Systematic Analysis Of E Company Lean Manufacturing

Lean Manufacturing is a powerful tool to cut cost by eliminating the waste in the process and to response quickly by reducing the lead time. It helps the company adopting low cost manufacturing strategy and differentiation strategy. It can help company to build core competence in the global competition.Speed and elimination of waste is the target of lean manufacturing. Small batch size or One Piece Flow method increases the flexibility of process and makes the mass customerization possible in the complex process. Elimination waste adds value directly into profit. The lean system in manufacturing can improve the efficiency and reduce cost and encourage the morale of staff. On the other side, it can reduce the resource spending.E company faces the problem during the globalization and quick expansion. On one side, the product line flourishes and product life cycle shortens, this increases the operation cost. On the other side, the consumer has required higher quality and lower cost. Lean Manufacturing operation strategy is adopted by E Company to provide various products with lower cost.The thesis was organized in five parts:In the first part, it analyzed the competition environment of plastic lens industry by five forces diagram. It also positioned the value and functions of E Company on the group's supply chain system. The main problem E Company facing was bias emerging with the expanding of production line complexity and low cost requirement.Secondly, the thesis systematically analyzed the Lean Manufacturing system from principles, key elements and evolution progress of manufacturing system. It briefly reviewed the global and local study and application of lean manufacturing theory and practice. In the third part, it identified the waste and problems in E company,such as the high work-in-progress stock, long time waiting of people, equipment and product, and not stable of production performance. Then the fishbone diagram is used to analyze the root cause of one main defect, which impacts the quality greatly.In the fourth part, E company Lean Manufacturing projects were analyzed. The program included the changing environment building; 5S work floor improvement; U cell work layout setup; Kanban control system; Single Minute Exchange of Die method (SMED); and the continuous improvement company culture.Finally, the thesis showed the improvement after Lean Manufacturing implementation: visual communication board for auto-management culture, and the pair/impair program cancellation of casting department, which reduced the molds stock 29% and fastens the production cycle 25%.Through Lean Manufacturing in E Company, the workshop floor improved and the productivity was increased. E Company has built the continuous improvement culture with Kaizen Team Activities. Chinese manufacturing corporations are rapid growing and seeking for good management practice. The Lean manufacturing systematic tools are helpful to improve the enterprise management by reducing the resource consumption and increasing of productivities.