Lean Operations And Supply Chain

How does Lean Operations and Supply Chain differ from traditional approaches? Describe the main characteristics of each approach and their strengths and weaknesses then discuss the main issues involved in managing the transition from traditional to lean operations.

“Lean is a systematic approach to identifying and eliminating waste (non-value-added activities) through continuous improvement by flowing the **product at the pull of the customer in pursuit of perfection.” Lockwood [24].

In the 1950s Toyota came up with the idea of lean thinking which is a set of functioning ideas and techniques that helps generate the greatest importance for individuals by decreasing waste and delays” (Feeney, 2015). The purpose of this systematic approach was to change the establishments thought process and value, which would eventually lead to the conversion of the

Overall, the purpose of lean is to improve processes. Lean is not a methodology that seeks for the reduction of costs, even though it might appear as a result of a great implementation of Lean. Neither is a methodology to improve productivity, as it might require to do more work that do not necessarily means that the staff is doing the right things. Lastly, Lean is not about restructuring the work the staff do, as it might simply mean changing activities without considering if they are actually value added or not.

Under the lean production approaches, a number of factors are essential to the process for

“Lean means creating more value for customers with less” (Krejewski, L., Ritzman, L.P., & Malhotra, M.K., 2013). Implementing this into a project can make the project very successful at a lower rate of cost and time. There are five steps in allowing the lean process to work successfully. This process is easy to remember but not always easy to achieve. Specifying the value from the customer’s point of view of the product that the customer is interested in purchasing is the first step. Identifying all the steps of value for the product the customer wants to purchase and eliminating the steps that are unnecessary is the second step. Creating a sequence of steps that flow in a consistent fashion and will flow smoothly toward the customer is the third step. Introducing the flow of the product that the customer is interested in purchasing and allowing the customer to pull value from the product is the fourth step. The fifth and final step in the lean technique process is “as value is specified, value streams are identified, wasted steps are removed, and flow and pull are introduced, begin the process again and continue it until a state of perfection is reached in which perfect value is created with no waste” (Lean Enterprises Institute, 2015).

Lean Thinking is an integrated system of standards, procedures, tools, and techniques that focus on harmonizing work flows, managing differences in production flows, and lessening waste. The process provides several standard solutions to common organizational problems like complexity reduction and visual management. The

The concept of Lean Manufacturing was not quickly adopted by the United States manufacturing companies because of the cost incurred by changing the old manufacturing processes; the perceived need did not outweigh the benefits. In the 1970’s and the1980’s manufacturing companies in the United States took a closer look when Japanese and Chinese companies were selling similar products as the United States like cars, trucks, electronics, and toy, but at lower cost to the U.S. consumers. Companies within the United States urgently sought out experts from Japan to understand this new method due to declining revenues and the realization they were being forced out of market share. They learned that the concept of Lean Manufacturing was to change the goals by exposing waste in all areas within the manufacturing process with an increased focus to satisfy

The trend of implementing lean technology has grown into a broader spectrum. The Toyota production the TPS were applied where only manufacturing efficiency was the aim. Later in 1970 and 1980’s supply complexity, market and distribution, service was concentrated when the company became more globalized, and the aim was to improve the quality, control over effective process.

Lean is defines the manufacturing philosophy that reduces the time between the shipping and customer demand, which based on the systematic method by eliminating waste, that means giving the customer what they want when they want it, and don 't waste whatever. Rahmana, Sharif and Esa (2013) suggested lean production is mentioned to improve the company 's performance from the philosophy in reducing waste in order. That means, lean system destination is the decrease cost by removing the non-value activities, which they are applying a category of tools and techniques for checking and eliminating defective in the production process. In the Evenort Company should emulate the five overriding principles of lean thinking in terms of implementing lean that there is guarantee the company has been driving correctly in the lean manufacturing (Cardiff 2015) as can show in table 1.

The current economic environment we are in, shared with increasing guidelines has placed manufacturers in the challenging position of having to reduce waste, improve processes, and increase productivity. Although lean manufacturing can well enough be the answer, some companies have found lean manufacturing implementation to be an ongoing battle. Which is not to say, however, that there have not been some major success stories. There are many obstacles to lean implementations.

As is obvious by now, there are clear differences between typical production process and the lean production model. Suited for the mass production strategy of the last century, the manufacturing cycle of the typical production process primarily engages in cost accounting whether periodic or

Six sigma and lean system has the same way of approaching but uses different technology to achieve the goal. The both procedure lives up to expectations for to dispense with waste and expand the productivity of the procedure and convey the zero defect items. Recognizable of primary cause of waste is the fundamental distinction between lean and six sigma. lean innovation says that waste originates from undesirable steps in the production process which don 't add the value of the final product while six sigma says that waste is a direct result of variety of diverse procedures.

(Dennis,2007). Over next 30 years, Taiichi Ohno solved numerous problems related to lean production in order to push his system through Toyota. Nowadays, the Toyota Production System (TPS) is used in accordance with “lean manufacturing” across the world (Tapping,2007). But today we face the same intimidating

Amongst which, “jidoka” uses automation to immediately pause machinery which has problems. This stops defective products from being made and thus reduces wastage. As such, only products meeting their strict quality standards will continue onto the next stop on the production line.