Lean Six Sigma processes are used by many businesses without it being realized. Many companies today are adopting the Lean Six Sigma processes to aid in cost reduction and waste management. The Six Sigma program aids in eliminating the negative effects caused by variations within the supply chain. The Lean process is all about the speed, flow and elimination of waste concerning inventory. Although Lean and Six Sigma are separate programs, they complement each other. Together these two programs provide supply chains with a tool that eliminates, “unnecessary inventories through disciplined efforts to understand and reduce variation, while increasing speed and flow in the supply chain.”(Lean Logistics Understanding) Lean and Six Sigma …show more content…
Manufactures have adopted the reusable container and save on disposal cost, as well as, improved product protection. So, even thought packaging is not the number one concern of supply chains; it is a valid area to evaluate. Applying Lean Six Sigma to packaging in supply chains will reduce product damage, improved flow within the supply change, promote efficiency and overall save money. Logistics is the management of inventory at all levels. “Inventory can represent any where from 5 to 30 percent of a manufacture’s total assets and may represent half of a retailers assets.” ()Inventory is one of the more visible forms of waste within supply chains. The driving factor behind inventory is customer demands. The goal of any company who wants to stay in business is to have the product in the right place at the right time for the right cost. This leads to companies trying to forecast for future demands. Forecasting is never exact and demands are always over or under what was forecasted. In my job as a command Readiness Spares Package manager we utilize past fiscal year demands to forecast for the future fiscal year. Although I utilize several different analysis systems to forecast demands; it is never accurate. The goal is to get the forecast as close to the future demands to eliminated customer wait time and save money. Many wholesalers
Dip Com (LM ) –SCM Tutorial 6 Text Book-Chapter Eight Discussion Questions 1. (1).Explain why lean production and Six Sigma are so important to successful supply chain management. Ans.
Abstract —There are some complex and compelling challenges that global manufacturing industries should face, which includes price fluctuation, supply-chain inefficiencies and increasing customer expectations. In order to meet the demand of this economic environment, manufacturers need to find innovative, smarter ways to face those challenges. Thus, the efficient inventory management becomes urgent to manufacturers and it could help improve profitability and increase customer satisfaction. This paper aims to talk about what inventory management is and its importance, what problems inventory management might have and how to improve inventory management efficiency.
Successful deployment of Lean Six Sigma is often considered a function of the inputs with those being shown below in figure 1.1. As the companies are evaluated keep in mind those critical X’s are often evaluated as the function Y = f(X) or Outputs = f(Inputs). In other words by controlling the inputs an organization can predict the output of the Lean Six Sigma implementation. This point is key when evaluating the difference between successful and not-so-successful implementations.
Lean Six Sigma combines Lean’s time-focused waste-elimination philosophy to dynamic analytical problem solving toolkit of Six Sigma.
Ford Motor Company, one of the world’s largest automotive manufacturers, has worked with Penske on several Six Sigma initiatives. As its lead logistics provider (LLP), Penske’s quality team of associates are trained in Six Sigma practices and work closely with Ford to streamline operations and create and maintain a more centralized logistics network. Together, they uncovered several areas for real cost savings as a result of reducing inbound carrier discrepancies, eliminating unnecessary premium costs and reducing shipment overages. Plus, Penske implemented accountability procedures and advanced logistics management technologies to gain more visibility of its overall supply network.
Employing new merchandising tools aid the company in realizing lean production measures with its supply chain. Forecasting capabilities substantiated through “The combined efforts of our supply chain, merchandising, operations and finance teams, we reduced inventory by almost half a billion dollars in 2009, while at the same time improving our in-stock position” (Datamonitor 360, 2010).
Lean Six Sigma is a combination of two business-improvement systems, Lean and Six Sigma. Lean refers to the reduction of waste, or the elimination of unnecessary steps to increase speed and productivity. Six Sigma is the reduction of variance to improve system performance. Ultimately, the depot’s bottom line is a process that frequently produces a high-quality product, on time and within or below established budgets, so that equipment can be returned to the Warfighter quickly and at the lowest possible cost to the taxpayer.
The human race has made leaps and bounds in manufacturing of goods needed not only to survive, but to make our lives easier and more efficient. From the earliest recorded history, man has made the tools he needed to survive or gain a completive advantage. In the not too distant past, 100 years or so, we had skilled craftsman who had specific skills and talents. In a small town you would have a blacksmith, a tailor, a farmer, etc. Each of these people learned their skills through years of apprenticeships, and the items they made were unique. Their processes often took months or even years to complete. Since these times we as a society have progressed from craftsmanship to assembly lines. Even now we have robotic manufacturing,
In this session of Leading and Managing Change, the class is tasked with writing about an organizational change that we are or have been involved with and its outcome. For my example, I am writing about a failed organizational change that I was part of that occurred in 2007 and involved a Lean Six Sigma initiative.
Lean Six Sigma approach is recognized widely and has been implemented predominately in manufacturing rather than other industries. To illustrate the point, this paper draws attention to the adoption of Lean Six Sigma in various industries with a case study. The combination of Lean tools and Six Sigma methodology is used to improve the process and quality by eliminating the variations and creating workflow in a process. The hypothesis of this study was that the Six Sigma technique can be used along with lean tools in order to improve process and quality in any area of industries. The review of case study discovered the use of
This essay is going to analyze a case study based on lean thinking principles and techniques. It is could divide in four significant parts. First, to outline the definitions of Lean manufacturing philosophy and applied the strategies to achieving, next create future state Value Stream Map, Furthermore justification Lean Six Sigma tools and techniques, which would appropriate, and critically discussed the key successful should his idea to the Evenort Company.
Supply chain specialists, however, will have the training and expertise to give proper focus and attention to improving processes and managing quality. Several approaches may be used when implementing a process or quality improvement initiative. Some of these approaches include Accelerated Improvement, Business Process Improvement (BPI), Process-Oriented Architecture (POA), Rummler-Brache Methodology, Helix Methodology, and Six Sigma. In this report, the Six Sigma approach will be examined, including benefits of the Six Sigma approach, implementing the Six Sigma approach, costs to consider, and risks and cautions of the Six Sigma approach.
Quality is a measure of excellence that conforms to requirements and free from defects in a service or product and which meets the standards for a customer. Benchmarking is a method to compare the key metrics of their day to day operation with other companies in the same industry (Marksberry, 2011). This helps the companies to identify how they are performing, how they can improve their processes and systems and in turn become more competitive. Benching marking is a method to understand how to get the best performance in an organization, by the competitor or a different business and information obtained in this process, is used identify the gaps in the operations of the business. Six Sigma and Benchmarking currently is the practical and cost-effective way to bring in the industry best practices to the company (Ray & Das, 2010).
It is not well known, however, how organizational learning and continuous improvement work dynamically and mutually. For studying the mutual dynamics of these two widely known concepts in the organization theory and quality management fields, the six sigma approach – an improvement methodology for business processes – forms a fertile context for examination. There are not yet too many scientifically sound reports and case studies of six sigma implementation in real-life. In the dynamic developments of pursuing organizational effectiveness, the six sigma approach is currently gaining more and more ground in high-performance organizations aiming at the highest level of quality (six sigma by definition). Managers allocate resources to the improvement activities they regard as crucial for increasing organizational performance. Six sigma is an improvement method that aims to increase business performance through solid and accurate business focus. The applying of six sigma is progressing in Finnish business life, and this paper reports on a preliminary case study in three companies. Conclusions are made and on how learning and continuous improvement practices support each other, and on the type of learning in the six sigma implementation The findings show that in a procedural implementation of six sigma learning mechanisms and continuous improvement practices are intertwined creating mainly a single-loop type of learning. The type reminds a technical
Abstract: This paper hypothesises that, whilst Six Sigma as a change and improvement strategy is delivering significant business benefit to practitioner organisations, it has not been successfully adapted to deliver similar benefits across supply chains. It demonstrates by reference to the literature that most published applications of Six Sigma in supply chains are related to the application of traditional internal Six Sigma methodologies to the internal processes of a supplier to the “Six Sigma Organisation”. In this paper, the issues particular to an application of Six Sigma in a broader supply chain context are discussed, with reference to specific supply chain