Category: News

WORKSHOP: Lean Management (Spanish)

 Lean Management

Desde el nacimiento del término en la Corporación Japonesa Toyota, la administración esbelta (Lean Management) ha sido una de las filosofías más eficaces para identificar valor y eliminar desperdicio en los procesos de empresas manufactureras y de servicios. La filosofía es hoy en día parte fundamental de los planes de acción de empresas grandes y pequeñas en su lucha por aumentar la productividad y calidad de los productos y servicios que ofrecen.

Para muchos la filosofía de pensamiento esbelto parece algo destinado sólo para las grandes empresas transnacionales. Sin embargo, hoy en día existen organizaciones consideradas pequeñas que han logrado una implementación eficaz y eficiente de esta filosofía. El éxito en la implementación del pensamiento esbelto radica en los principios de trabajo en equipo a través de los eventos Kaizen y la identificación de la cadena de valor como primeros pasos. Sólo diferenciando las actividades que generan valor de las que no es que las empresas han encontrado una nueva forma de aprovechar mejor sus recursos para producir más con menos. La administración esbelta puede ayudar a empresas de manufactura y servicio en esta tarea de identificar valor de manera que la estrategia de la firma gire en torno a las actividades o procesos que generen valor según la percepción del cliente.

Los beneficios de Lean Management están sumamente ligados al compromiso que tenga la administración de la firma para cambiar la personalidad, cultura, u organización de la empresa. Este cambio se basa en la reducción sistemática de desperdicio y el desarrollo de niveles de satisfacción a través de trabajo en equipo impactando todos los procesos del negocio. Adoptar el Sistema “Lean” permite a la empresa crear un sentido de dirección para alinear los procesos que no ofrecen valor y poder dar seguimiento a las mejoras a través de un conjunto de indicadores confiables.

Los conceptos y beneficios de Lean Management se pueden extender más allá de empresas de manufactura. Hoy en día Lean Management es utilizado por administradores en una amplia variedad de disciplinas e industrias como construcción, salud, finanzas, y gobierno. Administradores en estas disciplinas han ido progresivamente implementando Lean Management en sus procesos teniendo como resultado un impacto significativo en la estructura de costos así como en los niveles de satisfacción de los clientes.

Continue reading “WORKSHOP: Lean Management (Spanish)”

Virginia Tech and Purdue University partnership delivered a workshop in Supply Chain Management

Blacksburg, VA. June 7, 2011. In May 17, 2011 Drs. Earl Kline, Omar Espinoza, and Henry Quesada from the Department of Wood Science and Forest Products at Virginia Tech teamed up with Dr. Eva Haviarova from the Department of Forestry at Purdue University to teach the workshop Supply Chain Management: Challenges and Opportunities. The event was held at Vincennes University in Jasper, IN. A total of 24 participants attended the workshop, mostly from the local furniture industry.

 

Drs. Henry Quesada, Omar Espinoza, and Earl Kline.

The workshop was a good change for participants to learn about current trends in Supply Chain Management (SCM), applications of Lean Thinking in SCM, and SCM performance based management. Also Don Dugan from General Electric (GE) participated as a speaker by introducing and providing examples and applications of how third party logistics (3PL) works. The workshop ended up with the participation of Dr. Haviarova who delivered an updated on the platform Indiana Forest Products Web Community. Feedback from participants indicated that the workshop met and exceeded expectations in terms of the depth and amount of provided information, and the quality of the speakers and the facilities.

The workshop was sponsored by the Department of Wood Science and Forest Products at Virginia Tech, the Manufacturing Extension Partnership at Purdue University, the Dubois County Area Development Corporation (DCADC), Virginia Cooperative Extension (VCE), and Vincennes University.

For more information on similar training opportunities, please contact Dr. Henry Quesada at quesada@vt.edu

Student Centered Teaching Methods in Natural Resources Curriculum

This is reprint from the Newsletter Engagement Matters  (Volume 3, Issue 1 May/April 2011)
 
 
VT students getting ready to start experiencing the forest from zip lines in Fortuna, Costa Rica
In recent years, different methods of delivering education have appeared, especially in higher education institutions. Although face to face delivery continues to be the method of choice, online teaching (asynchronous and synchronous) is gaining more momentum, and lately the introduction of more green and sustainable curricula into Natural Resources programs have put more emphasis on student centered methods rather than teacher centered methods. Student centered course design reinforces the student’s reflection process as a way to increase the grasping of knowledge of the subject at hand and these methods includes active learning, cooperative learning, and inductive teaching and learning. These methods encourage student reflection as a way to integrate knowledge into the students’ learning process. Teaching centered methods are lecturing, designing assignments and tests, and grading given little opportunity to students to learn independently.

RESEARCH UPDATE: Central American Free Trade Agreement and Wood Products Exporting

Scott Lyon, M.Sc. Candidate
Virginia Tech
swlyon@vt.edu

The process of establishing the Central American-Dominican Republic Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA-DR) began in 2006 in El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua, Dominican Republic in 2007, and in Costa Rica in 2009.  This region is the 14th largest export market for U.S. products (USEAC 2011).  CAFTA-DR will phase out tariffs between the U.S. and Central American countries within 15-20 years (USDA FAS 2009).  Some tariffs were immediately duty free after the trade agreement took effect (USDA FAS 2009).  The trade agreements help to expand market opportunities and allow companies to compete in the global market (USEAC 2011).  From 2006 to 2008, the export of wood products from the Appalachian region to Central America increased by 51% (Figure 1).  Furniture exports to Central American increased by 43% from 2006 to 2007(Figure 1).  The rise in exports from the Appalachian region to Central America may be a result of the establishment of CAFTA-DR.  Due to unstable financial markets, tighter credit limits, and increase freight rates global exports of Appalachian wood products and furniture decreased in recent years (Figure 1; VDACS 2008).  To increase sales the Appalachian region needs to increase product competiveness by expanding export markets and improving product promotion (Wang et al. 2010).

Figure 1. Appalachian region exports of wood products and furniture to Central America (US Department of Commerce. Trade Stats Express 2010)

The CAFTA-DR may help increase exports of wood products from the Appalachian region.   A 1996 study on the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), Prestemon (1996) found that lumber and plywood were to gain the most from free trade out of all wood products being exported.  Hardwood lumber exports were expected to increase from 45-120% as a result of NAFTA (Prestemon 1998).  It is important for Appalachian forest products companies to identify Central America as a potential export market.

Continue reading “RESEARCH UPDATE: Central American Free Trade Agreement and Wood Products Exporting”

RESEARCH BRIEF: Using Concurrent Engineering (CE) in the Furniture Engineering Process

Wang Chao, MS Candidate
wangchao@vt.edu 

 

Introduction of CE:

Concurrent engineering is an effective methodology used for improving engineering quality and reducing lead time. Sprague, Singh, and Wood (2002) defined concurrent engineering as “a systematic approach to the integrated, concurrent design of products and their related processes, including manufacture and support.” One of the biggest applicants of the concurrent engineering approach is the aerospace industry where different functional teams worked in parallel and the development process results could be rapidly verified from multiple options (Rush and Roy 2000). The most phenomenal result of concurrent engineering compared to the traditional sequential engineering is the reduction of product development lead time, appreciation of total quality (quality of process, quality of organization, and product quality), increased productivity, and decreased costs (costs of rework, scrap, and delays) (Ghodous, Vandorpe, and Biren Prasad 2000).

Synchronize team efforts in the furniture engineering process – CE

CE could also improve the furniture engineering process. Figure 1 shows the difference between concurrent engineering and traditional engineering in a engineering furniture process. In concurrent engineering, the engineering process is paralleled with the mock-up process so that; a great deal of time is saved because engineering could response to any error caused by a design flaw based on daily production feedbacks. Thus by the end of engineering process, the mass production engineering documents are ready by using the same amount of time whereas in sequential engineering, only preproduction documents are completed.

Things are different in the traditional engineering process. The preproduction engineering happens first then the documents will distribute to production to trigger the mock-up process. Production associates will provide feedbacks in the process of making mock-ups. Engineers cannot start the compilation of mass production documents until all the feedbacks are collected from production. Obviously, the traditional engineering takes a lot of engineering iterations, whereas the concurrent engineering requires less engineering design cycles. Also, because feedbacks are given on timely basis, it helps to enhance the design productivity, ensure the product quality, and shorten the lead time.

Continue reading “RESEARCH BRIEF: Using Concurrent Engineering (CE) in the Furniture Engineering Process”