Smart Manufacturing

CHAPTER 3Continuous Improvement Tools for Smart Manufacturing

Anthony Tarantino, PhD

Introduction

Continuous improvement techniques and tools date back centuries. Examples include Qin dynasty emperor Shi Huangdi using interchangeable parts to make crossbows in the first century BCE, Guttenberg's printing press in 1400 that made mass education possible, the Gilbreths’ introduction of process charts in 1900 to improve throughput, and Ford's perfection of the assembly line that made cars affordable for millions of Americans in the 1920s. During the Cold War (1950s–1980s) continuous improvement programs became a major focus of the scientific community and the defense industry and have continued to grow in use and acceptance ever since.

W. Edward Deming and Taiichi Ohno championed a major change in process improvement starting in the 1960s. Rather than the traditional break-and-fix mentality in which process improvement efforts were reactive in nature and project-based, continuous improvement became an enterprise-wide philosophy that accepts that improvement is a never-ending journey requiring management commitments, staffing, and budgets.

This chapter highlights many of the more widely used tools and techniques that have proven their effectiveness over the decades. With the advent of Smart Technologies, each of these tools has become more effective in delivering tangible benefits, doing so with less effort and in a shorter time frame.

I have used the large majority of these tools ...