The implementation of production system tools has become extremely popular phenomenon. Most of the effectively developing companies consider this opportunity as a real tool to increase productivity, efficiency and reduce costs. In addition, among the specialists who have been engaged in the production system for a long time there is an opinion about the need for critical transformation of the standard model of the automobile conveyor to a specific type of activity. This transformation should be as deep as specific process differs from the basic model.
The article describes an example of the implementation of the principles and tools of the production system to the work of the research laboratory of VNIIneft JSC. The main elements and standard tools are considered, a critical analysis of applicability is given, and modified tools that are more applicable, in the author's opinion, to research activities are proposed. The article also provides examples of specific implemented measures that have proved their worth in practice. The form of some of them was borrowed from the practices of related units; some were implemented as part of a process of continuous improvement. It is worth noting a number of implemented projects that allowed, on the one hand, to significantly increase the value for the customer, i.e. new value chains were implemented, while they turned out to be new for the contractor, which is an innovation that is not quite typical for the practice of lean production. Nevertheless, according to the author, a radical change in the process to create additional or new value should be an indispensable part of the lean manufacturing process, especially in the field of research and development.
References
1. Taiichi Ohno, Toyota production system: Beyond large-scale production, Productivity Press, 1988, 152 p.
2. Womack J.P., Jones D.T., Lean thinking: Banish waste and create wealth in your corporation, Free Press, 2003, 188 p.
3. Rother M., Shook J., Learning to see: Value stream mapping to add value and eliminate MUDA, Lean Enterprise Institute, 2003, 102 p.
