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Ch58-I044963.fm Page 287 Tuesday, August 1, 2006 4:39 PM
Tuesday, August
Page 287
4:39 PM
Ch58-I044963.fm
1, 2006
287
287
RELATION DIAGRAM BASED PROCESS OPTIMIZATION
OF PRODUCTION PREPARATION PROCESS
FOR OVERSEA FACTORY

1
1
1
Shuichi Sato , Yutaka Inamori , Masaru Nakano ,
2
Toshiyuki Suzuki , Nobuaki Miyajima 2
1
Toyota Central R&D Labs., Inc., Nagakute, Aichi, 480-1192, Japan
Toyota Motor Corporation, Toyota, Aichi, 471-8571, Japan
ABSTRACT

This paper proposes the method for the optimization of the production preparation processes for
factories in oversea. The method does not use the existing tasks, but the relations between physical
designed and measured variables written in a relation diagram. The relation diagram is one of the
seven new tools for quality control. The new method can optimize the process based on the physical
relations and the essential constraints on the task order with the genetic algorithm. The new technique
was evaluated using a hot forging trial process and a 40% improvement of the lead time can be seen in
comparison with the sequential trial.

KEYWORDS
production preparation, process optimization, design structure matrix, relation diagram,
genetic algorithm, project scheduling

INTRODUCTION
For manufacturing companies today, strategic and timely product development is essential to survive.
Value chains including the market, the production, and the supply of parts have to be considered for
the world-wide point of view. Subsequently, some manufacturing companies are moving their
factories abroad. On the other hand, most companies continuously perform quality control activities
(QC), in order to produce high quality goods to satisfy consumers.

We have developed the process optimization technology that can be applied to the production
preparation processes for factories outside of Japan. In order to shorten the lead time of the production
preparation for oversea factories, manufacturing companies focus on two points: First, measuring
process data such as the temperature of a part after being heated for a hot forging process is focused.
Second, the design standard is considered. We analyzed the production preparation process for
oversea factories and found the following results. Measuring process data helps dividing big and