Every country in the world has networks of highways and roads that have been engineered and constructed. Lean and Six Sigma methodologies aid in the engineering, construction, and transportation processes. We’ll look at three applications: Highway Engineering – Thailand, Road Construction – India, and Road Transportation Products – Brazil. Then we’ll finish with two interesting videos: one on how modern highways are made and one on how Roman roads were made.
Productivity Improvement in the Highway Engineering Industry: Thailand
In a case study titled “Productivity improvement of highway engineering industry by implementation of Lean Six Sigma, TPM, ECRS, and 5S: a case study of AAA Co., Ltd.” author Piyachat Burawat discusses the use of various tools and methodologies to achieve productivity improvement in the highway engineering industry.
The case study includes:
- Asphalt Production Process Flowchart
- Cause and Effect Diagram for Asphalt Production Delay and Poor Quality
- Pareto Chart of Defined Root Causes
- Current and Improved Actions
- Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE) Before and After Improvement
You can read the case study here.
Lean Six Sigma Applied to Road Construction Projects: India
In a paper titled “Lean Six Sigma methodology for the improvement of the road construction projects” authors Shariq Jowwad, G. Gangha, and B. Indhu discuss a case study application of Lean Six Sigma to improve the quality of road construction in Kashmir.
The paper includes:
- Project Charter
- SIPOC
- Reliability Statistics for Quality and Waste Perspectives
- Reliability Importance Indices
- Cause and Effect Diagram for Quality and Waste
- FMEA
You can read the paper here.
Application of Lean Manufacturing to an Engineering to Order Road Transportation Products Company: Brazil
In a paper titled “Application of Lean Manufacturing Concepts and Value Stream Mapping to a Company that Manufactures Engineering To Order Road Transportation Products” authors Fernanda A Breitenbach and Joao Carlos E. Ferreira cover the implementation of Lean manufacturing concepts in a company that manufactures custom (ETO - Engineering to Order) products for road transportation.
The paper includes:
- Current and Future State Map of Chassis
- Current and Future State Map of Semi-trailer
Discussion of results obtained from the project:
- 75% reduction in storage time of raw materials
- 49% reduction in the manufacturing lead time
- 80% reduction in transport time of materials and products
- 94% reduction in setup time of the assembly area
- 75% reduction in waiting time
- 50% reduction in positioning time of parts and subassemblies
- 20% reduction in processing time
The paper finishes with a discussion of the difficulties encountered.
You can read the paper here.
How Modern Highways are Made
See how modern highways are made in this video from Interesting Engineering.
You can view the video here.
How Roman Roads were Made
See how Roman roads were made in this video from Ancient Technology.
You can view the video here.
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