The document summarizes two case studies of companies implementing lean manufacturing techniques. Company 1 used lean to address high defect rates in its oven production process, reducing defects by half and saving 30,000 euros per month. It planned to next apply lean to packaging. Company 2 overhauled its entire production system using lean, rearranging layout, retraining workers, and establishing continuous improvement teams. It saw a 33% increase in daily production, 35% higher quality, and 66% shorter lead times. While Company 1 took a piecemeal approach, Company 2 fully adopted lean, integrating it throughout the organization for long-term effectiveness. Both gained insights through data collection and process mapping, but Company 2's deeper application of lean principles yielded

1. Warren Sprecher
IND E 337
October22, 2015
Homework2 – LibraryResearch
The firstarticle,writtenbyManoj Dora andXavierGellynck,focusedonleanimplementationin
a foodprocessingcompanythatspecializesingingerbread (referredtoasCompany1).Its valuesconsist
of “the use of natural ingredients,traditionandcraftsmanship,qualityandsafety,innovationand
productdevelopment,sustainability,andemployee satisfaction”[1].Ithad70 employeesatthe time of
the report[1]. Company1 beganto experience acontinuousdecline inproductionfrom2008 to 2010, as
well asreceivinganincrease incomplaintsfromcustomersrelatedtothe qualityof producttheywere
purchasing.Company1 beganimplementingleanmethodologies,accompaniedbya“systematicdata-
drivenapproach”[1] inorderto reduce defects andabnormalities –andin turn,improve the quality and
efficiency of theirproduction.Aftercollectingdata,theyfoundthattheyhada 30% defectrate for
products comingout of the oven.Theythenusedfailure modeandeffectanalysis(FMEA) toevaluate
and prioritize the riskof failures.Thisevaluationleadcompany1to efficientlyaddresseachissue
accordingto its level of priority.Duringthe processof fixingthe issuesof highpriority,they
simultaneouslyfocusedonstandardizingthe optimal processesthattheyfoundthroughaddressingthe
previousissues. Asaresultof fixingthe failuresandstandardizingbetterpractices,company1wasable
to decrease badbatchesbyhalf,and save roughly30,000 eurosper month.Furthermore,company1
experiencedarise inemployee confidence level asaresultof overcomingthe issue of creatingwaste.
The team responsible fordecreasingovenwaste thenbeganworkingonreducingdefectsinpackaging.
The nextarticle,writtenbyVedatDal,focussesonthe implementationof leanmethodologyina
readywearcompanythat producesshirts(referredtoascompany2). Company2 had 128 employeesat
the time of the article,andfocusesontwoproductionlines;one makingclassicshirtsand one making
sport shirts. The maingoal the companyhad was theywantedto“Increase the numberof modelsand
decrease the numberof ordersinparallel withthe changingsenseof fashion”[2]. Company2had
previouslybeenworkingwithaproductionstructure thatfacilitatedmassproduction,andconsistently
heldhighinventories.These twoproceduresledtoissuesrelatedtobothqualityandefficiency.
Consequently,anoutsidefirmbeganworkingalongside agroupwithin Company2,and helped
implementleanmanufacturingmethodologies inordertoaddressthese issues. Company2beganby
creatinga value flowchartvia value streammappinginordertounderstandtheircurrentstate,and
thentheyanalyzedtheirindividual processesandthe time neededforeachprocess,aswell astheir
currentlayoutand laborplan.Afterthe analysis,company2realizedthattheirproductiondidnotmatch
the demandat all, layoutproblemscausedmultiple machineoperatorstobe unable fulfill theirdutiesat
any giventime,andmostemployeeswere onlytrainedinone specificduty. Inordertoincrease worker
productivity,company2implemented5s techniques andrearrangedthe productionlayout.These
effortsorganizedthe workarea,reducedthe needworkermovement,andreduced“non-value added
operations”[2].Inaddition,the newproductionlayoutandorganizedworkplace allowedcompany2to
meetthe demandsinearlymonthsthattheywere previouslyunableto meet.Company2thenbegan
preparingweeklyproductionprogramstokeepemployeesonschedule,allowingmore flexibility tothe
numberof unitsproduced,andreducing inventoryfrombackuporders.Once leanwasimplemented,
company2 sawa 33% increase in unitsproducedperday, a 35% increase inRightFirstTime (RFT), a 29%
increase inproductivity,anda 66% decrease inproductionlead time [2].The practices usedduringthis

2. implementation of leanwere adopted,andwere standardized.A team wasthenassignedwithinthe
company to continue the long-termadoptionof lean.
The two companiesimplementedleanmethodologiesverydifferently.Company1mainlyused
leanas a tool to helpthemaddresstheirmainproblemof highamount of defectscomingfromthe oven.
On the otherhand,company2 whollyadoptedleanastheirwayof producing.Insteadof justfocusing
on one aspectof the companylike company1 had,company2 addressedtheirentireproduction
processand renovatednearlyall of theirsystems.However, inordertofullyimplementlean,company2
had to do muchmore.Theyhad to rearrange theirentire plantlayout,theyhadtotrainemployeesto
serve multiplepurposes,theycollectedextensivedataonhow theyoperate, andtheyhad to execute
extensive time studiesof all theirstepsinproduction[2].All of thisrequiresahighinitial investment
fromcompany2. The initial costforcompany2 to implementleanwouldcertainlybe higherthan
company1. The resultshowever,prove the investmentto be worthit.Company2 obtainedanoverall
RFT increase of 35% and a productionincrease of 33% [2], where company1 decreased defectrate from
the ovenby half of 30% - resultinginanoverall decreaseof only15% in a single process[1].While
company2 may have investedmuchmore intotheirimplementationof lean,theyalsoimprovedtheir
companies’systemsmuchmore asa result.
Anotherkeydifference wasfromthe twocompanies’long-termplansof action.Company1saw
the benefitsof leanintheirovenprocess,andmade aplanto utilize leanmethodologiesinorderto
improve theirpackagingprocess[1].Company1had no true long-termplansforcontinuous
improvement,butinstead,theytackledone processata time.Once theyhadobtainedapositive
outcome theymovedonto the nextissue.The article mentionednothinginrelationstoanyfurther
improvementorevenanya furtheranalysisdirectedtowardsthe ovenprocess. Thisisincontrastto
company2, and its future plansregardinglean.Through company2’simplementationof lean,theywere
able to addressmanyareasof the productionline.Company2wentonto forma teamout of employees
that wouldcontinue topractice leanmethodologiesthroughoutthe company[2].Formingateam
dedicatedtothe continuousimprovementof the companyallowscompany2to remainefficient,to
addressnewbottlenecksastheyarise,andto consistentlyremaincompetitiveintheirindustry.
Conversely,company2may findthemselvesinasimilarsituationinthe future because theyhad
overlookedthe company’s needforcontinuousimprovement.
The two companieswere similarwhenitcame tothe stepstheyusedto findwhere errorscame
from.Both companieshadaninitial stepof acquiringdatafromtheircurrentprocesses.Bothcompanies
usedflowchartsto visualize all theirprocesses involvedin production, andbothcompaniesreliedon
time studiestogetaccurate productiontimesforeachprocess.These similarfirststepsgave each
companysolidgroundstomake improvementsfrom, aswell asprovideddatatocompare to after
processimprovementswere made.
Overall,the maindifferencesof leanimplementationbetweenthe twocompanies,wasinthe
differentlevelsof utilizationshownfromeachcompany.Company1treatedleanlike anothertool that
improvesproductflowandreducesvariabilityof theirproducts.Asaresultof implementingleaninthis
way,though,theyoverlookedthe importance of continuousimprovementof eachof theirprocesses.
Usingleanin thiswaymay resultinthe decreasedlong-termhealthof company1.Onthe otherhand,
company2 fullyadoptedleanastheirwayof production,Utilizingleanmethodologiesoverall their
production.Theyfollowedtheirleanimplementationswithcreatingagroup of employeestoensure

3. continuousimprovement.Inconclusion,company2utilizedleantoimprove the company’sefficiency
and simultaneously provide continuousimprovementforlong-termoperations,while company1mainly
usedleanas a tool inorder to improve itscurrentmanufacturingprocesses.

4. Works Cited
[1]M. Dora and X. Gellynck,'LeanSix SigmaImplementationinaFoodProcessingSME: A Case Study',
Qual.Reliab. Engng.Int.,p.n/a-n/a,2015.
[2]V.Dal,E. Ackagunand A. yilmaz,'UsingLeanManufacturingTechniquestoImprove Production
Efficiencyinthe ReadyWearIndustryanda Case Study', FIBERS& TEXTILES in Eastern Europe,vol.21,
no.4100, pp. 16 - 22, 2013.