Muri (Japanese term)
Encyclopedia
Muri is a Japanese term for overburden, unreasonableness or absurdity, which has become popularized in the West by its use as a key concept in the Toyota Production System
Toyota Production System
The Toyota Production System is an integrated socio-technical system, developed by Toyota, that comprises its management philosophy and practices. The TPS organizes manufacturing and logistics for the automobile manufacturer, including interaction with suppliers and customers...

.

Avoidance of muri in Toyota manufacturing

Muri is one of three types of waste (Muda, Mura
Mura (Japanese term)
Mura is traditional general Japanese term for unevenness, irregularity or inconsistency in physical matter or human spiritual condition. It is also a key concept in performance improvement systems such as the Toyota Production System. Mura is one of the three types of waste . Waste reduction is an...

, Muri) identified in the Toyota Production System
Toyota Production System
The Toyota Production System is an integrated socio-technical system, developed by Toyota, that comprises its management philosophy and practices. The TPS organizes manufacturing and logistics for the automobile manufacturer, including interaction with suppliers and customers...

. Waste reduction is an effective way to increase profitability.

Muri can be avoided through standardized work. To achieve this a standard condition or output must be defined to assure effective judgment of quality. Then every process and function must be reduced to its simplest elements for examination and later recombination.
The process must then be standardized to achieve the standard condition. This is done by taking simple work elements and combining them, one-by-one into standardized 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
    Takt time
    Takt time, derived from the German word Taktzeit which translates to cycle time, sets the pace for industrial manufacturing lines. For example, in automobile manufacturing, cars are assembled on a line, and are moved on to the next station after a certain time - the takt time...

    , or reasonable lengths of time and endurance allowed for a process.


When everyone knows the standard condition, and the standardized work sequences, the results observed include
  • Heightened employee morale (due to close examination of ergonomics and safety),
  • higher quality,
  • improved productivity, and
  • reduced costs.

Implementation

In fact the big contribution of Henry Ford
Henry Ford
Henry Ford was an American industrialist, the founder of the Ford Motor Company, and sponsor of the development of the assembly line technique of mass production. His introduction of the Model T automobile revolutionized transportation and American industry...

 and his manufacturing techniques was the reduction of Muri and not so much the production line
Production line
A production line is a set of sequential operations established in a factory whereby materials are put through a refining process to produce an end-product that is suitable for onward consumption; or components are assembled to make a finished article....

 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
Takt time
Takt time, derived from the German word Taktzeit which translates to cycle time, sets the pace for industrial manufacturing lines. For example, in automobile manufacturing, cars are assembled on a line, and are moved on to the next station after a certain time - the takt time...

 which gives enough time to perform the standard work.

There are many similarities shared with Taylorism.
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