This statement appeared in IIE magazine "Industrial Engineer" in March 2010 issue.
Muda, Muri, Mura
http://michelbaudin.com/2012/03/13/muri-overburdening-and-how-to-avoid-it/
Mitigating Mura or unevenness
http://michelbaudin.com/2012/11/21/mitigating-mura-or-unevenness/
Muda just means unnecessary
http://michelbaudin.com/2011/12/16/muda-just-means-unnecessary/
More musing on Muda
http://michelbaudin.com/2012/03/28/more-musings-on-muda/
17 November 2016
I once again got an opportunity to look into the topic of total industrial engineering (TIE). I moderated a panel discussion on 17 November 2016 on the topic Evolving Concepts of IE. Two of the speakers are from an organization associated with total industrial engineering.
TIE is part of WCM being promoted by Yamashina.
World Class Manufacturing model in production management
K. Pałucha*
Management and Administration Institute, Organization and Management Faculty,
Silesian University of Technology, ul. Roosevelta 26-28, 41-800 Zabrze, Poland
Archives of Material Science and Engineering
December 2012
http://www.amse.acmsse.h2.pl/vol58_2/58221.pdf
Improving Operations Performance with World Class Manufacturing Technique: A Case in Automotive Industry
Book Chapter, 2015
Fabio De Felice, Antonella Petrillo and Stanislao Monfreda
http://cdn.intechopen.com/pdfs-wm/43383.pdf
REDISCOVER WORK SIMPLIFICATION
by Ben B. Graham, President
Work Simplification has generated billions of dollars through effectiveness and efficiency for organizations by involving all employees in methods simplification. It gave management, industrial engineers and all employees tools for continuous improvement.
In 1946, ASME did something that was even then a long time in the making. They established a set of symbols as the ASME Standard for Operation and Flow Process Charts. Twenty-five years earlier Frank and Lillian Gilbreth had presented "Process Charts - First Steps in Finding the One Best Way" at the Annual Meeting of ASME in 1921. By the time the symbols were standardized they had evolved into a solid set of five symbols that covered every aspect of work, in any work environment, that can be used with very little confusion. The first process charts appeared as a series of symbols strung down a page in sequential order. This was (and still is) a simple and effective way to track the flow of a person or a piece of material through a work process.
In 1932 Allan Mogensen founded Work Simplification, which is defined as the organized application of common sense. Mogensen used the process chart (among other tools) to organize and study work and he drew upon the knowledge, experience and common sense of the people who did the work for improvement ideas. Mogensen defended participative improvement with the following explanation. The person doing the job also knows about the improvements possible and required to reduce the work content of the job, and therefore he has to be involved and has to be given opportunity to express his idea whenever a process or operation is being studied for improvement. The human element is brought forward in a significant way in work simplification and work simplification systematized employee involvement in productivity improvement which was advocated by Taylor and Gilbreth earlier. But the system for it was developed by Alan Mogensen. It is predicated on people who do the work being involved in the work improvement. It does not treat people, products and information as inputs and outputs, using accounting terminology. It regards people as a treasured resource, the safekeepers of the Corporate (or organizational) memory, which is the most vital factor in successful continuous improvement! Mogensen described the process chart as follows. "In order to achieve measurement, tools are needed and the most important of these is the process chart." "The process chart is the lifeblood of work simplification. It is an irreplaceable tool. It is a guide and stimulant. It takes time to properly utilize but there is absolutely no doubt that it works."
Mogensen began conducting Work Simplification Conferences at Lake Placid in 1937 and continued them for nearly 50 years! (Lillian Gilbreth was part of the original staff returning each year until the mid sixties.) Ben S. Graham was a student at Mogensen's 1944 Conference. He also embraced an employee team approach to process improvement which is summarized in this statement he made in 1958. "Participation by the worker in developing the method eliminates many causes of resistance and assures enthusiastic acceptance. This is more important than all the techniques put together." He subsequently joined Mogensen's staff as the resident expert in paperwork simplification.
Graham also introduced two variations of the operation symbol that were incorporated into a revised ASME Standard in the early 70s. They are used to show "value-added" steps in information processing.
 | Origination. An origination represents the creation of a record or a set of papers. |
 | Add/Alter. An add/alter represents an addition or change of information on an existing record or set of papers. |
A few of the organizations that have embraced work simplification in the past include Texas Instruments (Former CEO Pat Haggerty described work simplification as "TI's most effective program for fostering personal involvement at all levels of the organization while yielding tangible benefits to the company."), Maytag (Former CEO Daniel J. Krumm stated "Work Simplification plays an integral part in Maytag's total cost-reduction efforts and makes a significant contribution year after year."), Procter & Gamble (In 1983, realized nearly 1 billion dollars in first year savings as a result of work simplification), Ford (Ford-Connersville annual first year savings increased from $400,000 to $10 million during 11 years of applying work simplification. Savings in administrative processes grew from $820,00 to 1.5 million in 3 years.), Standard Register (Introduced work simplification to the office environment, the first to offer business process improvement to clients to support the sales of new information systems), and the US Navy (Over a period of 14 years, about 250 projects produced a typical annual return over $150,000 per project.)
It appears that, in recent years many organizations are focusing their attention on purchasing solutions for their business rather than mastering their work themselves. Where the purchased solutions lead to downsizing, the corporate memory is discarded leaving the organization dependent on those from whom they purchased their processes. The Work Simplification approach utilizes the corporate memory rather than discarding it. It counters increasing complexity with continuous improvement and enables the work force to be the masters of their processes.
Today, if you are using value stream mapping to manage your supply chain, understanding the fundamental steps in your work processes will help you. Work Simplification always helps you…faster, cheaper and better!
Suggested Reading
Mogy, an Autobiography
Allan H. Mogensen with Rosario 'Zip' Rausa
Idea Associates, Chesapeake, VA, 1989
Common Sense Applied to Motion and Time Study
Allan H. Mogensen
McGraw-Hill Book Company Inc., New York, 1932
Work Simplification for Improved Business Controls and Operation of All Functions
Reprint of a series of articles from "Paperwork Simplification"
Ben S. Graham
The Standard Register Company, Dayton, OH
Process Charts - First Steps in Finding the One Best Way to do Work
Frank B. Gilbreth and Lillian M. Gilbreth
Presented at the Annual Meeting of The American Society of Mechanical Engineers, New York, 1921
Process Charts
ANSI Y15.3M - 1979
American National Standard
The American Society of Mechanical Engineers, New York, 1980
Ben B. Graham is President of The Ben Graham Corporation, a company that provides process improvement consulting, coaching and training services to organizations across the United States and Canada. He holds a degree in Economics from UCLA and an MBA from USC. He has more than twenty years of experience working with the Graham Process Improvement methodology with organizations in the United States, Canada and South America. He has helped develop organization-wide improvement programs. He has worked with government at all levels and with nonprofit and private enterprise. He has worked with people in R&D, legal, finance, IT, customer service, warehousing, and other departments. His organization publishes Graham Process Charting Software, which is designed specifically and solely for preparing detail process charts. Ben is the author of the book “Detail Process Charting: Speaking the Language of Process”.
For information about The Ben Graham Corporation, visit www.worksimp.com or call 800.628.9558 or email Ben at ben.graham@worksimp.com
Human Effort Engineering
2. Work Measurement
3. Ergonomics
4. Safe Work Practice Design
5. Wage Incentives and Job Evaluation
System Efficiency Engineering
2. Value Engineering
3. Statistics Based Techniques: Statistical Quality Control (SQC), Statistical Process Control (SPC), and Six Sigma Projects etc.
4. Mathematical Optimization, Operations Research and Quantitative Techniques
5. Plant Layout Studies for reduction of material movement, operator movement and movement of salesmen etc.
6. Engineering Economics
________________________________________________________________________
Knols (Online Articles on these topics)
Human Effort Engineering
2. Work Measurement
4. Safe Work Practice Design
System Efficiency Engineering
Systems Efficiency Engineering - A Focus Area of Industrial Engineeering
System Efficiency Engineering - Methods, Subjects, Techniques, and Tools
2. Value Engineering
Value Engineering - Introduction
Value Engineering at the Design and Development Stage - Tata Nano Example
Value Engineering - Examples, Cases and Benefits
3. Statistics Based Techniques: Statistical Quality Control (SQC), Statistical Process Control (SPC), and Six Sigma Projects etc.
Statistical Quality Control – Industrial Engineering
4. Operations Research and Quantitative Techniques
Operations Research - An Efficiency Improvement Tool for Industrial Engineers
5. Plant Layout Studies for reduction of material movement, operator movement and movement of salesmen etc.
6. Engineering Economics
Engineering Economy or Engineering Economics: Economic Decision Making by Engineers
Introduction to Engineering Economics
Engineering Economics is an Efficiency Improvement Tool for Industrial Engineers
Engineering Economics and Industrial Engineering
Engineering Economic Appraisal by Industrial Engineering Department
Related Knols
____________________________________________________________________
Related Papers and Articles
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Updated 4.10.2021, 15 August 2021, 17 July 2021, 12 November 2016, 26 Dec 2012
"I have to moderate a panel discussion on 17 November 2016 on the topic Evolving Concepts of IE. Two of the speakers are from an organization associated with total industrial engineering." I have forgotten the event now. I have to look back and recollect what happened on that day.
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