Mejora continua (Hoshin) en una línea de producción de Hot Ends de tubos de escape

The aim of this project is to carry out a theoretical-practical analysis of Lean Manufacturing in a production line of the Hot End of an exhaust system. This exercise is called Hoshin. A Hoshin is a continuous improvement process in which all the people involved in the production line take part: operators, line engineers, security department, quality department, excellence system of the company or continuous improvement department et cetera. The Hoshin exercise consists of four parts:

• Direct observation of the initial method that the operators are using to work in the production line and detection of failures and different types of variability.
• Removal of the wastes by implementing improvements.
• Establishment of a new standardized work method.
• Tracking of the new method after implementing the different improvements. What is intended to achieve with this exercise is a reduction of variability, an improvement of security, quality, flows and ergonomics and a reorganization of the line to make it more adaptable to customer’s demand, improving this way the line’s productivity.