By Pilairut Akpongpun, BBA#15
As soon as we found out that this fieldtrip is all about going to the toy factory to check out the real-life implementation of "Lean Production", our senses were ready to explode with joy and amazement. Early Friday Morning, BBA#15 troop moved forward to the toy factory at Pathumthani. TOMY (Thailand) Ltd is a wholly owned subsidiary of Tomy Co., Ltd in Japan and established in 1987. It has acquired ISO9001 certificate in 1999 and places a constant focus on reducing costs and enhancing manufacturing efficiency. When we entered the meeting room, we were excited and felt like a child again. Just seeing trains with water steam on the rail and another bigger train releasing bubbles from its funnel are a real reminiscence of our good old days.
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Masaaki Imai’s theory of Kaizen operation management is placed at the top priority as it is mainly being used to run the company. Kaizen is the Japanese term for continuous improvement that aims to eliminate waste through standardized work. We could also see that lean operation is being involved through 5S to have less waste, less human effort, less manufacturing space, less investment in tools and less engineering time to develop a new product. 5S is a Japanese term that we saw in the board at the factory which means Sort, Stabilize, Shine, Standardize and Sustain. Its objective is to keep things in order, clean and easily accessible for everyone. At the factory, Mr Pairoj Jantiwatkun, Deputy Managing Director is surprisingly one of our junior (BBA#16)’s father, kindly explained to us the whole production process. Vision is first set and communicated through different departments. Different departments then presented their objectives and targets to meet the company’s vision. The production flow is important as it is maintained by industrial engineers. The reputation and quality of TOMY is also vital as there are tests before delivery such as drop testing, which is a process when the every surface of the box containing toys is dropped to the ground, and another method is temperature testing, which is a process when a box is put in humidity, heat of 60°c and freeze of 20°c and the last method is life testing to see how long it will last.
We have noticed the results and improvements that have been achieved by the factory from the implementation of Kaizen and Lean Production. We gained new knowledge and were glad to join this trip. For this memorable trip, we give thanks to Mr. Pairoj Jantiwatkun, Deputy Managing Director and the staffs at TOMY for sharing with us the internal information and showing us around. As well as, our lecturer, Dr. Tritos Laosirihongthong who allow us to have this opportunity and be able to see the application of theory in class to real life operation.
Posted date: March 3, 2008 – 16:00 hrs. |
