William A. Levinson – författare

On the manufacturing shop floor, the principle of "value comes from the production of parts rather than charts" crucially applies when using practical statistical process control (SPC). The production worker should need to enter only a sample’s measurements to get immediately actionable information as to whether corrective action (e.g., as defined by a control plan’s reaction plan) is necessary for an out-of-control situation, and should not have to perform any calculations, draw control charts, or use sophisticated statistical software. This book’s key benefit for readers consists of spreadsheet-deployable solutions with all the mathematical precision of a vernier along with the simplicity of a stone ax. Traditional SPC relies on the assumption that sufficient data are available with which to estimate the process parameters and set suitable control limits. Many practical applications involve, however, short production runs for which no process history is available. There are nonetheless tested and practical control methods such as PRE-Control and short-run SPC that use the product specifications to set appropriate limits. PRE-Control relies solely on the specification limits while short-run SPC starts with the assumption that the process is capable—that is, at least a 4-sigma process, and works from there to set control limits. Cumulative Sum (CUSUM) and exponentially weighted moving average (EWMA) charts also can be used for this purpose. Specialized charts can also track multiple part characteristics, and parts with different specifications, simultaneously. This is often useful, for example, where the same tool is engaged in mixed-model production. Readers will be able to deploy practical and simple control charts for production runs for which no prior history is available and control the processes until enough data accumulate to enable the traditional methods (assuming it ever does). They will be able to track multiple product features with different specifications and also control mixed-model applications in which a tool generates very short runs of parts with different specifications. The methods will not require software beyond readily available spreadsheets, nor will they require specialized tables that are not widely available. Process owners and quality engineers will be able to perform all supporting calculations in Microsoft Excel, and without the need for advanced software.

On the manufacturing shop floor, the principle of "value comes from the production of parts rather than charts" crucially applies when using practical statistical process control (SPC). The production worker should need to enter only a sample’s measurements to get immediately actionable information as to whether corrective action (e.g., as defined by a control plan’s reaction plan) is necessary for an out-of-control situation, and should not have to perform any calculations, draw control charts, or use sophisticated statistical software. This book’s key benefit for readers consists of spreadsheet-deployable solutions with all the mathematical precision of a vernier along with the simplicity of a stone ax. Traditional SPC relies on the assumption that sufficient data are available with which to estimate the process parameters and set suitable control limits. Many practical applications involve, however, short production runs for which no process history is available. There are nonetheless tested and practical control methods such as PRE-Control and short-run SPC that use the product specifications to set appropriate limits. PRE-Control relies solely on the specification limits while short-run SPC starts with the assumption that the process is capable—that is, at least a 4-sigma process, and works from there to set control limits. Cumulative Sum (CUSUM) and exponentially weighted moving average (EWMA) charts also can be used for this purpose. Specialized charts can also track multiple part characteristics, and parts with different specifications, simultaneously. This is often useful, for example, where the same tool is engaged in mixed-model production. Readers will be able to deploy practical and simple control charts for production runs for which no prior history is available and control the processes until enough data accumulate to enable the traditional methods (assuming it ever does). They will be able to track multiple product features with different specifications and also control mixed-model applications in which a tool generates very short runs of parts with different specifications. The methods will not require software beyond readily available spreadsheets, nor will they require specialized tables that are not widely available. Process owners and quality engineers will be able to perform all supporting calculations in Microsoft Excel, and without the need for advanced software.

This book addresses the vital importance of reshoring US manufacturing capability to ensure economic and military security and then discusses the proven methods that the United States used to gain manufacturing supremacy in the first place. The vital takeaway is: If the job can be made sufficiently productive, the per-unit labor cost ceases to be relevant which means a business can pay high wages, realize high profits, and deliver low prices simultaneously. The contest is then not between high wages and cheap labor, but between efficiency and inefficiency and, when automation is involved, machine against machine. Readers will be able to put these principles to work very quickly to achieve tangible results. The relatively low Federal minimum wage has meanwhile become a major issue, but inflation skyrocketed in the second quarter of 2022 when higher wages, and higher demand for goods and services, were not matched with higher productivity. The book addresses the relationship between the money supply and the velocity of money to prices, wages, and productivity. A manufacturing resurgence in the United States will not only increase our standard of living enormously but generate taxable economic activity that will help pay down rather than increase the Federal debt. Higher productivity also delivers a greater supply of goods to accompany higher wages, and thus works against inflation. This can prevent looming recessions and disruptions.

This book addresses the vital importance of reshoring US manufacturing capability to ensure economic and military security and then discusses the proven methods that the United States used to gain manufacturing supremacy in the first place. The vital takeaway is: If the job can be made sufficiently productive, the per-unit labor cost ceases to be relevant which means a business can pay high wages, realize high profits, and deliver low prices simultaneously. The contest is then not between high wages and cheap labor, but between efficiency and inefficiency and, when automation is involved, machine against machine. Readers will be able to put these principles to work very quickly to achieve tangible results. The relatively low Federal minimum wage has meanwhile become a major issue, but inflation skyrocketed in the second quarter of 2022 when higher wages, and higher demand for goods and services, were not matched with higher productivity. The book addresses the relationship between the money supply and the velocity of money to prices, wages, and productivity. A manufacturing resurgence in the United States will not only increase our standard of living enormously but generate taxable economic activity that will help pay down rather than increase the Federal debt. Higher productivity also delivers a greater supply of goods to accompany higher wages, and thus works against inflation. This can prevent looming recessions and disruptions.

The success of a Lean manufacturing program depends far more on organization-wide leverage of Lean manufacturing tools than it does on the tools themselves. To this the organization must add the human relations aspects that earn buy-in and engagement by all members of the workforce, to the extent that workers will react immediately and decisively to the presence of waste. The synergy of the human and technological aspects of Lean form what Henry Ford called a universal code for the achievement of world-class results in any enterprise, and which he put into practice to deliver unprecedented bottom line results. This book expands upon and systemizes this universal code into a structure or framework that promotes organizational self-audits and continuous improvement.The book's first section offers a foundation of four simple but comprehensive Lean key performance indicators (KPIs): waste of the time of things (as in cycle time), waste of the time of people, waste of energy, and waste of materials. The Toyota Production System's seven wastes are all measurable in terms of these four KPIs, which also cover the key metrics of Eliyahu Goldratt's theory of constraints: throughput, inventory, and operating expense. The first section then adds a proactive improvement cycle that sets out to look for trouble by isolating processes for analytical purposes and measuring and then balancing inputs and outputs to force all wastes to become visible. It is in fact technically impossible for any waste of material or energy to hide from what chemical engineers call a material and energy balance. Application of this book's content should therefore satisfy most provisions of the ISO 14001 environmental management system standard and the new ISO 50001 energy management system standard.The second section consists of an unofficial (and therefore customizable) standard against which the organization

The normal or bell curve distribution is far more common in statistics textbooks than it is in real factories, where processes follow non-normal and often highly skewed distributions. Statistical Process Control for Real-World Applications shows how to handle non-normal applications scientifically and explain the methodology to suppliers and customers.The book exposes the pitfalls of assuming normality for all processes, describes how to test the normality assumption, and illustrates when non-normal distributions are likely to apply. It demonstrates how to handle uncooperative real-world processes that do not follow textbook assumptions. The text explains how to set realistic control limits and calculate meaningful process capability indices for non-normal applications. The book also addresses multivariate systems, nested variation sources, and process performance indices for non-normal distributions.The book includes examples from Minitab®, StatGraphics® Centurion, and MathCAD and covers how to use spreadsheets to give workers a visual signal when an out of control condition is present. The included user disk provides Visual Basic for Applications functions to make tasks such as distribution fitting and tests for goodness of fit as routine as possible. The book shows you how to set up meaningful control charts and report process performance indices that actually reflect the process' ability to deliver quality.

The success of a Lean manufacturing program depends far more on organization-wide leverage of Lean manufacturing tools than it does on the tools themselves. To this the organization must add the human relations aspects that earn buy-in and engagement by all members of the workforce, to the extent that workers will react immediately and decisively to the presence of waste. The synergy of the human and technological aspects of Lean form what Henry Ford called a universal code for the achievement of world-class results in any enterprise, and which he put into practice to deliver unprecedented bottom line results. This book expands upon and systemizes this universal code into a structure or framework that promotes organizational self-audits and continuous improvement.The book's first section offers a foundation of four simple but comprehensive Lean key performance indicators (KPIs): waste of the time of things (as in cycle time), waste of the time of people, waste of energy, and waste of materials. The Toyota Production System's seven wastes are all measurable in terms of these four KPIs, which also cover the key metrics of Eliyahu Goldratt's theory of constraints: throughput, inventory, and operating expense. The first section then adds a proactive improvement cycle that sets out to look for trouble by isolating processes for analytical purposes and measuring and then balancing inputs and outputs to force all wastes to become visible. It is in fact technically impossible for any waste of material or energy to hide from what chemical engineers call a material and energy balance. Application of this book's content should therefore satisfy most provisions of the ISO 14001 environmental management system standard and the new ISO 50001 energy management system standard.The second section consists of an unofficial (and therefore customizable) standard against which the organization can audit its Lean management system. The unofficial standard is designed to be compatible with ISO 9001:2008 so internal auditors can assess both systems simultaneously. Each provision includes numerous examples of questions that promote audits in a narrative form as opposed to yes/no checklists or Likert scale ratings. The unofficial standard can also be downloaded (without the assessment questions) from the publisher's Web site. The third section elaborates in detail on the second and provides numerous real-world examples of applications.

Henry Ford's industrial innovations were directly responsible for the transformation of the United States into the most productive, affluent, and powerful nation on Earth. My Life and Work describes exactly how Ford did this in terms of not only manufacturing science, but also economics and organizational behavior. This holistic approach, and its validation by world-class results, make Ford's original work the best business leadership book ever written. The Expanded and Annotated My Life and Work: Henry Ford's Universal Code for World-Class Success updates this original with modern perspectives that explain and organize Ford’s thought process explicitly. My Life and Work is not a mechanistic or industry-specific formula that practitioners can follow like work instructions in a factory, but rather a holistic synergy of impartial laws of economics, science, and human behavior—a synergy that Ford called the universal code. This universal code simultaneously delivered high profits, high wages, and low prices in every industry to which Ford applied it. It also realized unprecedented improvements in industries ranging from coal mines to railroads, and even healthcare as practiced in the Henry and Clara Ford Hospital. This annotated edition introduces Ford’s universal code along with vital economic, behavioral, Lean manufacturing, and customer service principles. It contains almost all the material of the original, plus more than 30 percent new content that reinforces Ford’s timeless principles. Readers who understand and internalize Ford’s universal code can easily overcome the self-limiting paradigms that afflict today’s organizations. These include, for example, the belief that healthcare is a zero-sum game in which escalating costs are the price of quality. The book illustrates the basic elements of what is now called the Toyota Production System as well as the organizational and human relations principles needed to gain buy-in and engagement from all participants.

Praise from Industry Week, January 2003"...In Henry Ford's Lean Vision...Levinson shows how the father of American mass production toiled to eliminate waste, instituted just-in-time delivery of inventory, and applied many other tools now identified with lean..."Japanese manufacturers have made concepts like kaizen (continuous improvement), poka-yoke (error-proofing), and just-in-time famous. When the Japanese began to adopt these techniques from the Ford Motor Company during the early twentieth century, they knew exactly what they were getting: proven methods for mass-producing any product or delivering any service cheaply but well.Henry Ford's methods, however, went well beyond the synergistic and mutually supporting techniques that constitute what we now call lean manufacturing. They included the "soft sciences," the organizational psychology that makes every employee a partner in the drive for success.In Henry Ford's Lean Vision, William A. Levinson draws from Henry Ford's writings, the procedures in his factories, and historical anecdotes about the birth of lean in Japan to show that the philosophy that revolutionized Japanese manufacturing was the same philosophy that grew the Ford Motor Company into a global powerhouse -- and made the United States the wealthiest and most powerful nation on earth. Levinson reveals how Ford was ahead of other modern visionaries and discusses why the very ideas that made his company such a success were abandoned in his own country, and why they finally found acceptance in Japan.Henry Ford's Lean Vision is a hands-on reference that provides the reader with proven principles and methods that can be applied in any business or service enterprise. It covers all aspects of building and running a successful enterprise, including Ford's principles for human relationships and the management of physical resources.

The basic principle of the Theory of Constraints (TOC) is the impossibility of running a balanced factory at 100 percent capacity. Variation in processing and material transfer times is the root cause of longer cycle times and higher inventories, which can hinder the ability to run a factory at full capacity.In Beyond the Theory of Constraints, William Levinson challenges this basic principle by stating that variation in processing and material transfer times comes from special or assignable causes that can be eliminated through traditional quality management techniques. Even random or common-cause variation can be suppressed through lean manufacturing methods. This compelling book: Gives a complete overview of the Theory of Constraints and its impact on engineering and managerial economicsIllustrates the effect of variation in processing and material transfer times, and shows why this variation prevents achievement of 100 percent utilizationDescribes methods for reducing variation in processing and material transfer timesDiscusses methods for increasing productivity and reducing cycle times - these are useful for elevating the constraint (increasing its capacity) and reduce variationThis book will teach business executives, managers, and technical professionals, including quality and manufacturing engineers, how to identify and remove variations and maximize capacity to achieve bottom-line results.