MIND MAPPING TOOL 

 INTRODUCTION 

 I am a production engineer at small scale industry , which is producing tower parts ( mainly angles of   different cross sections according to customer requirement ) for high power transmission . There are   various process performed ( like cut , punch , stamp , drilling , plasma arc cutting , bending and after bend   hole in heavy cross section angle ) some of which are performed by CNC and others are by workers   manually . Fig below shows a production layout of that area where I am working . 

 CHALLENGE 

 As a production engineer the biggest challenge is customer satisfaction i.e. reduces lead time between   order and delivery of products , as well as provide good quality product . Because placing order on time   satisfy customers and create a good relationship as well as provide competitive advantage in the field of   manufacturing . Other than customer satisfaction the second problem is , to gain profit and reduces cost   and lead time , reduction of defects , increases production rate , minimise the rejection and rework and   saves   energy . There are some important questions that I have asked myself are discussed below:- 

 •   What are the key problems that create unwanted delay to placing orders to the customers , and   increases lead time ? 

 •   How to increase production rate so we can gain profit as well as satisfy our key customers and   make a good relationship with new customers ? 

 •   Why our production process produces defects that either required rework or rejection . This   rejection and rework increases production cost and extra time than required time and involve   more workers ? 

 To find answer all of the above mentioned questions , I adopt a design thinking tool , which is discussed in   our next step , i.e. our selection step . 

 SELECTION 

 I selected Mind Mapping tool . Mind mapping is a design thinking tool which helps us to find out different   patterns and insights in our current working area , by considering various attributes and data collected by   us . From our challenge step we found that we have various problems having different patterns like some   are related to customers , some are from production and technical point of view , some are related to   monetary value and having environmental perspective ( energy saving ) also . Mind Mapping tool provide   us insight from current reality to future possibilities . 

 I am here at the stage of what is ? That is I want to know about current reality of my production area , I am   here not looking for any innovative design or design challenge , I am here looking for deep understanding   about my production process so I can make a criteria from current reality to future possibilities , which   help us to solve my challenges as a production engineer that I have already discussed in our challenge   step and find answers of all the questions . Mind mapping tool make a bridge between current realities to   future possibilities and provide design criteria that helps us to solve various problems that are interrelated   to each other . Other than this Mind Mapping is more visual and creative tool , hence I selected Mind   mapping for our problem . 

 APPLICATION 

 First of all to find out current reality of production line I prepared a current state value stream map , which   is a symbolic representation of whole production area , which gives us information about who are the our   suppliers , what are the our key product that we buy from suppliers . It gives us information about how   much inventory having in raw yard , and in between various processes of our production line , what are the   defects and why this defects occurs . It also gives us very important information about our customers , who   are our key customers , what makes them satisfy , what they wants from us etc . Value stream map helps me   to visualize all of my production process . Here I am discussing few steps that I used to prepare current   value stream map:- 

 1 . First of all I prepared a process line of current process and did time study , motion study and 

 method study to find out all necessary information like how much inventory we stored , value   added time and non value added time , cycle time , change over time and lead time between order   and delivery etc . 

 2 . To time , motion & method study I hired some intern and trainee engineers , their dedication and 

 sincere contribution helped me to fill all important data in my current value stream map and   identifying the current reality of process . 

 Hence current value stream map provide me answers of the entire questions that I have asked in our   challenge step . All answers are discussed below . 

 1 . I found that in raw yard the stacking of materials is very poor and messy , which takes extra and 

 unnecessary time to finding material for further processing and increases cycle time between   processes . 

 2 . There is excess inventory between two processes like CNC & Notching ; here it is necessary to 

 convert them in to constant work in process inventory . 

 3 . I found causes of defects are over processing and ignorance by workers in galvanization , these 

 defects causes rejection and rework , and increase lead time . 

 4 .   In packing and dispatching zone more worker are required and I found that some works are not 

 taking seriously their work and took unnecessary time to finish the work . 

 Hence from all data that I have collected , I found that all of these increases lead time for placing   orders to customers , this delay in placing orders makes our key customers dissatisfied , and this   dissatisfaction of customers spoiled our relation with them and creates a bad image in competitive   world . We can lose our key customers . Other than this , defects cause obstacles between process flow   and slower the production rate which increases cost and time and if will not control all problems then   our industry will not gain profit . 

 In our next step I am discussing about what I have learned from Mind mapping tool and how it helped   me to solve my challenges . 

 INSIGHT 

 Before using this tool I was thinking that problems comes due to technical reasons or faults in   machines and try to solve them but I had never found exact solution of this . 

 After applying Mind mapping I found that my thinking to see problems has been changed , it helps me   to visualize problems , it changes my mind set to see different patterns in problems , it tells me   problems not only comes from a single area it comes from many other reasons that are interrelated to   each other . It also provides me a vision so I can generate some creative ideas to solve my problem   challenges . 

 The most important thing that I have learned from mind mapping is , thinking about possibilities .   Before applying this I did not think about future possibilities and I was in a steady state and think that   everything is going good and no need to do any changes in any process but I was wrong because there   are many areas where improvement needed . Hence it provides me a creative vision , changes my mind   set , and I start thinking about idea generation for future possibilities and triggering my intuition for   challenges . 

 APPROACH 

 Mind mapping provide me insight for future possibilities . There are so many ideas that come in to my   mind ; these ideas are may be the solution of my challenge . My next step is to translate all of insights   that I have gained from mind mapping in to design criteria . Design criteria are the transition from   what is to what if stage . At this step there are so many ideas but I do not know which one is good so I   will discuss all this ideas with my team , and we will go with possibilities . 

 There is an example of possibility , we can merge two processes like CNC and Notching together and   use automation . This is an idea , like this various ideas in my mind . Here I will use mind mapping tool   again to prepare design criteria and focus on possibilities , for next stage what if . Once I find a   solution then I will think about another tool like learning launch , for our next step what wows and   what works . 


EMAIL: 
ID_NUM: 
NAME_STUDENT: 
PHONE_NUM: 
STREET_ADDRESS: 
URL_PERSONAL: 
USERNAME: 

### Task: You are a PII (Personal Identity Information) Detection. Given a essays written by students, you have to identify ONLY the following:
NAME_STUDENT - The full or partial name of a student that is not necessarily the author of the essay. This excludes instructors, authors, and other person names.
EMAIL - A student’s email address.
USERNAME - A student's username on any platform.
ID_NUM - A number or sequence of characters that could be used to identify a student, such as a student ID or a social security number.
PHONE_NUM - A phone number associated with a student.
URL_PERSONAL - A URL that might be used to identify a student.
STREET_ADDRESS - A full or partial street address that is associated with the student, such as their home address.
### Input: MIND MAPPING TOOL 

 INTRODUCTION 

 I am a production engineer at small scale industry , which is producing tower parts ( mainly angles of   different cross sections according to customer requirement ) for high power transmission . There are   various process performed ( like cut , punch , stamp , drilling , plasma arc cutting , bending and after bend   hole in heavy cross section angle ) some of which are performed by CNC and others are by workers   manually . Fig below shows a production layout of that area where I am working . 

 CHALLENGE 

 As a production engineer the biggest challenge is customer satisfaction i.e. reduces lead time between   order and delivery of products , as well as provide good quality product . Because placing order on time   satisfy customers and create a good relationship as well as provide competitive advantage in the field of   manufacturing . Other than customer satisfaction the second problem is , to gain profit and reduces cost   and lead time , reduction of defects , increases production rate , minimise the rejection and rework and   saves   energy . There are some important questions that I have asked myself are discussed below:- 

 •   What are the key problems that create unwanted delay to placing orders to the customers , and   increases lead time ? 

 •   How to increase production rate so we can gain profit as well as satisfy our key customers and   make a good relationship with new customers ? 

 •   Why our production process produces defects that either required rework or rejection . This   rejection and rework increases production cost and extra time than required time and involve   more workers ? 

 To find answer all of the above mentioned questions , I adopt a design thinking tool , which is discussed in   our next step , i.e. our selection step . 

 SELECTION 

 I selected Mind Mapping tool . Mind mapping is a design thinking tool which helps us to find out different   patterns and insights in our current working area , by considering various attributes and data collected by   us . From our challenge step we found that we have various problems having different patterns like some   are related to customers , some are from production and technical point of view , some are related to   monetary value and having environmental perspective ( energy saving ) also . Mind Mapping tool provide   us insight from current reality to future possibilities . 

 I am here at the stage of what is ? That is I want to know about current reality of my production area , I am   here not looking for any innovative design or design challenge , I am here looking for deep understanding   about my production process so I can make a criteria from current reality to future possibilities , which   help us to solve my challenges as a production engineer that I have already discussed in our challenge   step and find answers of all the questions . Mind mapping tool make a bridge between current realities to   future possibilities and provide design criteria that helps us to solve various problems that are interrelated   to each other . Other than this Mind Mapping is more visual and creative tool , hence I selected Mind   mapping for our problem . 

 APPLICATION 

 First of all to find out current reality of production line I prepared a current state value stream map , which   is a symbolic representation of whole production area , which gives us information about who are the our   suppliers , what are the our key product that we buy from suppliers . It gives us information about how   much inventory having in raw yard , and in between various processes of our production line , what are the   defects and why this defects occurs . It also gives us very important information about our customers , who   are our key customers , what makes them satisfy , what they wants from us etc . Value stream map helps me   to visualize all of my production process . Here I am discussing few steps that I used to prepare current   value stream map:- 

 1 . First of all I prepared a process line of current process and did time study , motion study and 

 method study to find out all necessary information like how much inventory we stored , value   added time and non value added time , cycle time , change over time and lead time between order   and delivery etc . 

 2 . To time , motion & method study I hired some intern and trainee engineers , their dedication and 

 sincere contribution helped me to fill all important data in my current value stream map and   identifying the current reality of process . 

 Hence current value stream map provide me answers of the entire questions that I have asked in our   challenge step . All answers are discussed below . 

 1 . I found that in raw yard the stacking of materials is very poor and messy , which takes extra and 

 unnecessary time to finding material for further processing and increases cycle time between   processes . 

 2 . There is excess inventory between two processes like CNC & Notching ; here it is necessary to 

 convert them in to constant work in process inventory . 

 3 . I found causes of defects are over processing and ignorance by workers in galvanization , these 

 defects causes rejection and rework , and increase lead time . 

 4 .   In packing and dispatching zone more worker are required and I found that some works are not 

 taking seriously their work and took unnecessary time to finish the work . 

 Hence from all data that I have collected , I found that all of these increases lead time for placing   orders to customers , this delay in placing orders makes our key customers dissatisfied , and this   dissatisfaction of customers spoiled our relation with them and creates a bad image in competitive   world . We can lose our key customers . Other than this , defects cause obstacles between process flow   and slower the production rate which increases cost and time and if will not control all problems then   our industry will not gain profit . 

 In our next step I am discussing about what I have learned from Mind mapping tool and how it helped   me to solve my challenges . 

 INSIGHT 

 Before using this tool I was thinking that problems comes due to technical reasons or faults in   machines and try to solve them but I had never found exact solution of this . 

 After applying Mind mapping I found that my thinking to see problems has been changed , it helps me   to visualize problems , it changes my mind set to see different patterns in problems , it tells me   problems not only comes from a single area it comes from many other reasons that are interrelated to   each other . It also provides me a vision so I can generate some creative ideas to solve my problem   challenges . 

 The most important thing that I have learned from mind mapping is , thinking about possibilities .   Before applying this I did not think about future possibilities and I was in a steady state and think that   everything is going good and no need to do any changes in any process but I was wrong because there   are many areas where improvement needed . Hence it provides me a creative vision , changes my mind   set , and I start thinking about idea generation for future possibilities and triggering my intuition for   challenges . 

 APPROACH 

 Mind mapping provide me insight for future possibilities . There are so many ideas that come in to my   mind ; these ideas are may be the solution of my challenge . My next step is to translate all of insights   that I have gained from mind mapping in to design criteria . Design criteria are the transition from   what is to what if stage . At this step there are so many ideas but I do not know which one is good so I   will discuss all this ideas with my team , and we will go with possibilities . 

 There is an example of possibility , we can merge two processes like CNC and Notching together and   use automation . This is an idea , like this various ideas in my mind . Here I will use mind mapping tool   again to prepare design criteria and focus on possibilities , for next stage what if . Once I find a   solution then I will think about another tool like learning launch , for our next step what wows and   what works .
### Output: 