In today’s ever changing market place, reaching a high level of customer satisfaction is shown more and more difficult; for service industries it has shown to be even more challenging to achieve low costs and greater efficiency. Throughout the academic literature I will broadly introduce the key principles of lean manufacturing, and its processes, using USA Vacuum as a quick example to illustrate how lean processes significantly reduced their costs and maximised their efficiency. Moreover, the paper will discuss some of the problems faced when installing an operational change, followed by suggested measures with backed literature. To address the question it was necessary to select companies that have been influenced by lean, and have applied some of its processes into their service operations. Firstly, looking at an American fast-food restaurant Taco Bell, and secondly, A Canadian Hospital’s Emergency Department. Both companies note to having a lack of efficiency in their operations. Furthermore, we will be looking at how lean manufacturing truly influenced the service industries in terms of its processes, and moreover, its outcomes. Lastly, the paper will conclude the implications of lean manufacturing, and that it relies heavily on the input of involvement from everyone.
Lean manufacturing is commonly believed to have started in Japan, its key principles are to reduce all waste by eliminating such activities that do not add any value, maintaining this principle throughout the supply chain, creating multiple flows of products, by producing to demand rather than supply, and by emphasising quality (Lee and Olson et al., 2008, pp. 973--987). Toyota became the largest car manufacturer in the world in great part helped by the appli...
... middle of paper ...
...hip, pp. 1--5.
Lee, S. M., Olson, D. L., Lee, S., Hwang, T. and Shin, M. S. 2008. Entrepreneurial applications of the lean approach to service industries. The Service Industries Journal, 28 (7), pp. 973--987.
Ng, D., Vail, G., Thomas, S., Schmidt, N. and Others. 2010. Applying the Lean principles of the Toyota Production System to reduce wait times in the emergency department. Cjem, 12 (1), pp. 50--57.
Radnor, Z. and Osborne, S. P. 2013. Lean: a failed theory for public services?. Public Management Review, 15 (2), pp. 265--287.
Shah, R. and Ward, P. T. 2003. Lean manufacturing: context, practice bundles, and performance. Journal of Operations Management, 21 (2), pp. 129--149.
Suarez-Barraza, M. F., Smith, T. and Dahlgaard-Park, S. M. 2012. Lean Service: A literature analysis and classification. Total Quality Management & Business Excellence, 23 (3-4), pp. 359--380.
TONI, A.D.,TONCHIA, S. (1996) “Lean orgnanisation, management by process and performance measurement”, International Journal of Operations and Production Management, 16(2), pp. 221-236. [Online}. Available at: http://www.emeraldinsight.com (Accessed: 08 December 2011)
The company that the author has chosen to compare his own organization with is the Toyota motor company. The Toyota Company has become a renowned leader in the area of quality management. Toyota’s theory of “keep it lean” has kept the company running at a level that eclipses the industry standards.
A LEAN Company is our best description and our business philosophy (creating more value for customers with less resources), which pursues to deliver what the customer wants, when they want it, at maximum value with minimum misuse.Through the application of LEAN, we achieve more fulfillment as it helps to reduce the possibility to constantly be fighting a battle against difficulties. Besides, we promote a Continuous Improvement Culture in our performance.
Intense global competition, rapid technological changes, advances in manufacturing and information technology and discerning customers are forcing manufacturers to optimize manufacturing process, operations, and all the possible nodes of supply chains that enable them to deliver high-quality products in a short period of time (Karim et al. 2013). The origins of lean thinking can be found on the shop-floors of Japanese manufacturers and, in particular, innovations at Toyota Motor Corporation (Shingo, 1981, 1989; Monden, 1994; Ohno, 1988). These innovations, resulting from a scarcity of resources and intense domestic competition in the Japanese market for automobiles, included the just-in-time (JIT) production system, the Kanban method of pull production, respect for employees and high levels of employee problem-solving/automated mistake proofing. This lean operations management design approach focused on the elimination of waste and excess from the tactical product flows at Toyota (the Toyota "seven wastes") and represented an alternative model to that of capital-intense mass production with its large batch
The lean principles respond to changing customer desires and also provide high quality, low cost and faster throughput times. Lean principles eliminate waste along entire value streams thus creating processes that require less human investment, time and effort to come up with products and services at far less costs and with much fewer defects compared with conventional business systems.[1]
Tinker Air Force Base in conjunction with the 548th Propulsion Maintenance Squadron is embarking on a journey of Lean Production. The jet engine repair business has become one of fierce competition throughout the world and within the United States. Companies today demand quality parts on time and on cost; it is management’s responsibility along with employees of the 548th Propulsion Maintenance Squadron to deliver this demand to the customer, the warfighter. The literature review contains four sections that focus on Lean Production.
Lean Six Sigma is a methodology that creates processes within an organization to cut waste and improve the company’s performance. However, studies have shown that over the past decade applying Lean Manufacturing and Six Sigma can create problems for companies financially and potential problems for employees. Companies should take great care before implementing a Lean Six Sigma solution because in some instances, going lean can do more harm than good both financially for the organization as well as destroying employee loyalty and moral.
The lean manufacturing techniques have also been named as the post Fordism system of job that is democratic, humane and more efficient. A central tenet of lean manufacturer is the concept of “Kaizen” that is continuous improvement in the manufacturing process. The lean manufacturing philosophy seeks to integrate efficiency with quality of work life. The concept of “Kaizen” looks for eliminates all activities that do not add value, referred to as waste or “muda” in Japanese. This looked at excessive size inventory, excessive setup time, and work in process. The “Kaizen” process also removes defects or flaws in the production process and finds the cause of the problem. This involves employee participation that can monitor and sense any difference in products and processes. The employees also contribute to the improvement of production and organization. The productivity improvement is accomplished through incremental innovation.
Lean production “is highly flexible, high-quality production on a large scale.” This flexibility and quality originate from the continuous improvement that LP stresses which allows for easy replacement of products that become outdated or otherwise
Let’s start from the very beginning. Lean manufacturing is a business model that incorporates a variety of methods that focuses on eliminating non-value added processes while producing quality products on time every time at a low cost with greater efficiency. A few of those methodologies, for example, are kaizen, just-in-time manufacturing, process improvement, and continuous improvement. Now there are many how; however, history needs to be disgusted first so that a better understanding can be achieved.
Picture yourself walking into your local mechanic’s auto repair shop. As you approach it, you see tires in random places, there’s muffler hanging awkwardly on a shelf next to a car battery and you can’t distinguish between costumers and mechanics besides the fact that the person with oil spots on his clothes make for a clear give away. What’s your general impression? Do you think you feel comfortable leaving your car with this shop? I know I wouldn’t. My name is Art Garcia, today I will be telling you about the Five S step process of Lean manufacturing and how it can be applied to everything from organizations such as this local business or military unit or office.
Lean manufacturing refers to systematic identification and elimination of waste through CI processes in pursuit of perfection (Khan et al. 2013; Yang & Yang 2013). Lean production is now used worldwide in manufacturing plants to eliminate waste from all ar...
Lean production is an approach to production developed in Japan. Toyota, the Japanese car manufacturer was the company that invented lean production. The whole aim of lean production is to reduce the quantity of resources used up in production. By doing this, lean production uses less of - factory space, materials, stocks, suppliers, labour, capital and time. Lean production reduces costs, increases efficiency and output and improves motivation. Lean production involves using a range of practices designed to reduce waste and improve productivity and quality.
1) The theme. Gemba Kaizen is divided into two major parts. The first part is well organized and deeply explained, very easy to read and understand overview of lean management concepts. Author has done a great job of reviewing the key concepts of lean production. The second part is a series of case studies. They cover a wide range of businesses and author gives examples how different companies applied lean principles.
In 1950s, Toyota has developed lean thinking. The Toyota Production System aspires to minimize waste and increase efficiency while at the same time enhances its product quality. From this initiative, Toyota managed to widen its competitive edge by employed fewer employees in the car production with a small number of flaw products.