NEXT STEP in Cost-based Sustainable Production Development - Cases from different Production Operations

This article discusses the NEXT STEP (beyond Lean production philosophy) and its relation to Sustainable Production Development. One of the most important factors affecting long-term sustainability is the degree to which resource-efficient production can be achieved. From this standpoint, Lean Production is similar to Sustainable Production. The research reported on here suggests there to be no contradictions between having an efficient production process and this process being sustainable from a long-term perspective. Various production-cost models that can be used for evaluating different development scenarios with the aim of achieving resource efficient production in a wide variety of situations are discussed. The production cost models taken up deal with the following: 1) general losses in connection with downtimes, rejection rates and set-up times, in particular, 2) the degree of utilization of a production system 3) optimization of batch size with regard to setup times and inventory costs, 4) optimization of the manpower within a given production sector and 5) achievement of an optimum level of automation. The production cost models presented are applied to production elements of different types: machining operations, automated production lines for manufacturing sheet-metal products, and semi-manual assembly. This is done to exemplify the development steps necessary for achieving long-term sustainability in connection with different production scenarios.