Application of Mahalanobis Distance as a lean assessment metric

Author

Jayanth Srinivasaraghavan

Keywords and Phrases

Mahalanobis Distance; Lean manufacturing; Lean assessment tools; Mahalanobis Taguchi Gram-Schmidt system

Abstract

"Lean manufacturing is a competitive philosophy adopted by many companies to produce cost effective products and services. Contemporary lean assessment tools are designed to evaluate a company's status of lean implementation and success. However, most lean assessment tools provide qualitative analysis and do not provide any clear direction of where the improvement efforts should be directed. In this paper, we propose a complimentary methodology to assist contemporary lean assessment tools that will provide a quantitative measure of leanness by benchmarking other exemplar lean industries, and point specific improvement initiatives based on cost considerations. The proposed Mahalanobis Taguchi Gram Schmidt System (MTGS) based methodology consists of five steps. The first three steps consist of data collection using contemporary lean assessment tools, standardizing the data, and using the standardized data for calculating the Mahalanobis Distance (MD) by the using the MTGS method. The MTGS method provides the direction of abnormality and can be used even in cases of multi-collinear data. The fourth step deals with optimization of the number of variables used to calculate the MD. The optimization is performed using the Taguchi signal to noise (SIN) ratios and orthogonal arrays. The fifth step helps to identify the direction of improvement for a given set of capital constraints. The methodology is demonstrated using an example"--Abstract, page iv.

Advisor(s)

Allada, Venkat

Committee Member(s)

Saygin, Can
Ragsdell, K. M.

Department(s)

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering

Degree Name

M.S. in Manufacturing Engineering

Publisher

University of Missouri--Rolla

Publication Date

Spring 2005

Pagination

viii, 35 pages

Note about bibliography

Includes bibliographical references (pages 22-23).

Rights

© 2005 Jayanth Srinivasaraghavan, All rights reserved.

Document Type

Thesis - Restricted Access

File Type

text

Language

English

Subject Headings

Production management
Manufacturing processes
Process control
Manufacturing resource planning

Thesis Number

T 8663

Print OCLC #

62456751

Electronic OCLC #

906050666

Link to Catalog Record

Electronic access to the full-text of this document is restricted to Missouri S&T users. Otherwise, request this publication directly from Missouri S&T Library or contact your local library.

Recommended Citation

Srinivasaraghavan, Jayanth, "Application of Mahalanobis Distance as a lean assessment metric" (2005). Masters Theses. 3697.
https://scholarsmine.mst.edu/masters_theses/3697