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The following Japanese words related to “handling of manpower” in production process according to the organizational requirements; Shojinka: This is the Japanese word that originated from the lean manufacturing principles of Toyota. When we translate from Japanese to English, it gives direct meaning of “Various people”, shortly it can be “Vary people". i,e Flexible manpower lines maintain productivity with fluctuating demand. Shoninka: It means “Manpower saving”, by providing machines / equipment in order to free one or two operators: Shoryokuka: It means “ labour savings” partial removal or combining two operations by automation to support the process Productivity = outputs/ inputs i.e it is a measure of efficiency of production line. More often the Shojinka is defined as having to main categories; first, the workers are multi skilled and they can perform in multiple workstations at a time in a production line. The second is, the line should be designed in a way to accommodate or vary people based on the fluctuating customer demand. In simple words; Shojinka can be defined as “ability of a production line can be balanced when the production volume goes up or down" Demand Vs Supply: Shojinka techniques developed based on the Demand Vs Supply and no excess production as they considered as an inventory by deploying flexible machines and man powers. Capacity planning is the process of determining the production capacity needed by an organization to meet changing demands for its products. The capacity is normally developed based on takt time: Takt time: Available production hours per day / customer demand per day (Generally it is calculated on annual basis with full speed of line capacity). When the demand fluctuates, the organizations have some broad questions; · How to absorb the fluctuations in demand that will occur over next 12 months? · To what extent should inventory be used for this purpose · Can demand fluctuations be met by varying size of workforce (Shojinka?) · Why not absorb the fluctuations by changing activity rates and varying work hours( overtime) · Why not outsource to maintain a stable work force and let suppliers change activity rates to absorb demand fluctuations? · Will the organization lose orders if doesn’t meet all demands? Should the organization adopt this policy? Each of these choices determine the moves of the organizations. The organizations will adopt basically three strategies of planning to managing supply · Chase strategy: - when demand fluctuates, the organizations should adjust the capacity to match the demand as close as possible. E.g seasonal business demand like sale of apparels during festivals · Level strategy: - a firm maintain constant capacity over a period of time, irrespective of fluctuations in demand; e.g When more investment or skilled labour required, this strategy will apply · Mixed Strategy: Individual firms devise infinite combinations of the above strategies based on the situation. Shojinka is suitable to apply when organization adopts chase strategy. Flexible manpower line: The production line is designed in such way to meet the changing production requirements: Before designing of any production capacity, the following parameters to be considered; Takt time : Net production time / Customer demand Cycle time : Net production time / No.of Units produced No. of stations / Operators: Cycle time ( Work content) /Takt time In the competitive market, the organization has to prepare some strategy to prevent the business loss and shojinka is a solution for the flexible manufacturing; Calculating Manpower / machines: The following formula will help us to determine the manpower / machine requirements to meet the demand; Overall cycletime / Takt time = Manpower / machines Cycle time is the sum of the processing time to complete one unit of assembly Examples: Case: 1 Overall cycle time: 240 secs Takt time: 80 secs No of manpower = 3 So, we can use the manpower formula and assign no. of operators based on the demand Case: 2 When demand goes down, we can remove the manpower and he can be used in other machines/ assembly lines; Overall cycle time : 240 secs Takt time : 120 secs No of manpower : 2 When the demand low, we reduce 30% manpower and two manpower will produce the output to meet the low demand. Shojinka demands employee training, multiskilling to manage / operate different machines / practical standard operating procedure in place for flexible manpower line. Advantages of Flexible manpower line: · Avoid overproduction · Better usage of capacity · Smooth material movement · Kaizen culture Disadvantages of Flexible manpower line: · Design of production process is complicated as the forecast are not realistic · Require high skilled operator · Not suitable for small, medium size industries Conclusion in my purview: At the present time, most of the industries look for outsourcing when the demand peaked up. The peak demand may not be long-lasting, as the demand lows they withdrawn the order from the supplier. This will affect the supplier relationship in long term. However, organization should design flexible manpower line to the peak volume and if the demand is lower, the assigned manpower can be used in another production area, provided if they are competent. But practically it is complex in real time production situation. Industries, normally extend their work hours to meet the peak demand and cut off the extra hours if the demand goes down. If the forecast is realistic, the cell design is flexible to manpower, Shojinka is a best tool to apply.

The chosen best answer is Mathi's. He has provided a detailed description and a brief example. Suggested reading - Prashanth's answer for a detailed example and Mohiuddin's answer for how different levels come into play with Shojinka. Vastupal outlines some clear advantages of Shojinka. Every answer to this question has some unique points mentioned. Happy Reading (and learning!)

Dear Ajith, it really depends on what your objective is. A lot of tools can be used for transactional quality in BPO - you may find out the capability (using DPMO, DPU or Defectives method), you could do a Pareto on the defects, you could do a Pareto for defects at team level, you could do mistake proofing to avoid some of the defects (e.g. removing access for frontliners for anything they aren't authorized to give e.g credits), C&E for low quality, Brainstorming for better transactional quality etc. You could really take your pick based on the intent of using the Six Sigma tools.

Transactional quality in BPO segment is nothing but Quality Assurance in reality. The idea is to facilitate the delivery teams to equip themselves with holistic quality plan, checklists, SOPs, reports, dashboards and RCA tools to run the quality plan regularly. It is primarily useful in combating special cause variation. Transactional processes could be: Preparing financial statements, Online banking services etc.