HT Lean Production Application Research

Development of manufacturing processes has led to Lean Production becoming very popular in many industries.Lean Production is especially popular in the manufacturing industry.It has become an embodiment of timely delivery,customer satisfaction and competitiveness in each enterprise.Also,it has become one of the strategic choices of the global manufacturing industry.However,due to the differences in the environment,culture,employees' capability and so on,the application level is different in each enterprise.HT is a sapphire production enterprise.Due to its strong technology,HT continues to survive and grow during a prolonged downturn in the sapphire industry.Changes in the sapphire market have forced a change in the operations model.The model has changed from producing a few varieties of products in very large quantities,to a production model with a large variety of products in small quantities.The challenges of this high mix,low volume production model are: reducing the production cost,improving the efficiency of production operation systems,and increasing competitiveness.These are urgent problems for HT to solve in the current market environment.HT,a joint venture company,like most companies in China,has some experience in lean production.HT has applied some lean manufacturing tools,such as: 6S,PDCA,DOE and so on.But due to some factors,lean production in HT is just using the simple application of these tools and we still remain at the initial stage of implementation.Applying the principles of lean production to the actual operational problems and the waste inefficiencies at HT,this paper will explore the actions and methods used to improve lean production at HT to reach the goal to continuously improve HT's QCD(Quality,Cost,delivery),while simultaneously strengthening the sense of responsibility,enthusiasm,and employee satisfaction.The research results of this paper can be used as reference for primary lean enterprises which are also changing their production model due to the supply-side structural reform.