What Is Lean Management And The Practical Concepts Within It

Operations management is essential for the survival and success of any organization. According to Heizer & Render (2011), operations management (OM) is the set of activities that creates value in the form of goods and services by transforming inputs into outputs. Operations managers today contend with competition, globalization, inflation, consumer demand, and consistent change in technology. Managers must focus on the efficiency and effectiveness of processes such as cost, dependability, distribution, flexibility, and speed. The intent of this paper is to discuss the processes and operations management of the Kroger Company.

In Jessica Lundgren’s essay, “Eating Fresh” in America: Subway Restaurant’s Nutritional Rhetoric, has stated many different strategies Subway uses in their commercials to persuade consumers that they are choosing the healthier choice when getting food at their fast food restaurants. Americans today are worried about what they can do to lose weight and maintain a good diet. Lundgren did a great job mentioning the five aspects to Subway’s nutritional claims that they follow which includes: the making of nutritional claims, a visual rhetoric that makes the restaurant’s “healthy” food options appear to be numerous and exciting, the comparison of the Subway product with the products of other, less “healthy” fast food restaurants, the clear indication

Please note that this Assessment document has 11 pages and is made up of 3 Sections.

Meijer Inc. is considered as one of the largest superstore chains in the United States, and is among the top 30 private companies in the world in terms of revenue. The annual revenue of Meijer has increased to $16.1 billion as per its annual revenue for the fiscal year 2016. Meijer operates 223 stores with more than 68,000 team members that work directly for the company. All the Meijer stores are concentrated into six U.S. states, which include Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Kentucky, Michigan, and Wisconsin. This averages out to 280 team members per store. It has been assessed that Meijer is facing a lot of operational challenges due to decreased employee efficiency. The increased number of complaints reveals the wastage of resources, wastage of time, and lower productivity of employees. Also, holding large amount of inventory is another problem that is faced by the management of Meijer. Accordingly, four key constraints were identified, which refer to improper training of employees, and lack of empowerment of store managers, poor retailer supplier-collaboration, and rigid working hours of employees. The four lean service techniques recommended to overcome these problems are inclined towards training of employees, empowerment of store managers, enhanced retailer-supplier collaboration, and scheduling flexible working hours of employees, respectively. The cost and additional revenue generated has been calculated to determine the return on investment as well as

The Subway restaurant chain is marked by its impressive leading global growth. It is the largest restaurant chain in the world. And its foundation and history could be not only a good example for the understanding of business, entrepreneurship and franchising, but also a story which can inspire and awake all of us to new possibilities in our own lives and careers.

From a study completed by Chicago-based Research International USA completed a study called “Fast Food Nation 2008. The panel consisted of 1,000 respondents of ages 16-65 who provided their inputs with an online survey which was conducted between March 13 through 2008. Which was based on results on fast food restaurants like McDonald’s, Burger King, and Wendy’s are gaining popularity even through the economic hardship and recession. Marketing strategy has become more of influence on kids and young American’s. As population grows and the demand increases of fast food restaurants are expanding their stores to capturing more consumers. Fast food chains are also willing to change their menus to continue to gain and retain repeating customers.

The fast food, or quick service restaurant industry (QSR), represents approximately 200,000 restaurants and $155 billion in sales in the U.S. alone, they are one of the largest segments of the food industry (Hoovers, 2011). This segment of the restaurant industry is “highly competitive and fragmented… number, size and strength of competitors vary by region, market and even restaurant. All of these restaurants compete based on a number of factors, including taste, quality, speed of service, price and value, name recognition, restaurant location, customer service and the ambience and condition of each restaurant” (Chipotle, 2010).

The fast food industry has been growing dramatically during the last few years. For this reason, we should try to find out what are the several factors why fast food consumption keeps growing among young people and adults. Therefore, as we have seen, the popularity of fast food is spreading rapidly among many people due to the following three main reasons: good taste, convenient time, and price. Personally, working for a fast food restaurant for a brief moment in my life, I can attest to this. Marketing also plays a big part to more people eating fast food. It’s in our culture in America to expect fast food companies to market and strategize their ways to make us, the consumers, to buy more food and consume more food so they can make more profit. Especially now with commercials and social media. The fast food industry has thrived in the modern era. It’s thriving so much, the industry is growing faster than the U.S economy, at

This analysis delves into the company’s operation management principles to interpret its successful strategies and offer future recommendations.

On the other hand, both Aldi and Lidl prioritize their business at a low price and cost minimization basis. These two companies intended to lower their costs of operation, such as the elimination of non-value adding service and no-frills approach, and pass the benefits on to customers in the form of lower price products. Moreover, according to the case, both companies offer less product range than other mainstream retailers such as Tesco. Therefore, the concept of lean should be adopted by these two companies as their functionalities

Starbucks positions itself as a place college students can hang out, study, write term papers and meet people. A Starbucks appeal to this consumer directly through introducing technology as soon as it comes available, focusing on social networking and actively cultivating a “cool” image. The young adult audience grows 4.6 percent each year (O’ Farrell).” However, the majority of the advertising is catered to Adults around the ages of 25 to 40. Adults seem to prefer a pick me up first thing in the morning on their way to work. Most Starbucks today have a drive thru to make it faster to grab and go.

The basic requirements for operation managements is understanding of the customers’ needs and satisfied them, and use fewer resources to maximise the efficiency and effective of the company’s productivity. Therefore two typical Australia companies have been shown blew. One is the largest Australian supermarket, Woolworths Limited, and another one is the largest airline company in Australia, Qantas Limited.

The application and implementation of lean principles or thinking is a process that requires commitment from every stakeholder in the organization. This process entails commitment to the organization's workers and to the system itself in order to make changes towards improvement. Generally, the implementation of lean thinking is geared towards continuous improvement through the elimination of waste. However, lean management or implementation of the principles sometimes incorporate mistakes that are made by leaders in the execution process. This is mainly because lean leadership appears to be simple though its complex because of the costs associated with it. The mistakes usually occur because of intrinsic complexities of exploring deeply into organizational philosophies, business strategy, psychology, and macroeconomics.

This case study determines the critical success factors used by Subway Restaurants Corporation to expand nationally, which the corporation wants to use also to expand internationally. In addition, this paper describes the competition and the prospect success in Asia-Pacific and Latin America. In general, the fast food industry is discovered with respect to the history and future plans of fast food chain Subway international for expanding and accretion in Asia-Pacific and Latin America, containing the four factors that Subway should use to compete and success in those markets. Each proposed country market has unique cultural and religious requirements should be realized by Subway, as well as the consumption patterns, market trends, and the franchise values which determine from the local traditional fast food compared to the viewpoint of Subway’s healthy alternatives and low expansion costs.

Lean management systems have been successfully introduced into a number of Histopathology laboratories. Historically, many laboratories are non-standardised, unorganised in their layout with cluttered areas and work-tops. To be successful with lean management, I believe it is essential to start with the laboratory environment and create an ideal standard work station. This is what was employed at Path Links Pathology based in Lincoln. The lean approach to work design is underpinned by the principle that the right process will produce the right result and this requires a high degree of organisation and discipline in the work environment1. Equipment and consumables required should be standardised in its layout with