The Evolution Of Lean Production

Scientific management or "Taylorism" is an approach to job design, developed by Frederick Taylor (1856-1915) during the Second World War. With the industrial revolution came a fast growing pool of people, seeking jobs, that required a new approach of management. Scientific management was the first management theory, applied internationally. It believes in the rational use of resources for utmost output, hence motivating workers to earn more money. Taylor believed that the incompetence of managers was the major obstacle on the way of productivity increase of human labour. Consequently, this idea led to the need of change of management principles. On the base of research, involving analysing controlled experiments under various working

The number of employees reaches to 1.3 millions, however most of employees are involved in a very simple task to increase their limited skills and to speed up the production. According to the New York Times dated May 21st, 2010, an employee confessed, “We finish one step in every 7 seconds, which requires us to concentrate and keep working and working. We work faster even than the machines.” This specialisation of production process is almost same as Ford’s idea.

These theories were proven relevant by their popularity (Brooks, 20) “Taylor’s thinking preceded the widespread adoption of mass production techniques, possibly best demonstrated by the early 1920’s motor manufacturers, most significantly Henry Ford in the USA.” Production lines were sequential and followed a strict rule of the “one best way” which may be because the new industry and workers did not have a large amount of knowledge or expertise on how their jobs should be done.

Production practices have had an important role in satisfying the dynamic market. Many approaches have being developed in order to respond effectively to specific business requirements. In fact, some areas of management have focused its study on the overseeing, designing, and controlling the process of production in an effort to find the best methodology that ensures the business success and performance. However, complexities arise in this field because many variables such as costs, inventory, scheduling, suppliers, etc have to be considered in any business. Lean approach and the traditional approach are two points of view that aim to address this complexities, and those will be examined in this essay.

Fordism, a term that in the early 20th century forged from Ford Motors which was found in 1903 and became widely used in describing mass production and mass consumption. The term itself was named after Henry Ford when him and his engineers came up with new innovations in layouts of the factory to be used on a regular basis to modernize operations and reduce the time required to assemble each car which ultimately led to an increase in demand. Fordism has been used for years and if it never reached the light of day we would not have production as fast as we do now. In this essay I will be explaining more on what Fordism is and will be provide examples regarding why it was a good idea.

XYZ Corporations have their employees performing multi task unlike the Fordism where it emphasized on mass production with extreme division of labour where each employee has one task. Two of the key features of Lean Production involving employees are employee involvement and empowerment in which organizations organizing their employees by forming teams and giving them training and responsibility to do many specialized tasks, for housekeeping, quality inspection, minor equipment repair and rework and allowing also them time to meet to discuss problems and find ways to improve the process. Another is having a multi-skilled workforce as employees are empowered to do many jobs, they must be provided with adequate training ((Kotelnikov, 2006).

Initially at Ford motors, production used to take place by keeping the vehicle at one position and making the workers move in and about gathering the several parts together. This method unfortunately was a very tedious and time-consuming process. In view of this fact, Henry Ford appointed Taylor to monitor the operations taking place. Ford applied the scientific management

This synthesised, scientifically managed workflow was meant to improve labour productivity and economic efficiency. And thirdly, rather than having machinery at the centre of the factory and workers moving to and from the product, assembly lines were used. This meant that the workers remained stationary and the product simply flowed past them (Murray, 1989). They were essentially treated as robots and dictated by machines; operating to the duplicated, repetitive tasks daily and not given the opportunity to express potential for advancement or improvement.

Lean manufacturing is a method of reducing waste (muda) in the manufacturing system. It also considers the waste due to overload and waste dude to over burden. Lean manufacturing also best known as Toyota production system or kaizen production system. Although the Toyota production system was introduced more than a century ago it has continue to develop over time. It was practiced by the Henry Ford for the manufacturing of Ford model T which was very successful between the years 1908 to 1920 which almost sold 2 Million cars a year. Later on it was developed by the Toyota in Japan. The main idea behind the lean manufacturing is to value the customer needs by reducing the waste and achieving good products with more value by consuming less resources. Muda is defined as the material or the activity for which the customer is not willing to pay. The main task of lean manufacturing is to identify Muda and to get rid of it. These products are created by using less human effort, less space, less capital, less time to produce high quality.

The Rise of Lean Production. In 1950, Eiji Toyoda, a Japanese engineer from Toyota Motor Company, had a trip to one of the Ford’s plant in Detroit because he

The core objection behind lean systems is to maximize customer value while minimizing waste. Basically, lean is defined by using fewer resources in order to make a perfect value for customers. How lean systems work, they use a highly skilled workforce and flexible equipment in order to make some advantages. Such as mass production which is the high volume and low unit cost. And craft production which is the variety and flexibility, this will help eliminate waste for the producer and consumer. Luckily, this approach has drawn attention to other services. For example, lean systems aren’t only suitable for manufactures but also health cares, offices and shipping and delivery. The misconception that lean is a tactic or cost reduction program is not necessarily true, but it is a process of thinking and acting for the entire company. In order to accomplish lean system thinking changes must refrain from management optimize separate technologies, assets and vertical departments.

The term ‘lean production’ came about to describe the Toyota production system in the late 1980’s. This came to pass through a research group from MIT who over five years analysed the automotive industry in fourteen countries. It was called ‘lean manufacturing’ rather than the Toyota production system to make it easier for competitors and organizations to adopt this type of system.

Since the late nineteenth hundred, we have seen five separate movements in the way organizations participate in competition. The first was doing function admirably. This was the primary frame reason for shaping enterprises to help the creating of items and administrations with minimal measure of sat idle, materials, and work. The endeavor to transform business into an investigation of doing function admirably, likewise experienced as taylorism denoted the high purpose of this unified endeavor to complete something. Many organizations still partake in rivalry along these lines and there go ahead to be operators coming after to taylorism including business prepare reengineering and Lean production. The second joined endeavor to complete

Henry Ford was an industrial pioneer and a renowned car manufacturer in the United States. Fordism is a concept that is primarily based on the mass production of products which would become known as a production line. During the 1940’s through to the 1960’s there was an increase in consumption; this was because the sale prices were low and the products were available to consumers. Fordism was based around strong hierarchical control over workers; restricting them to one single task on the production lines. This theory believed that the “best way to improve output was to improve the techniques or methods used by the workers” (Robbins p.38). Ford decided to merge and emphasise scientific methods in order to improve the way tasks were completed. This was because of the mass-production processes. Fordism and scientific management share common themes. The theory, scientific management originated in

“Lean manufacturing is the pursuit and elimination of waste that simultaneously embodies respect for people” (Hansen and Mowen 6). Key purposes of lean manufacturing are to eliminate waste, reduce costs, and to maximize customer value. As companies try to cut down on the amount of waste they produce, their goal is to maximize their efficiency and cut the costs that are incurred. Lean manufacturing is described as, “delivering the right product, in the right quantity, with the right quality, at the exact time the customer needs it and at the lowest possible cost” (Hansen and Mowen 778). This idea seems somewhat unrealistic, but methods of implementing lean manufacturing have proven to be successful in achieving this goal.