The Lean Implementation Plan for Organizations

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.

The question currently being asked, are United States companies doing poorly with lean and is lean faltering? Studies over the past 10 years have shown that United States companies are not only doing poorly, but that they have become worse over the past five to seven years (Schonberger, 2007, p.22). Lean Manufacturing was a brilliant idea that achieved great success with car manufacturers like Toyota. However, these practices have actually hurt many organizations when companies attempt to apply them internally to certain practices. Too many companies have attempted to correct problems internally using certain lean methods that should only be applied to manufacturing. Companies have applied the Lean Six Sigma approach to cut waste within the organization by reducing raw materials, work-in-progress and finished goods inventory. Companies have also streamlined their own employees reducing headcount and hiring or retraining remaining staff that can perform many tasks instead of specific jobs. In-fact, organizations that have applied Lean Six Sigma and Lean Manufacturing internally are still seeing losses. Companies have neglected to look externally for waste instead of constantly focusing on internal processes and problems. Creating these reductions, companies are actually seeing two to 10 times more lead-time externally than internally (Schonberger, 2007, p.

History above shows growth. Switchgear market is fully developed see exhibit 4. Customer orders increased by 75% and expected to keep rising. Lean implementation is needed to meet demand utilizing existing capacity to improve financial performance for the factories. The order follows the route see exhibit 5. Each department fulfils its responsibilities before passing on to the next. Lean started with meetings between management and lean team explaining its benefits in response to panels demand rise. Layout and processes were restructured. Mapping process was done. Lean team held discussions with every department in value chain to understand the current working process. Brainstorming and awareness sessions were done resulting in process flow chart that changes the way

The purpose of this paper is to discuss: (a) overall comparison of the Lean and Six Sigma performance improvement methods, (b) steps involved in implementing Lean and Six Sigma, (c)

Lean is not only a set of tools and techniques implemented by an organization; it is a cultural change. It is importance to develop a foundation for this cultural change, to ensure the success of any organization that starts the lean journey.

Lean manufacturing plays a major role in our economy and yet it is almost unheard of outside manufacturing. It is important to know lean manufacturing relates to our individual lives and how we can all benefit from this concept. With current slow economic recovery, it is imperative that we find avenues that consumers can get through these difficult times, but also to implement the lessons-learned values into future thinking. The rising cost of goods and the unemployment rate high, lean manufacturing is helping to keep cost low and jobs in America where they belong.

One obstacle is the perception that the use of lean manufacturing solutions is, at best, nothing more than a trend. In addition, at worst, a brief craze. It is often observed as nothing more than a repackaging of fundamental industrial engineering principles dressed up in new clothes, and flaunted in new terms to appeal to a new industry. Lean manufacturing is sometimes seen in many industries as a collection of techniques, known to be effective in the auto industry, which some people are now trying to impose on a completely different industry. This means that perceptions have to be changed.

Lean methodology allows identifying operational waste in forms of overproducing, waiting times, unnecessary resources and transporting. The waste products can be identified with patient journey map which shows the flow of processes and patient experience. Within the Lean process, the term “value-added” is used to describe any activity that contributes directly to satisfying the needs of the client. “No value-added” refers to any activity that takes up time, space or resources which doesn’t contribute directly to patient satisfaction. The most useful tools in Lean methodology are value stream mapping, time measurement, visual management tools, the 5S system (sort, set in order, shine, standardize, sustain), and process mapping. The core values of Lean management encourages team work and continuous improvement. It is apparent that Lean promotes no punitive culture that avoids casting blame. It uses teamwork to analyse the problems then identify the cause of problems from the root.

The purpose of this literary review is to achieve insight into lean manufacture and how it can be applied within a manufacturing environment. With global contention, it is important for maker to remain competitive in their respective marketplace and to understand the principles of lean manufacturing and the step to implement them to ensure that they are on the leading edge of manufacturing. This literary review describes the below mention principles.

Generally speaking, aims lean management to operate the most efficient and and effective organization as possible by having the least costs and zero waste. Thus, Lean should form part of a company wide strategy with the objective of decreasing its operating cost base and increasing market share (Wilson, 2010). Event though, Lean originates from manufacturing, the relevant principles are now increasingly being applied to the service sector (NIST, 2003).

Most companies leaving on lean manufacturing soon find that their accounting processes and management methods are inconsistent with the lean changes they are making. The reason for this is that traditional accounting and management method were intended to support traditional manufacturing; they are based upon mass production thinking. Lean manufacturing breaks the rules of mass production, and so the traditional accounting and management methods are unsatisfactory and more often than not effectively unfriendly to the lean changes the company

This section comprises of the research aim and objectives of this research proposal along with the literature review on Lean, Sig Sigma philosophies, their critical success factors and barriers and ends with summarizing the literature on the aspects of business and operational performance.

138) The small improvements in different steps of the production process, when summed together, should lead to a higher level of efficiency and improved quality of products. Lean approach has been applied successfully in the private sector, particularly in production, but the approach is less frequently used in the public, and scant research has been done to establish whether it confers the same benefits and what effects it has on the productivity and the quality of the services delivered (Brady & Allen 2006, P 335).

The lean approach refers to a management philosophy in which the company is constantly pushing towards the ideal system. This is done by attempting to reduce or eliminate to the deviations from the system and adapt to any remaining deviations in place. In short, implementing lean production aims to reach the optimal level of efficiency.

This research done in order to identify lean practices, organizational commitment and operational performance in hospitals. This survey was conducted among lean managers and operators of each project in 2009. As per the researcher success of lean directly benefits the internal operations process as well as operational performance