality. A company that is beaten in cost and quality is not likely to arouse greater sympathy.

Just in Time system

Just in Time is not a strict methodology that can be defined as a series of equations or data relationships. Rather, it is a philosophy that leads to major changes in the way manufacturing management works.

The Just in Time philosophy seeks continuous improvement and to be effective it must function at the core of the company's operations. Therefore, the company staff must have assimilated the various aspects of the philosophy. This requires a considerable change in attitudes and therefore the transcendental importance of training must be recognized.

The four principles of the Just in Time philosophy are as follows:

1. Attack the fundamental problems. Just in Time argues that it makes little sense to mask major issues such as capacity bottlenecks or poor quality providers. It is far better to solve these fundamental problems and avoid a “firefighter” style of leadership.

2. Eliminate waste. Any activity that does not add value is considered wasteful. Examples of these activities are inspection, transportation, and inventory. The JIT (just in time) emphasizes that these activities must be eliminated to improve the overall operation of the company.

3. In search of simplicity. Any approach that is taken must be simple if it is to be effective. Previous approaches to manufacturing management relied on complex management for a complex manufacturing system. Instead, a JIT application simplifies the flow of materials and then overlays a simple control.

4. Create systems to identify problems. To solve fundamental problems, you have to identify them. A JIT application will include mechanisms that allow problems to surface. Examples of these mechanisms are Statistical Quality Control, which controls the manufacturing process and draws attention to any faulty production trends, and drag / kanban systems, which identify production areas with bottlenecks.

Among the advantages of Just in Time we have:

• Shorter lead time Reduced time spent on non-processing jobs Reduced inventory Better balance between different processes Clarification of problems

In order to increase productivity levels and reduce waste levels, Just in Time promotes:

• The combination of U-sections. Worker versatility (through worker rotation, the effectiveness of rotations is controlled by calculating the polyvalence rate). Machine versatility (through the SMED system, which reduces preparation times).

The Just in Time system insists in all production processes on the need for prevention. If we think about keeping a stock in anticipation of machine problems, why not consider preventing problems before they occur?

It is necessary that the personnel who have some relation with the system must study the way to prevent the problems of the machines and the difficulties of the processes.

In industry old-fashioned customs must be eliminated. Progress cannot be generated if we are satisfied with existing situations. This also applies to the improvement of production methods.

For suppliers of parts and supplies, the requirements of JIT clients are:

• Small lots Frequent deliveries Minimal transit times Minimal shipping costs Lower total delivery cost Perfect quality Accurate arrival times

QUESTION 7

ARE YOU MEETING THESE REQUIREMENTS? WHAT ARE YOU DOING TO FULFILL THEM OR MAKE THEM A REALITY?

TPM - Total Productive Maintenance

Meanwhile, the TQM emphasizes the improvement of general managerial performance and quality. TPM focuses on improving the quality of equipment. TPM tries to maximize the efficiency of the equipment through a total system of preventive maintenance that covers the life of the equipment.

The TPM (Total Productive Maintenance) is a maintenance orientation to minimize downtime due to facility breakdowns and maximize their use. It is a philosophy of continuous improvement and teamwork, aimed at the involvement of all workers, maintenance managers and supervisors, so that they themselves can exercise direct control over the correct operation of their machinery..

One of the objectives is to achieve an attitude of greater responsibility and attention in the facilities where we work on a daily basis.

The TPM considers the complete life cycle of an installation, including its design, its assembly, its management and its disappearance. The final objective of the TPM is, therefore, to make the global efficiency indicator of the facilities high (greater than 90%), creating the right conditions to avoid emergency repairs and emphasizing the prevention aspect of problems, from the planning phase and for the entire life cycle of the facilities.

To achieve this goal, the traditional concept of facility maintenance must be expanded. Thus, it must collect the meaning of maintenance and improvement of the quality of the entire production process constituted by the machines, by the methods, by the facilities and by the people who add value to our products and services.

The principles on which the TPM is based are:

• Obtain a reliable maintenance system, capable of preventing frequent shutdowns at the facilities. The operator is the person who knows the machine best. Cleaning, lubrication, adjustment and inspection are essential elements to reduce the number of problems. And, keep the maintenance cost under control.

The total efficiency of the facilities is expressed by relating two times:

• Loading time : time during which the installation has been used to produce the requested volumes. Uptime - Time during which the facility has produced only conforming parts. It is calculated considering the net value added cycle time.

For a traditional company it is quite common to have global efficiency values ​​of the system of the order of 45%, while "Lean" companies (lean / lean) manage to exceed 90%.

Through the TPM, the aim is to rationalize the management of the equipment that make up the production processes, so that their performance and the productivity of such systems can be optimized. To do this, it focuses on objectives and applies the appropriate means.

The objectives are what is called the six big losses. All of them are directly or indirectly related to the equipment, and of course lead to reductions in the efficiency of the production system, in three fundamental aspects:

• Downtime or downtime of the production system Operation at a speed lower than the capacity of the equipment Defective products or malfunction of operations in a team

The means used by the TPM are the different management systems that have allowed the implementation of adequate maintenance, both at the design and operational level of the equipment, to alleviate as much as possible the losses of the production systems that may be related with them. These are basically the fundamental aspects:

• Basic maintenance and prevention of breakdowns carried out from the workplace and therefore by the operator himself Optimized preventive and corrective maintenance management Complete and continuous maintenance of equipment and consequent increase in its life Beyond conservation, The aim will be to improve the equipment, its operation and its performance. Adequate training for production and maintenance personnel about the equipment, its operation and its maintenance.

The TPM is a new concept of maintenance management, which tries to ensure that it is carried out by all employees and at all levels through activities in small groups. This implies:

• Participation of all staff, from senior management to plant operators. Include each and every one of them to successfully achieve the goal.

• Creation of a corporate culture aimed at obtaining maximum efficiency in the production system and equipment management. This is what is announced as the objective: GLOBAL EFFICIENCY: Production + Team Management

• Implementation of a production plant management system so as to facilitate the elimination of losses before they occur and the objectives of: Zero Defects - Zero Faults - Zero Accidents are achieved

• Implementation of preventive maintenance as a basic means to achieve the goal of zero losses through integrated activities in small work groups and supported by the support provided by autonomous maintenance.

• Application of management systems to all aspects of production, including design and development, sales and management.

The six great team losses

Dead times and emptiness

1. Faults

2. Equipment setup and adjustment times

Process speed losses

3. Reduced speed operation

4. Idle time and short stops

Defective products and processes

5. Quality defects and repetition of work

6. Commissioning

Within the TPM we also have Predictive Maintenance, consisting of detecting and diagnosing faults before they occur. The philosophy of Predictive Maintenance is based on the fact that normally failures do not appear suddenly, they have an evolution. A defect over time can cause a serious breakdown. For example, a small imbalance can build up to cause the shaft to break.

Predictive Maintenance is based on detecting these defects in advance to correct them and avoid unscheduled downtime, major breakdowns and accidents. The indicators of the status of the machine are physical parameters such as vibrations, temperature or lubricant samples that, when analyzed, allow problems and their cause to be detected.

Among the advantages of Preventive Maintenance we have:

• Reduction of stoppages Reduction of scheduled maintenance Reduction of maintenance-induced breakdowns Reduction of spare parts stocks Reduction of the duration of scheduled stoppages Longer life of plant equipment Reduction of Damage caused by a breakdown Reduction in the number of accidents More efficient and higher quality operation of the plant, since the production rate can be adapted to the real state of the machine Improved customer relations by avoiding delays in deliveries due to unforeseen breakdowns (unscheduled stoppages) Possibility of designing a higher quality plant.

Small group activities

A Kaizen strategy includes small group activities that are organized within the company to carry out specific tasks in a work environment. They not only deal with issues related to quality, but also related to costs, productivity, and safety, among others. In any company, leaving aside its size and activity, it is possible and necessary to promote this type of activity aimed at achieving better teamwork and obtaining interaction between its components to improve the organization's standards. It should always be borne in mind that “there is no commitment without participation”.

Suggestion system

The suggestion system works as an integral part of individual-oriented kaizen, emphasizing the benefits of elevating mood through positive employee engagement. This is not expected to reap great economic benefits from each suggestion. The primary goal is to develop kaizen-minded and self-disciplined employees.

Policy deployment

Management must set clear goals to guide each person and ensure that they provide leadership for all kaizen activities directed toward achieving the goals. Senior management must devise a long-term strategy, detailed in medium-term strategies and annual strategies. Top management must have a plan to roll out the strategy, running it down through subsequent levels of management until it reaches the production zone.

Make continuous improvement a reality

The systematic interrelation of the six systems previously developed make it possible to face the application of the 5 “S”, the standardization and the elimination of waste (muda).

The Five "S" is a fundamental ingredient for good managerial management, through which employees acquire and practice self-discipline. Employees without self-discipline make it impossible to supply good quality products or services to the customer.

The second rule of procedure in the company is standardization. Standards can be defined as the best way to get work done. It is necessary to maintain a certain standard in each process in order to ensure quality. Maintaining standards is a way to ensure quality in each process and to prevent the reappearance of errors. For this, the systematic use of Statistical Process Control is essential, not only for the purposes of control and improvement of quality levels, but also to control and improve the operational levels of the machines, productivity levels, costs, consumer satisfaction levels and management indices.

Is Statistical Process Control (SPC) applied in your company? Does it apply it only to quality issues, or does it also apply to issues such as productivity and costs?

Eliminate muda (waste) is to identify and dispense with all those activities that do not add value. The workers in the gemba add value or do not add value. This is also true for other resources, such as machines and materials. Suppose that the employees of a company add nine parts of change for each part of value. Your productivity can be doubled by reducing the dump to eight parts and increasing the added value to two parts. Eliminating shedding can be the most cost-effective way to improve productivity and reduce operational costs. Kaizen emphasizes the elimination of molting in the gemba, rather than increasing investment in the hope of adding value.

The 5 "S"

Their practice is essential in achieving a global quality company. The 5 S are developed through intensive work. The 5 S are derived from five Japanese words that make up the steps to develop to achieve an optimal workplace, producing efficiently and effectively.

1. Seiri:differentiate between the necessary elements from those that are not. It involves separating the necessary from the unnecessary and eliminating or eradicating the latter from the gemba. A cap should be established on the number of items required. In gemba you can find all kinds of objects. A close look reveals that only a small number of these are needed in daily work; many other objects will never be used or will only be needed in the distant future. The gemba is full of unused machines, screens, dies and tools, defective products, work in progress, raw materials, supplies and parts, shelves, containers, desks, workbenches, document files, carts, shelves, pallets and others. items. A practical and easy method is to remove anything that is not going to be used in the next 30 days.

2. Seiton: arrange in an orderly manner all the elements that remain after the seiri. The seiton leads to classifying items by use and arranging them accordingly to minimize search time and effort. To do this, each item must have a designated location, name, and volume. Not only the location, but also the maximum number of items allowed in the gemba should be specified.

3. Six:means cleaning the work environment, including machines and tools, as well as floors, walls, and other areas of the workplace. Seiso also means verify. An operator cleaning a machine can discover many malfunctions. When the machine is covered in oil, soot and dust, it is difficult to identify any problems that may be forming. However, while cleaning the machine we can easily detect an oil leak, a crack that is forming on the cover, or loose nuts and bolts. Once these problems are recognized, they can be easily fixed. Most machine breakdowns are said to start with vibrations (due to loose nuts and bolts), with the introduction of foreign particles such as dust, or with inadequate lubrication or lubrication.For this reason, seiso is a great learning experience for operators, as they can make many useful discoveries while cleaning machines.

4. Seiketsu: means to maintain the cleanliness of the person through the use of suitable work clothes, glasses, gloves and safety shoes, as well as maintaining a healthy and clean work environment. It also means continuing to work on seiri, seiton, and seiso continuously and every day.

5. Shitsuke: Build self-discipline and form the habit of engaging in the 5 S's by setting standards. The 5 S can be considered as a philosophy, a way of life in our daily work. The essence of the 5 S is to follow what has been agreed. We begin by discarding what we do not need in the gemba and then all the necessary items are arranged in the gemba in an orderly way. We must subsequently keep the work environment clean so that abnormalities can be easily identified, and the above three steps must be maintained on an ongoing basis.

Eliminate molting (waste and waste)

The Kaizen system of continuous improvement has as one of its fundamental pillars the continuous fight in the elimination of waste and waste (silent in Japanese). A relentless and relentless struggle in the need to eliminate the factors that generate unproductivities, high costs, long cycles, expensive and long waits, wasted resources, loss of customers, and quality defects, all of which originate the loss of participation in the market, with a drop in profitability and consumer satisfaction levels.

Undoubtedly, adopting the decision to implement kaizen in the company, the first guiding axis, and actions to be taken, will revolve around the detection, prevention and systematic elimination of the various types of waste and waste that plague organizations are These are public or private, for-profit or non-profit. This is what is called the "phantom" organization or factory.

Carrying out such an all-out struggle implies the need for strong leadership, participatory administration, discipline and work ethic, firmly conceived plans and strategies, measurement and information systems appropriate to these needs, and a strong management conviction to generate and support ongoing training plans.

Awareness of the different types of waste and the importance that they assume for the company, as well as fully convincing both managers and staff about the need to identify and destroy the generators of waste is the priority goal. Without a firm conviction and a clear understanding of the situation and the dangers that this entails not only for the organization, but also for its managers, employees, consumers and society as a whole, it is not possible to establish and emerge victorious in that fight.

Fighting waste implies that through the continuous improvement of each and every one of the processes and activities involved in the management of the company, the performance levels previously obtained must be constantly exceeded. Fewer defects, higher levels of productivity, lower costs, better levels of satisfaction, shorter delivery times, and shorter design and market cycles are essential today for companies to be considered World Class, and therefore be able to compete within the global economy.

Generating an environment in which the employees and technicians of the organization actively participate in the detection, prevention and elimination of the various types and modalities of waste constitutes one of the main objectives of the Directors.

The process of eliminating waste requires interaction between the four key elements that are: people, technology, activities and opportunity. These four elements must be carefully coordinated so that the right people are doing the right things (activities) in the right way (technology) at the right time (opportunity). All elements are concentrated one goal: to eliminate waste.

Consumers are no longer willing to finance or take responsibility for mismanagement of businesses. They vote every day in the market with their money, depositing it in companies and products that give them higher levels of satisfaction. In this way they decide which companies will survive, which ones will be victorious and which ones will disappear. The market was always unforgiving, but today it is even more so. Only companies willing to increase their total quality levels, thus achieving more productivity and lower costs, will be able to remain active and project into the future. A company that does not control its waste, that has no notion of it, and that therefore does not adopt measures to prevent it or eliminate its causes, will produce poor quality products and services, with high costs and poor services,that is, goods with a low value for customers, so they will not be willing to purchase it or will only do so at a very low price.

A production process makes use of raw materials, machines, natural resources, labor, technology, financial resources, generating products or services as a result of their combination. In each process, value is added to the product, and then it is sent to the next process. The resources in each process add value or they do not. The muda (which in Japanese means waste or waste) involves activities that do not add economic value.

Wasting capacities, resources, and even more, wasting opportunities to generate wealth, as well as wasting the most important of all resources and that "time" is not counted, should not only be taken into account by all members of the organization, but must also be the subject of a specific policy aimed at its elimination. Not doing it as previously said prevents a higher level for the company and its members, but it also depends on its continuity and therefore the jobs. For this reason, waste must be the object of attention and care both on the part of government authorities, and of society as a whole. Lower levels of waste means higher quality, more productivity,lower costs and therefore lower prices, this generates both greater consumption by local consumers, as well as greater foreign demand, which implies a greater number of jobs and in turn greater profits for companies and greater domestic consumption. As can be seen, combating waste generates a virtuous circle or spiral of growth.

So waste in this context is any misuse of resources and / or possibilities of companies. Both work hours are wasted due to inefficiency in the scheduling and planning of tasks, as well as opportunities to gain new markets due to lack of quality products or due to excess production costs.

The resources (people, machines, materials) in each process add value or they do not. Muda refers to any activity that does not add value. There are seven classic categories of molts:

1. Overproduction molt. It is the product of a mentality concerned about machine failures, defective products and absenteeism, among others, being forced to produce more than is necessary simply to have a minimum level of security. Overcoming the reasons behind these insecurities will lead to both less overproduction and lower inventory levels, thereby greatly reducing waste levels.

2. Inventory move. The finished products, semi-finished products, spare parts and supplies that are kept in inventory do not add any value. On the contrary, they increase the cost of operations because they take up space and require additional equipment and facilities, such as warehouses, freight elevators and computerized conveyor belt systems, among others. In addition, a winery requires additional human resources for operation and administration tasks. While excess items remain in inventory, no value is added, and their quality deteriorates over time. Inventory is largely the result of overproduction. If there were no inventory change, a great deal of waste could be avoided.

3. Removal of repairs / rejection of defective products. Rejection of defective products disrupts production and requires costly rework. Many of the defective products often have to be discarded, which involves significant losses of resources.

4. Muda of movement. Any movement of a person's body that is not directly related to adding value is unproductive. Identifying this type of molt requires a very careful look at the way operators use their hands and legs. Then you need to redistribute the placement of the parts and develop appropriate tools and supports.

5. Processing molt. Technology or design is often incompatible with an acceptable level of efficiency. Thus unduly distant access or over-processing of the machine, unproductive operation of the press, and removing the chips that remain when drilling a sheet are all clear examples of avoidable processing downtime. In many cases, the change is also the product of the lack of synchronization of the processes.

6. Muda waiting. This change occurs when the operator's hands are inactive; when the work of an operator stops due to imbalances in the line, lack of spare parts or time of non-work and operation of the machines; or when the operator is simply the operator supervising a machine while it performs value-adding work. We also have a great deal of change in the form of the seconds or minutes the operator spends waiting for the next piece of work to arrive. During this interval, the operator is simply observing the machine.

7. Change of transport. Transportation is an essential part of operations, but the movement of materials or products does not add value. Even worse, damage often occurs during transportation.

Creating work groups at all levels of the organization, explaining the different types of changes, keeping records of them and applying the various management tools for their detection, analysis, measurement and solution is a fundamental weapon that produces immediate effects on the profitability of companies.

9TH QUESTION

DO YOU KNOW WHAT ARE THE LEVELS OF WASTE IN YOUR COMPANY?

Time change

Inefficient use of time results in stagnation. Materials, products, information and documents stay in one place without adding any value. In the production area, the temporary move takes the form of inventory. In office work, this happens when a document or piece of information sits on a desk or inside a computer waiting for a decision or signature.

Mura or irregularity

Every time the normal flow of work is interrupted in an operator's task, the flow of parts and machines, or the production schedule, it is said that there is mura. The mura is closely related to bottlenecks, which is why eliminating these leads to greater fluidity and productivity in the processes.

Died or stressful job

Muri involves stressful conditions for workers and machines, as well as for work processes. If a newly hired worker is assigned the task of a veteran worker, without sufficient training beforehand, the job will be stressful for him, and this person may be slower in his work, and may even commit more errors, which will lead to further shedding (waste).

Both the mura and the muri give rise to a higher level of molting, as a result of the existing irregularities and tensions. Identifying them and contributing to their reduction and / or elimination will allow significant savings in resources by lowering shedding levels.

Reverting to change

Before 1970 it was considered an excellent achievement in terms of quality to have a defect level close to 10%, in the following decade the objective was to reach defect levels of less than 10%. At the beginning of the '80s it was essential to achieve defects below 1% and since 1985 we have been searching for Zero Defects, that is, we are talking in parts per million.

Regarding the life cycles of the products until 1970, the life cycle was decades, from 1975 it began to speak of only many years, starting with the new technologies in the 1980s there are cycles life span of a few years. Currently the cycles are many times of months.

Regarding the technology of machinery, we can say that in 1970 the conventional machines ruled, in 1975 the numerical control machines began to excel, in 1980 the machines with computerized numerical control were already important, in 1985 the semi-automated plants and since the nineties the plants without lighting.

What has happened during this same period in terms of logistics? In 1950 manual control prevailed, in 1965 the MRP, in 1975 the Cyclic MRP took its place, in 1980 the MRP II, and in 1985 the synchronized manufacturing system began to gain strength.

Before 1980 there were inventory turns of up to 2.5 turns per year. After that year an average of 5.2 laps is reached. By 1985 some companies reached between 30 and 80 laps, while in Japan a few companies managed to exceed 100 laps. In many companies negative inventory turns are already occurring today.

QUESTION 10

WHAT SITUATION IS YOUR COMPANY IN FOR EACH OF THESE ITEMS?

Returning to the Fosbury Effect

Just as all athletes have adopted the backstroke technique in order to compete in the Olympic Games and then be able to aspire to a podium position, today companies around the world that claim to be truly and authentically competitive have adopted the Lean Production system (Just in Time).

Comparison of die change s in the automotive industry 1985-1987

• In France, companies such as Citroën and Brown Boveri France have made enormous strides (1986). Example: Weingarten 1,500 ton stamping press. Before change 285 minutes, after 22 minutes Numerical control RAMO horizontal lathe. Before the change 5 minutes, after the change only 1 minute. 315 tn Shuler press tandem. and 250 tn., for sheet metal stamping. From 210 minutes to 72 minutes, Languepain single point welder, from 70 minutes to only 20 minutes.

More examples of great achievements

Case 1

The company TELLABS in the United States within a month of starting the Just in Time system produced 6,000 circuits with 20 fewer employees than it needed before. The production cycle time was reduced from 20 days to 6.5 hours and the inventory of products in process was reduced from US $ 142,500 to only US $ 6,500.-

Case 2

Evolution of the level of suggestions in Toyota of Japan

Case 3

Difference in labor productivity between two automobile factories

Case 4

Estimated improvements in labor productivity for a factory with Just in Time

Case 5

Xerox USA

Case 6

Japan Toyota

Case 7

Yamazaki Company of Japan

Case 8

Ford Motors Company of the United States. It employed approximately 500 people in the Accounts Payable Department in North America, when Mazda of Japan only employed 5 people for the same task.

Case 9

Case 10

Case 11

Conclusions

• The manager's challenge is how to become much more competitive very quickly. We have entered a period without equal since the industrial revolution. The implications for companies, countries and people are profound and significant. It is no longer a matter of a cycle of good times and bad times. We can no longer close the hatches and hope to survive, as if this were just another passing storm. We can no longer use the conventional approach of cutting expenses and laying off people in bad times. We must choose to place ourselves in the race for competitiveness. Businesses that choose to shrink to get through the bad weather will simply disappear. Those that survive will be companies that find a way to participate in this growing race for competitiveness. In a period of high growth,anyone can increase productivity. But how many can do it in more difficult circumstances induced by low growth rates? This is the decisive factor in the success or failure of a company. The world has undergone, verifies, and will register, change after change. Changes in social, political, cultural, psychological, technological, scientific and ecological matters, among others, force entrepreneurs and managers to review and change their paradigms and ways of managing the company Competition is global, and competitors have begun to use new management and production techniques. Producing change in the company is not easy, nor was changing the way of jumping, but it must be faced. Achieving successful change involves carrying out both a cultural change and overcoming resistance to change.Regarding this, it should never be forgotten that "there is nothing more difficult to open than a closed mind." Changing the way managers, middle managers and employees feel and think is essential, since it will not be feasible to establish a system of continuous improvement and lean manufacturing if the corporate culture, behavior and / or philosophy meet the criteria of the Second Wave. Mistrust, enmity, confrontation, dispute, are among other issues, enemies of continuous improvement, quality in the work environment, total quality and excellence. Achieving high competitiveness requires teamwork, And for this it is necessary the participation of all in order to achieve maximum effectiveness and efficiency together with commitment. It is time to overturn the old and ineffective paradigms,and adopt new mindsets focused on creativity and permanent innovation, creative and inspiring leadership, teamwork, continuous training, emotional intelligence, systems thinking, and process-centered reasoning.

11TH QUESTION

ARE YOU WILLING TO CHANGE? WILL I KEEP TRYING TO ROLL JUMP OR SHIFT FOR THE FORBURY JUMP?

ARE YOU WILLING TO MAKE THE CULTURAL CHANGE THAT YOUR COMPANY NEEDS? DO YOU WANT TO LEAD THE CONTINUOUS AND CREATIVE CHANGE TOWARDS A NEW WAY OF DOING BUSINESS?

ARE YOU CONVINCED TO FIGHT WITH ALL YOUR FORCES AGAINST THE RESISTANCE TO CHANGE? ARE YOU WILLING TO ACCEPT THE NEW CHALLENGES OF THE 21ST CENTURY?

AVOID A LAP THAT SAYS: OUR COMPANY DIED A VICTIM OF INADAPTATION TO CHANGE, LOOK AT THE BONE AND NOT BE COMPETITIVE. THEIR REMAINS REST IN THE JURASIC PARK.

Bibliography

• Kaizen. Waste detection, prevention and elimination - Mauricio Lefcovich - www.gestiopolis.com - 2003 Kaizen Strategy - Mauricio Lefcovich - www.gestiopolis.com - 2003 Quality Management for Excellence - Mauricio Lefcovich - www.gestiopolis.com - 2003 Companies Traditional versus the New Competitive Company - Mauricio Lefcovich - www.degerencia.com - 2004 TPM. Total Productive Maintenance - Mauricio Lefcovich - www.winred.com - 2005 In Search of Zero Defects - Mauricio Lefcovich - www.pais-global.com.ar - 2005 Kaizen. From premises, assumptions, realities and objectives - Mauricio Lefcovich - www.ilustrados.com - 2005 Frequently asked questions about Kaizen - Mauricio Lefcovich - www.gestiopolis.com - 2005 Quick change of tools and reduction in preparation time - Mauricio Lefcovich - www.gestiopolis.com - 2005 Total Productivity Management - Mauricio Lefcovich - www.winred.com - 2005 The paradigm shift in human resources management - Mauricio Lefcovich - www.pais-global.com.ar - 2005 TQM. Management for Total Quality - Mauricio Lefcovich - www.gestiopolis.com - 2005 The Just in Time Production System - Mauricio Lefcovich - www.winred.com - 2005 Just in Time. In search of competitive advantage - Mauricio Lefcovich - www.ilustrados.com - 2005 Kaizen explained - Mauricio Lefcovich - www.sht.com.ar - 2003 Kaizen and exports - Mauricio Lefcovich - www.ilustrados.com - 2004 La experience curve. Its strategic importance - Mauricio Lefcovich - www.gestiopolis.com - 2004 Kaizen in SMEs - The case of a fresh pasta factory - Mauricio Lefcovich - www.gestiopolis.com - 2005 Kaizen.The Japanese Management of Excellence - Mauricio Lefcovich - www.tuobra.unam.mx - 2004

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