Lean Manufacturing in the Oil and Gas Industry

This paper presents a brief overview of Lean and Six Sigma use and success in the oil and gas industry by using principles of enhanced productivity, safety and environment as well as process quality management in a well-defined framework. A literature review is also presented, including negative and positive opinions about Six Sigma implementations in industry. Lessons learned from successful implementation of Lean in oil and gas industry are analyzed and summarized. A positivistic approach with case studies of Lean as practiced in some major oil and gas companies in Abu Dhabi is being used. Methodology and process of application of Lean is also described. The study shows the importance of Six Sigma and Lean applications in three of the most important areas in oil and gas: Service quality drilling operations, customer satisfaction, and supply chain. Two successful case study projects are provided with step by step details and are organized around three main parts: the problem, the methodology and the lessons learned. Despite some misconception that some managers have about the implementation of Lean, it will stay the most efficient methodology to apply in the oil and gas business. Success of Lean depends also on top management decisions. Also, the application of these methodologies when applied successfully to projects can produce rewarding results. This paper will outline successful applications of Lean and Six Sigma by two major oil and gas industries in the United Arab Emirates.

International Journal of Production Research, 2013

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In this paper, we will analyze the concept of lean manufacturing, starting from the example illustrated by TPS (Toyota Production System) which is renowned for its focus on the reduction of the original Toyota seven waists in order to improve overall customer value, in spite of the existence of varying perspectives on how this is best achieved. The steady growth of Toyota, from a small company to the world's largest automaker (Bailey, 2008) has focused its attention on how it has achieved this success. It is a starting template that was also developed by other automotive makers, and not only. We will also identify the main elements of lean philosophy and propose a typology of the fundamental concepts of lean, using data analysis from research findings across studies on lean manufacturing and lean production published in the past two decades.

International Journal of Trend in Scientific Research and Development (IJTSRD), 2019

In competitive environment lean manufacturing is necessary in every industry. Lean production is a standard manufacturing mode of the 21st century All the manufacturing industries have put a continuous efforts for its survival in these current world. In order to handle the critical situations manufacturers are trying to implement new and innovative techniques in their manufacturing process. Later on lean was formulated and developed as the solution to the fluctuating and competitive business environment. Due to rapid change in business environment the manufacturing organization are forced to face challenges and complexities in the competition. The concept of lean manufacturing was developed for maximize the resource utilization and minimize the wastes. The main focus of the lean manufacturing is to satisfy customer demands for high quality and low cost. The technique not only identifies the reasons for waste but also helps in its removal through marked principles and guidelines. Lean Manufacturing is an efficient and fast growing approach in the world of competition. Lean manufacturing utilizes a wide range of tools and techniques; the choice of tools is based on the requirement. Many parameters contribute success of lean. Organizations which implemented lean manufacturing have higher level of flexibility and competitiveness. However, lean manufacturing provides an environment that is highly conducive to waste minimization. The majority of the study focuses on single aspect of lean element, only very few focuses on more than one aspect of lean elements, but for the successful implementation of lean the organization had to focuses on all the aspects such as Value Stream Mapping (VSM), Cellular Manufacturing (CM), U-line system, Line Balancing, Inventory control, Single Minute Exchange of Dies (SMED), Pull System, Kanban, Production Leveling etc.,

2014

In this paper, the study explores the benefits and advantages of Lean Practices or Lean Thinking in Job shop production/ Special job production/ Discrete production/ Batch shop production industries. The Lean Practices have been applied more compatible in Job shop production than in the continuous/ mass production because of several barriers and hurdles in the industrial context that influence the whole processes again and again, this happens due to the lack of knowledge about the wastes during the production of a variety of jobs or discrete manufacturing. This paper provides the guidelines to adopt and mentions to become Lean. In variety of production, it is very difficult to find out all the wastes during the processes from input to desired output, thus Lean techniques may be most suitable to minimize the wastage, time, inventory and assist to improve quality and become economical. These wastes may be managed by means of several Lean principles and techniques available. This paper...

2015

Applying Lean manufacturing philosophy is one of the most important concepts that help enterprises to gain competitive advantage in the world market. Lean manufacturing or lean manufacturing is a manufacturing practice that emphasizes on the use of resources for work which add value for the end customer. The purpose of this paper is to give an overview of the lean principles, tools and benefits of lean concepts in manufacturing industries. Lean manufacturing is plethora of principles that focus on cost reduction by identifying and eliminating non value added activities. The fiercely globalized and competitive markets of 21st century demand for increasing high variety of products at lowest possible costs, lesser lead time and high quality. This changing market scenario calls for a new manufacturing that will enable us to compete in this global competitive market. This research addresses the application of lean manufacturing concepts to the continuous production/process sector with a ...

IRJET, 2023

In its most basic form, lean manufacturing is the systematic elimination of waste from all aspects of an organization's operations, where waste is viewed as any use or loss of resources that does not lead directly to creating the product or service a customer wants when they want it. In many industrial processes, such non-value-added activity can comprise more than 90 percent of a factory's total activity. Nationwide, numerous companies of varying size across multiple industry sectors, primarily in the manufacturing and service sectors are implementing such lean production systems, and experts report that the rate of lean adoption is accelerating. Companies primarily choose to engage in lean manufacturing for three reasons: to reduce production resource requirements and costs; to increase customer responsiveness; and to improve product quality, all which combine to boost company profits and competitiveness.

European Journal of Service Management, 2018

There are numerous publications on Lean Manufacturing (LM) which extensively describe specific tools used in the lean framework, the necessary steps towards implementation of the concept as well as benefits following from its implementation. However, it appears that despite the expected positive results, the companies which implement LM increasingly cease further activity in this area. The causes have not been fully recognized and the reason for the situation can be both the superficial knowledge of the LM as well as a lack of consistency in the decisions taken. Thus the aim of this Article is to identify the barriers to their introduction among the companies which are currently struggling with the LM implementation and the companies which have already completed it. Based on a conducted CATI survey, an attempt has been made to identify both the internal and external barriers. Furthermore, the expertise of companies was examined in terms of knowledge of lean tools, including the awar...

2012

The essence of lean production revolves around creating new business opportunities for manufacturing and service firms by total elimination of waste and non-value adding activities. This research paper investigates the opportunities, implications and managerial challenges of implementing lean in manufacturing, service, and office environment. The results show that management behavior towards changes is a key factor in the success or failure of lean experience.

Multidisciplinary Aspects of Production Engineering, 2018

Growing competition, clients’ requirements as well as advances in technology make modern industrial enterprises search for a way of achieving and maintaining strong position on the market. One of the principal and at the same time necessary conditions to achieve this aim is continuous development of all of the processes in order to fulfil various clients’ expectations. Enterprises make use of different concepts and management methods which in significant way upgrade ongoing processes by raising their efficiency. One of such is the concept of ‘lean’ production - Lean Manufacturing. Management according to Lean Management rules allows to produce more with the use of less resources - at the same time approaching the aim which is to deliver clients the exact product they want. The process of resources use limitation is not easy to perform however, the concept of Lean Manufacturing by the application of chosen tools allows successfully and effectively to introduce ‘lean’ model of managem...