Workshop
Self-Balancing, True Continuous Flow
Improving the Henry Ford assembly line
Workshop Code: FW-03
Day & Time: Friday, Oct 19, 2012 - 8:00 AM
Length: 4 hours
Cost: $200.00 USD
Henry Ford's assembly line was a great improvement over the manufacturing processes that had come before, but it wasn't perfect. By having production move along an assembly line, each station or operator set the pace for the rest of the line. That meant everyone had to wait when there was a bottleneck. Fortunately, self-balancing was developed to allow us to achieve continuous flow, even for complex manufacturing processes such as batch, mixed model and fluctuating yields.
Self-balancing allows manufacturers to pull and take a hand-off of the unit at any point in the process. This means that the division of labor is constantly optimized and most of the cumbersome problems of trying to balance a line are solved. Self-balancing removes the hidden waste of waiting for the slowest station or operator. Self balancing is an important innovation, and in this workshop you will learn and practice how to setup your own self-balancing line for simple and complex manufacturing environments.
In this workshop:
- Hear about and experience traditional line balancing methods.
- Learn about and experience the self-balancing concept.
- Find out how to achieve self-balancing with batch processes.
- Learn how to achieve self-balancing with sub-assembly feeder lines.
- Take home the knowledge you need to apply self-balancing at your company.
JDSU
JDSU enables broadband and optical innovation in the communications, commercial and consumer markets. JDSU is the leading provider of communications test and measurement solutions and optical products for telecommunications service providers, cable operators, network equipment manufacturers and enterprise customers. JDSU is also a leading provider of innovative optical solutions for medical/environmental instrumentation, semiconductor processing, display, brand authentication, aerospace and defense, and decorative applications.Gordon Ghirann
Gordon Ghirann is lean manufacturing specialist at JDSU. He has been developing the self-balancing process since 1998, has written a book on the subject and has implemented the process on a wide variety of lines around the world. Gordon received his BS in mechanical engineering from Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo, California.
Tim Livingston
Tim Livingston has been with JDSU for 20 years. He has supervised multiple teams in many departments, with lean becoming an important part of his workplace culture. Tim's teams have studied and implemented several lean projects that were inspired by a three-month project centered around the book, The Toyota Way.
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