There are historical moments, just like the current one marked by the global health and economic crisis, when artisan and commercial businesses have some more free time combined with a good dose of worry, in spite of themselves, to analyze and redefine the ways of work organization and production so that their businesses can become more efficient for the future relaunch. The game consists of creating favorable conditions for the market offer to satisfy the entire demand when the latter becomes solid and continuous.
And the most fitting condition in the current production market relates to the requirements reflected by two key words: efficiency and lean production, where lean refers, par excellence, to the production method applied by the great Japanese Toyota factory for some time now. The old Taylorism marked the beginning of the 1900s as a classic scientific workflow organization model developed by an American engineer F.W. Taylor for the second industrial revolution. The method was based on the rationalization of a productive cycle according to the economic efficiency criteria reached through the decomposition and parceling out of labor processes in single constitutive movements with an assigned standard time for their execution.
Taylor’s scientific management translated to three main points: standardization, repetitive work cycles and parceling out. Its actual representation could be witnessed at Ford’s plants where Henry Ford introduced a revolutionary new approach to his car factories in Detroit: the assembly line. Yet, economy changes and so do priorities and organization needs. In order to increase the production efficiency, numerous entrepreneurs focused on the lean concept and adapted their production processes to the methodology applied by Toyota.
Lean production combines perfectly well with ergonomics and its principles, to which we have dedicated the Focus column of this month’s issue.
The race towards the increase in productivity and the elimination of waste (of time) leads to the decrease in operators’ breaks time and moments of resting, and to the increase in the production rhythm. What is more, repetitive work influences workers’ posture and their physical effort due to the repetitiveness of actions. Placing work equipment and machines strategically while following ergonomics criteria will not only preserve workers’ health but it will become a key aspect in high productivity and optimized workflow. Higher production efficiency and fewer risks are equivalent to the operative management cost cutting over a medium-long period of time.
In what way do the companies satisfy the expectations of “doing more with less” in the manufacturing sector? There is a strict relation between ergonomic criteria and lean production criteria. Constant improvements and the increase in ergonomics at workplaces proved to be efficacious for many manufactures. The aim is to quickly implement low-cost improvements that will translate to a measurable impact.
Involving the workers in the identification and solving of the ergonomic challenges, and checking what impact the improvements had, is considerably important. Involving the operators is crucial for the success of the implemented improvements. Defining the layout of an industrial work environment in the design stage is important not only as far as the operators’ health is concerned. Such choices will influence the quality of products, flexibility and the general costs of processes.
Ergonomics is the most important factor in the workplace design stage. The use of the systems and tools that have been designed and studied to meet the physical ergonomics criteria together with well-designed work stations will reduce many risk factors associated to traditional work stations. Workplaces where operators often change the station during the production cycle will reduce the repetitiveness and eliminate the static posture, which will improve the operators’ wellbeing.
Looking at it through a lean production perspective, it can be stated that ergonomics increases the productivity and reduces costs; it eliminates waste (unnecessary movements); it improves the final quality and reduces the mistakes. By limiting the number of repetitions and useless movements, a business will save time and money.
Finally, what we can say is that ergonomics and lean production not only can co-exist but they both contribute to reaching a common goal: resource and production optimization.
by Marzio Nava
Detergo Magazine January 2021
