Most readers are at least familiar with continuous improvement programs such as lean and six sigma. Perhaps your shop or company is well along in the implementation of one or the other—if not both. But what about theory of constraints (TOC), introduced in Dr. Eliyahu Goldratt’s 1984 book, The Goal? Despite its rather negative-sounding name, this continuous improvement process has much to offer
manufacturers of all stripes. And when combined with lean and six sigma, the results can be dramatic. Dr. Lisa Lang, a TOC consultant and speaker, explains why and how in the following Q&A session with Gear Technology.
Natural resources—minerals, coal, oil, agricultural products, etc.—are the
blessings that Mother Earth confers upon the nations of the world. But it takes unnaturally large gears to extract them.
Big gears and wind turbines go together like bees and honey, peas and carrots, bread and butter and—well, you
get the idea. Wind isn’t just big right now, it’s huge. The wind industry means tremendous things for the energy dependent world we live in and especially big things for gear
manufacturers and other beleaguered American industries.
For years, politicians, educators and business leaders have generated various ideas to revitalize U.S. manufacturing and engineering. These include manufacturing initiatives, internal training programs and an emphasis on science, technology,
engineering and mathematics (STEM) in the classroom. The declining expertise in these fields, however, continues to
be a growing problem in every facet of manufacturing and engineering.
Never have so few served so many. That, in essence, describes gear makers
and the role they play in our world.
Think of it—although the gear cutting
industry represents much less than one
percent of the global workforce—the
gears it produces are what make things
run in practically every industry and
profession imaginable. From bulldozers
to Rolexes, gears are an integral part of the mix.
For more than 10 months, NASA ground engineers and International Space Station (ISS) astronauts have been
struggling with a perplexing malfunction of one of the station’s two solar array rotary joints (SARJ).