TPS

Question 1

What is TPS?

Answer 1

Toyota Production system. A tool developed by Toyota aiming at reducing costs by eliminating waste that can be found in manufacturing production operations

Primary objective is cost reduction (manufacturing costs, sales cost, administrative costs and capital costs) and improvement of productivity

Question 2

What are the bad spiral leading to waste according to TPS?

Answer 2

1. Excessive production resources: Workforce, facilities, inventory
2. Leads to overproduction
3. Leads to excessive inventory
4. Leads to unnecessary capital investment

Question 3

Are there any sub-goals with TPS?

Answer 3

1. Quality control: adapt to fluctuations in demand
2. Quality assurance: assure each process generates good results
3. Respect to humanity: respect for workforce

Question 4

Name 2 key approaches of TPS

Answer 4

1. Just-in-time (JIT): Produce necessary units in necessary quantities at the necessary Tim
   - “Nothing is manufactured until it is demanded”
2. Autonomation: Autonomous control of defects/errors
   - Supports JIT by never allowing defective units from a previous process

Question 5

What is JIT?

Answer 5

An important key principle of TPS. Produce necessary units in necessary quantities at the necessary Tim
- “Nothing is manufactured until it is demanded”

Question 6

TPS is the ideal combo of 4 principles, what are these?

Answer 6

1. Zero defect principle: no error allowed (Autonomation)
   - Andon: traffic light control system
   - Poka-Yoke: avoid mistakes by making it easier to do right
2. Pull-principle: can be related to Just in Time approach: nothing is manufactured until its demanded
3. Tact principle: the rhythm good are produced to meet demand
4. Flow principle: process steps are focused and aligned to adding value removing wasteful activities (a bit line balancing)

Question 7

What is the Heijunka model?

Answer 7

It is a leveled programming focused on smoothing out the workload, ensuring a steady and predictable flow of goods.

• It ensures products are made in small, mixed batches instead of large batches of one type. This helps match production with customer demand, reduce waste, and avoid too much or too little inventory

Question 8

What is a Heijunka box?

Answer 8

A scheduling tool indicating the type and amount of products to be produced at fixed tie intervals

Question 9

What are Kanban cards?

Answer 9

Type of product and quantity/production of units are written on a tag-like card, sent from workers of a previous process to workers of the following process.

• Withdrawal kanban: details quantity that the next process should use from the previous process
• Production ordering Kanban: How much the previous process should produce to replenish stock/meet demand

Question 10

What is Kaizen approach?

Answer 10

Continuous improvement of activity (small steps)
- Operative, production system, employees

Kaikaku: Radical improvement (big steps)
- Strategic, top management decisions (tex new machine)

Question 11

What are the rules of Kanban?

Answer 11

1. The next process should use necessary products from the previous process in JIT approach
2. The previous process should produce products in the quantities used by the next process
3. Defective products should never be conveyed to the next processes
4. Number of Kanban cards should be minimized