Page 7 - Seven Wastes in Glass Tempering

7 TRANSPORTATION UNNECESSARY MOVEMENT OF PEOPLE OR PARTS BETWEEN PROCESSES Glass is a heavy material, so transportation is also a big cost component in the overall cost structure for glass delivery. In fact, this is the single biggest reason why the glass industry is so fragmented. Transportation never adds any value to the actual product. Rather, it is an inevitable evil that just needs to get done. This waste type, however, includes more than just standard deliveries from the glass processing factory to the customer. It also includes any kind of unnecessary movement of people or parts inside the factory between the different work processes. In a glass processing factory, this means the movement of glass from cutting to grinding to drilling to tempering to IG ... and elsewhere. The transportation of glass or people between these stages does not add any value to the actual product, which means it is waste in the overall process. This brings us to the layout design of the factory. The Lean philosophy gives an excellent framework for developing factory layouts. The aim of the Lean manufacturing philosophy is to create value streams and make the value flow at the pull of the customer in pursuit of perfection. In this context, a value stream means the combination of process steps that actually add value to the product. It is also worth emphasizing the Lean manufacturing philosophy, which strives to make the whole production flow at the pull of the customer. This means not to overproduce to reach some internal machine efficiencies, but rather to design the factory layout in a way that makes it possible to run it according to the pull of the customer. Simply put: to produce on customer demand. The seven wastes in tempering The transportation does not add any value to the actual product