Muri (Japanese term)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Muri (無駄) is a Japanese term for overburden or unreasonableness. It is also a key concept in the Toyota Production System and is one of the three types of waste (Muda, Mura) it identifies. Waste reduction is an effective way to increase profitability.
Muri can be avoided through standardised work.
To achieve this a standard condition or output must be defined to assure effective judgement of quality. Then every process and function must be reduced to its simplest elements for examination and later recombination. The process must then be standardised to achieve the standard condition. This is done by taking simple work elements and combining them, one-by-one into standardised work sequences.
In manufacturing, this includes:
- Work Flow, or Logical directions to be taken,
- Repeatable Process Steps and Machine Processes, or Rational methods to get there, and
- Takt time, or Reasonable lengths of time and endurance allowed for a process.
- Standardised work encourages the close examination of
- Ergonomic and Safety questions
- Quality issues
- Productivity, and
- Cost benefits
When everyone knows the standard condition, and the standardised work sequences, the results observed are:
- Employee morale is heightened,
- Higher quality is achieved,
- Productivity is improved, and
- Costs are reduced.
[edit] Implementation
In fact the big contribution of Henry Ford and his manufacturing techniques was the reduction of Muri and not so much the production line itself. In order for the production line to function each station on the line had to achieve standard work because the next station was only equipped to work on standard condition components.
The Ford production line approximates to an implementation of Takt time which gives enough time to perform the standard work.
