Job Shop Lean: An Industrial Engineering Approach to Implementing Lean in High-Mix Low-Volume Production Systems

In the 1950’s, the design and implementation of the Toyota Production System (TPS) within Toyota had begun. In the 1960’s, Group Technology (GT) and Cellular Manufacturing (CM) were used by Serck Audco Valves, a high-mix low-volume (HMLV) manufacturer in the United Kingdom, to guide enterprise-wide transformation. In 1996, the publication of the book Lean Thinking introduced the entire world to Lean. Job Shop Lean integrates Lean with GT and CM by using the five Principles of Lean to guide its implementation: (1) identify value, (2) map the value stream, (3) create flow, (4) establish pull, and (5) seek perfection. Unfortunately, the tools typically used to implement the Principles of Lean are incapable of solving the three Industrial Engineering problems that HMLV manufacturers face when implementing Lean: (1) finding the product families in a product mix with hundreds of different products, (2) designing a flexible factory layout that ＂fits＂ hundreds of different product routings, and (3) scheduling a multi-product multi-machine production system subject to finite capacity constraints.

Based on the Author’s 20+ years of learning, teaching, researching, and implementing Job Shop Lean since 1999, this book

• Describes the concepts, tools, software, implementation methodology, and barriers to successful implementation of Lean in HMLV production systems
• Utilizes Production Flow Analysis instead of Value Stream Mapping to eliminate waste in different levels of any HMLV manufacturing enterprise

• Solves the three Industrial Engineering problems that were mentioned earlier using software like PFAST (Production Flow Analysis and Simplification Toolkit), Sgetti and Schedlyzer
• Explains how the one-at-a-time implementation of manufacturing cells constitutes a long-term strategy for Continuous Improvement
• Explains how product families and manufacturing cells are the basis for implementing flexible automation, machine monitoring, virtual cells, Manufacturing Execution Systems, and other elements of Industry 4.0
• Teaches a new method, Value Network Mapping, to visualize large multi-product multi-machine production systems whose Value Streams share many processes
• Includes real success stories of Job Shop Lean implementation in a variety of production systems such as a forge shop, a machine shop, a fabrication facility and a shipping department
• Encourages any HMLV manufacturer planning to implement Job Shop Lean to leverage the co-curricular and extracurricular programs of an Industrial Engineering department

Dr. Shahrukh A. Irani, PhD, is the President of Lean and Flexible, llc, a consulting company that delivers advisory, training and implementation services focused on Lean for high-mix low-volume manufacturing (aka JobshopLean). Currently, he teaches a 2-semester project-intensive course on Lean Manufacturing in the Department of Industrial Engineering at the University of Houston. From 2012-2018, he was the President of the Houston Senior Chapter of the Institute of Industrial and Systems Engineering. From 2012-2014, he worked as the Director of IE Research at Hoerbiger Corporation of America, Inc. (HCA), Houston, TX. In that position, he gained invaluable industry experience by undertaking projects to demonstrate the viability of JobshopLean in HCA’s high-mix low-volume (HMLV) manufacturing facilities. From 1996-2012, he was an Associate Professor in the Department of Integrated Systems Engineering (ISE) at The Ohio State University (OSU). His research at OSU produced JobshopLean, a comprehensive methodology to adapt Lean for high-mix, low-volume (HMLV) small and medium enterprises (SME). Also, his research team at OSU developed the PFAST (Production Flow Analysis and Simplification Toolkit) software that facilitates the implementation of JobshopLean.During his sixteen years at OSU, he received the Outstanding Faculty Award for excellence in teaching from the ISE department’s graduating classes of 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006 and 2009 and the 2002 Charles E. MacQuigg Outstanding Teaching Award from the College of Engineering.For 1999-2001 and 2001-2003, he served as the Director of the Facilities Planning and Design (FAPAD) division of the Institute of Industrial Engineers. In 1996, he was voted Young Engineer of the Yearby the Minnesota Federation of Engineering Societies and the Minneapolis Chapter of the Institute of Industrial Engineers. Dr. Irani is the Editor of the Handbook of Cellular Manufacturing Systems (1999, John Wiley).