Transportation Muda

Ha, I thought the post would be on airlines (once the plane was put together) based on the title. The huge waste that fliers have to put up with (built in delays – because more planes want to take off than the system can handle, weather delays, lack of pilot delays, lost baggage…) would drive me crazy if I flew much more often.

I suppose there is plenty of transportation muda to choose from – I, and lots of other people, were delayed for over an hour due to a disable subway car) on Thursday… Shorter delays (of 15-30 minutes) have been getting much more common the last couple of years and the over an hour delays have also increased quite a bit. This is a huge cost when you look at multiplying the “cost” to hundreds of thousands of people.

If this part were indeed headed for a factory, say in the Seattle area, there wouldn’t be an easy answer to the “leanness” of building the wing such a long distance from the factory.

Ideally, the wing would be built co-located to the assembly factory. But, as the other commenter suggested, there are many balancing factors to take into account. If putting the wing factory next door to the final assembly was NOT the total cost minimizing solution, then we might not want to do that.

The problem is that it can be hard to quantify all of those factors. Companies, while profit-maximizing (in theory), we often underestimate the supply chain costs in that equation. It’s easy to calculate that the labor cost is lower someplace and many companies have regretted decisions they made based on labor cost or even unit cost. You have to factor in transportation costs, the added inventory costs, the cost of slower response to demand changes, and the risks of damaged items in transport.

You also have to consider the potential loss in collaboration in improving the extended value stream or in solving quality problems. This is probably easier to do when the supplier factory is right next door, but how do you quantify that?

If putting the factory next door (or nearby) was even *slightly* more expensive (through the quantifiable factors), I’d err on the side of co-location. No easy answers.

Typically, I would agree with my other lean-evangelizing bretheren. But, I have to say that my operations research background sometimes gets the best of me — here’s why:

Yes, Jon is absolutely correct that — seemingly — transportation in all its faces is muda. But, just as not all batches are equal, we can’t rush to judgment so quickly on this one. Often, the question isn’t about “should we do batches at all”, but rather “if we have to do batches, what is the right batch size?” If an operation can’t do single-piece flow, then the right question is about the batch size.

Similarly, if a firm has chosen — for some reason or other — not to operate a cradle-to-grave operation for planes at a single-footprint facility, then the question becomes a fascinating one for queuing theorist: this falls into the area called “transhipments”, which approaches logistics from a “shortest-path” perspective, where the firm attempts to minimize costs and optimize on speed. Firms that opt for this approach typically have to due space constraints.

My opinion: for me, the transportation, speed, costs, or shortest-path are not the most important pieces, though to an operations research they are germane. My main concern is really safety. Traveling down the highway with a huge wing just isn’t safe, nor is it really responsible, in my opinion.

There’s my long-winded answer. Cheers.

Transportation is always waste, but sometimes waste is “required waste” (given the current system).

Minimizing it as much as possible, sure.

Where does this “essential” phrase come from? I don’t agree with that terminology or view at all. “Required” is much different than “essential.” “Required” shouldn’t be an excuse to not investigate or tackle the waste. But, it’s often used that way. “Required waste” is not “excused waste” or “rationalized waste.”

Sorry for being late to the party.

1) Are you sure that that object is not a windmill blade? I’ve seen a number of those on that exact type of trailer going from the Gulf Coast (around Lake Jackson) headed out to west Texas, where hundreds are being installed. I think they’re all made in northern Europe.

2) Does that change the waste?

Windmill blade it is. Saw many of them heading off to be installed in South Dakota and Minnesota on our 2400 mile round trip drive from Illinois to Montana.

Here’s a thought about waste=something customer not asking for and willing to pay. I’d say it depends. There’s a balance between global vs local optima.

Cost to build the wing in Everett = 10
Transportation to assembly plant = 0
Total cost = 10

Cost to build the wing in XYZ = 7
Transportation to assembly plant = 2
Total cost = 9

What would the customer be willing to pay for the transportation in the latter case?

If you ask the customer: It will cost 10x (x being some constant multiple), to build the wing in Everett, WA, or 7x to build the wing

After looking at your wife’s fine photography I am fairly sure that it’s a wind mill blade. I am a heavy haul driver and have pulled those types of specialized trailers before. In Texas, most of those blades along with the other components are hauled from either Galveston, Houston or Beaumont to the “wind farm”.

Hi All,

Yes it is a windmill blade. Here in Denmark (Europe) we often see this kind of waste as we have Siemens Wind Power, Vestas Wind Systems and LM Wind Power in a very small area.

I find the discussion about airplane wing transportation quite interesting. I have heard that Boeing is doing all right when it comes to Lean. Airbus in Europe is very bad seen from a Lean perspective. Mark introduced the “required waste”. I would like to introduce “political waste”. Because of political decisions within the EU.
The production of the new Airbus 380 is a nightmare seen from a Lean perspective.
Parts are produced in nearly all European countries and the four major parts are produced in England, Spain and Germany – and the final assembly is in France.
Please see an overview of the Airbus 380 Supply Chain here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Airbus_A380

Enjoy reading about the Lean Supply Chain at Airbus 🙂