...Quality Management for the Competitive Market By Karen Robinson Findings • Lean Manufacturing – – – – – – – – Originates from Toyota (Lean Enterprise Institute, n.d.) About getting more from less Improves delivery times Does not focus on quality Japanese style of management (American Society for Quality, n.d.) Proven quality management methodology Involves management and empowers employees Does not focus of process streamlining • Total Quality Management (TQM) • Six Sigma – Trademarked by Motorola Corporation in the 1980s (iSix Sigma, n.d.) – Structured and scientific method applied to entire organization (Gygi, Williams & Gustafson, 2012) – High returns expected on training investment – Focuses on both quality and process streamlining Recommendation • Six Sigma Initialization – Define business objectives and goals – Select leadership teams – Assign Executive Leaders, Deployment Leaders and Champions – Setup Communication Plans • Deployment Communication • Project Communication Justification • Lean Manufacturing focuses on streamlining processes but does not address quality • TQM addressing quality but does not emphasize the importance of process streamlining • Six Sigma will streamline processes, reduce costs and provide tools to measure the quality of products References • • American Society for Quality (n.d.). History of Total Quality Management. Retrieved from http://asq.org/learn-about-quality/total-quality-management/overview/tqmhistory.html...
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...recognized and fashionable brands globally (Rodrigue, 2015). As the largest package delivery and express carrier firm in the world, it delivers approximately 15.6 million documents and packages on a daily basis. In addition, the company provides specialized logistics, e-commerce, and transportation services to over 200 destinations worldwide (Rodrigue, 2015). To achieve such success, UPS is committed to provision of quality services to all its customers. The company is known as an industry leader in relation to quality. For example, in 2010, UPS was ranked third behind Intel and Disney for provision of quality services (Frankr, 2013). In particular, UPS commitment to quality is apparent in the operation management activities such as lean operation systems, forecasting, scheduling, inventory control, and performance measurements. This essay analyzes UPS worldwide services commitment to quality based on the principles from the course. First, UPS ensures quality in the supply chain through “direct-to-store approach” to eliminate increased costs in the distribution and transportation, and ensure faster delivery (United Parcel Service of America, 2005). This direct distribution ensures that inventory moves from manufacturers to final consumers thereby eliminating storage at the warehouse. Since it is possible to minimize the fulfillment cycle and shrink inventory costs, the direct distribution inventory control approach by UPS provides an appropriate balance between logistics...
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...Lean manufacturing, lean enterprise, or lean production, often simply, "Lean," is a production practice that considers the expenditure of resources for any goal other than the creation of value for the end customer to be wasteful, and thus a target for elimination. Working from the perspective of the customer who consumes a product or service, "value" is defined as any action or process that a customer would be willing to pay for. Essentially, lean is centered on preserving value with less work. Lean manufacturing is a management philosophy derived mostly from the Toyota Production System (TPS) (hence the term Toyotism is also prevalent) and identified as "Lean" only in the 1990s.[1][2] TPS is renowned for its focus on reduction of the original Toyota seven wastes to improve overall customer value, but there are varying perspectives on how this is best achieved. The steady growth of Toyota, from a small company to the world's largest automaker,[3] has focused attention on how it has achieved this. Lean manufacturing is a variation on the theme of efficiency based on optimizing flow; it is a present-day instance of the recurring theme in human history toward increasing efficiency, decreasing waste, and using empirical methods to decide what matters, rather than uncritically accepting pre-existing ideas. As such, it is a chapter in the larger narrative that also includes such ideas as the folk wisdom of thrift, time and motion study, Taylorism, the Efficiency Movement, and...
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...Final Current Trends and Issues in Operations Management Presented To Operations Management Respectfully Submitted By Introduction 3 A Brief History of Operations Management 4 Current Trends and Issues in Operations Management 6 Lean Operations (Just-in-time) 6 Shrinking Product Life Cycles 7 Employee Empowerment and Training 8 Globalization 9 Total Quality Management 9 Advances in Technology 10 Insourcing 10 Conclusion 11 References 12 Introduction Operations is the part of a business organization that is responsible for producing goods and services (Stevenson, 2012, p. 4). In this definition, goods are tangible items. Goods can be finished items that are sold to end consumers such as a chair, a car, a computer, or a house. Goods can also be the raw materials, parts, and subassemblies that comprise the finished goods described above. These raw materials are sold as well, but not to end consumers. They are sold to the producers of the finished products. Services, for the most part, are not tangible, but are activities that provide some combination of time, location, form, or psychological value (Stevenson, 2012, p. 4). Services such as the ability to place a cell phone call, electricity in a home, advice from a financial planner, traveling on an airline, receiving medical treatment, or staying in a hotel are all considered services directed at an end consumer. One definition for the word management is “the person or persons controlling...
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...LEAN PROJECT MANAGEMENT Assessment of project risk management processes NEUS ALCARAZ BOSCÀ Master of Science Thesis Stockholm, Sweden 2012LEAN PROJECT MANAGEMENT Assessment of project risk management processes by Neus Alcaraz Boscà Master of Science Thesis INDEK 2012:36 KTH Industrial Engineering and Management Industrial Management SE-100 44 STOCKHOLMi ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Firstly, I would like to thank my supervisor, Johann Packendorff, from the School of Industrial Engineering and Management at the Royal Institute of Technology, for accepting me in his department and for giving me good and useful guide. Secondly, thanks to all my family for being during all this year at the other side of the screen making me much easier the way. Especially, thanks to my sister, Maria, for spending some of her spare time giving me very good advice in the writing of this thesis, and above all, for being such a good example of effort and overcoming during my entire life. Thanks to Marcos, for being always so kind with me, and forsupporting me not only this year but also all these years of study. Finally, I would like to thank all my friends for having always something fun to tell, cheering my day up despite being so far. Thanks especially to Pau and Lidia for coming to visit us and spend wonderful days together, and also to Marta, Patri and Ceci for being always there to me. I would like to dedicate this thesis project to my grandma, for having taken such good...
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...LEAN Principles in Today’s Manufacturing World Cock Sucking Strohm BUS 520: Leadership and Organizational Behavior Dr. Laura Jones Embry Riddle Aeronautical University Worldwide October 05, 2015 LEAN Principles in Today’s Manufacturing World LEAN is an innovative way of manufacturing that was first developed in a standardized manner by Henry Ford in 1913. When the automobile industry became large enough for the need to streamline the manufacturing process, Henry Ford took the lead and laid out steps in a process with the use of special-purpose machines and equipment. This standardized work and process became what was known as an assembly line. Henry Ford called this flow production. However, the innovation of Mr. Ford’s flow production was flawed. His system was only suited for one type of automobile with no variations except at the end of manufacturing offered by third party vendors (A Brief History of LEAN, 2015). When the World market wanted variety, other automobile manufacturers began to look for ways to improve on Henry Ford’s flow production system. One of the first to improve, modify, and fine tune the flow production system was Mr. Kiichiro Toyoda and a team of engineers at the Toyota plant. Mr. Toyoda realized that developing machining techniques to meet actual demand and to make those machines capable of being altered to develop different parts when needed was the next step in the flow production vision. This was the beginning of the Toyota Production System...
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...Lean Management In Automobile Industry Lean Management In Automobile Industry Arvinder Singh, Bargavi Poloju, Inderpreet Kaur, Inderjeet Kaur, Jaskaran Singh Gill Eastern Institute of Technology September 10, 2015 Abstract Lean and six sigma are widely known business improvement processes for industries /organisations these days for achieving drastic results, which are majorly cost cutting, quality maintenance and time management by specializing in processes to boost performance. Nowadays, There are some industries that are even integrating lean and six sigma into a more cohesive strategy i.e., lean sigma in order to establish even more powerful and effective process which focuses at eliminating wasteful activities and retaining most of the strengths of each activity. Lean Sigma aims to combine waste eliminating strategies of Lean Thinking with variability reducing techniques of six sigma to promote growth and increase revenue from the bottom line of organisations(M. Kumara). Lean management is outlined as a consistent and a methodical approach to determining and eliminating waste through continuous improvement, flowing the merchandise at the pull of the client in pursuit of perfection. The idea of lean management was developed for maximizing the resource utilization through reduction of waste, and eventually lean was developed in response to the unsteady and ever-competitive business organisations. For organisations to face major challenges and competition can be...
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...period, Japanese companies developed the concept of lean production. Lean production was regarded as the third step in the historical progression, which took industry from the age of the craftsman through the methods of mass production and into an era that combined the best of both (The Economist 2009). Lean production was designed to combine the flexibility and quality of craftsmanship with the low costs of mass production. And due to its unique characteristics bringing an underdog company in its industry to the market leader, this idea of lean thinking has been adopted by many other industries. Today ‘lean’ may no longer be fashionable but its core principles (flow, value, pull, minimizing waste etc.) have become the paradigm for many manufacturing (and service) operations (Lewis 2000). In this essay, my main argument is that although success of lean production and its positive impacts on corporate competitiveness is undeniable, nevertheless, from the workers’ point of view, lean production has also increased the pressures of work and the degree of exploitation wherever it exists. In the first part of my essay I will present a brief history of lean production. This will be followed by the demonstration of main characteristics and the analysis of how lean production has impacted corporate competitiveness by utilizing Toyota as an example, which is the birthplace of lean production. Part three will spell out the limits of lean production as it dramatically increases the pressures...
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...Lean Management In operations, there are several different services that are involved with a company and the way it operates. The operations of a company’s products comes down to the tangibility of its output, production on demand or for inventory, customer-specific production, labor-intensive or automated operations, and the need for a physical production location. However, when developing the products, a company could lose much more money than it gains. This is due to redundancy, waste, and being unorganized. Due to the possibility of losing more money and the possibility of actually saving and making more money, many companies have implemented lean management. Lean management is “an approach to running an organization that supports the concept of continuous improvement, a long-term approach to work that systematically seeks to achieve small, incremental changes in processes in order to improve efficiency and quality” (Rouse). Simply put, lean management is to use minimal resources that are able to produce high quality goods and/or services. Being lean is a company’s ultimate goal. There is a balanced, smooth, and fast paste flow that matches the supply of the customer demand. Through lean management, the company is able to eliminate redundancy, eliminate waste, and make the system much more flexible. The number one benefit of lean management is that the company will make and save much more profit. The history of lean manage goes as far back as the 18th Century when Eli...
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...------------------------------------------------- Quality Focus Paper Just-in-Time Production and Lean Manufacturing Keller Graduate School of Management Spring Semester, May 2010 Session GM588: Managing Quality (online) Instructor: Robert Lee 5 June 2010 Table of Contents I. Introduction 3 What is it? 3 Background 5 History 7 II. Literature Review 9 Significance in Practice 9 JIT and Lean Thought Processes 10 JIT & Lean Thinking – General Principles 10 Advantages/Benefits of JIT/lean 10 Major Advantages/Benefits of JIT 11 Major Advantages/Benefits of Lean Productions 11 Relevance of JIT/lean in Today’s Businesses 11 Mistakes of Implementation 13 Additional Challenges 13 III. Demonstrations and Applications in the Business World 16 Survival Strategy for Business 16 List of Companies that use JIT/lean production techniques 18 Best Practices & Successful Implementation 18 IV. Conclusion and Reflection 20 References 22 Introduction * What is it? Just-in-Time (JIT) production is a set of principles applied to manufacturing and inventory to control the purchase of materials to produce units on a need-basis. JIT is set on the philosophy that controlling raw materials purchased for production to bring them into the manufacturing process as they are needed leads to cost savings and production efficiencies. JIT focuses on realizing that holding little or no inventory has economic and quality values for the organization. Manufactures receive...
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...Action Plan – Implementing a Lean Transformation’ LEAN Final Project Alex Scholfield February 29, 2012 Summary Lean manufacturing can add significantly value to an organization by streamlining processes through the identification and elimination of muda or waste. Introduced by Toyota, Lean is more than just a tool, but a philosophy that needs to be adopted and incorporated into the culture of the organization. It is very important that the organization can see that leadership have bought in to the approach and are willing to support Lean. Numerous examples exist that demonstrate failed attempts at implementing Lean. It is important that organizations appreciate that they cannot simply wake up one day and choose to introduce Lean. It took Toyota many years to develop their culture into one of continuous improvement. For organizations that are new to Lean, the effort required will be significant in order to realize the true value associated with Lean principles. Poor planning will almost certainly result in disappointment and leave a strong negative association with any future Lean attempts along with a big investment with little to no return. With a focus on continuous improvement and continuous flow, manufacturing based on pull rather than push demand will assist organizations in becoming Lean. While Lean is a long journey, it can be one that returns significant value to an organization. What follows is a view of the history of Lean, some of the tools such as...
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...Juan A. Rodriguez LEAN & SIX SIGMA PROC 5000 May 9, 2013 Outline I. Introduction II. History of Lean and Six Sigma III. Lean Sigma IV. Six Sigma V. How Lean and Six Sigma are applied VI. Summary VII. Recommendation VIII. Conclusion Introduction: As our economic future hinges on the ability for organizations to cut cost and improve the quality of their products and services as well as develop new ideas in order to stay competitive, managers today still rely on concepts that stay constant throughout the years, those concepts are Six and Lean Sigma. These concepts are widely used by many organizations as an approach or a process for investigation to achieve better results and improvement in their daily operations, services and products. Throughout this research paper the focus will be centered on the history of Six and Lean Sigma, how both concepts helped revolutionize the fields of quality control and process management, Lean and Six Sigma’s emphasis on collective efforts and teamwork to the applied steps taken. Furthermore, the research paper will provide tables and examples of how both concepts are applied to organizations. History of Lean and Six Sigma: The origins of Six Sigma can be traced as far back as 1777 when Carl Frederick Gauss first introduced the concept as a measurement tool of the normal curve. In the 1920's the word 'sigma' was used by mathematicians and engineers as a symbol for a unit of measurement in product...
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...doi:10.3926/jiem.2010.v3n1.p11-32 JIEM, 2010 – 3(1): 11-32 – Online ISSN: 2013-0953 Print ISSN: 2013-8423 A case study of lean, sustainable manufacturing Geoff Miller1, Janice Pawloski2, Charles Standridge 3 1 Grand Rapids Chair Company (USA); 2, 3 School of Engineering, Grand Valley State University (USA) geoff@grandrapidschair.com; pawloskj@gvsu.edu; standric@gvsu.edu Received December 2009 Accepted May 2010 Abstract: A small furniture production company has integrated lean tools and sustainability concepts with discrete event simulation modeling and analysis as well as mathematical optimization to make a positive impact on the environment, society and its own financial success. The principles of lean manufacturing that aid in the elimination of waste have helped the company meet ever increasing customer demands while preserving valuable resources for future generations. The implementation of lean and sustainable manufacturing was aided by the use of discrete event simulation and optimization to overcome deficits in lean’s traditional implementation strategies. Lean and green manufacturing can have a more significant, positive impact on multiple measures of operational performance when implemented concurrently rather than separately. These ideas are demonstrated by three applications. Keywords: lean manufacturing, green manufacturing, case-study, discrete event simulation, optimization 1 Introduction Manufacturers are under tremendous pressure...
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...SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT To begin I should define a core competency as this is related with the Supply Chain in my review, so first, what is a core competency? According to Fitzsimmons (2012), core competency is something that the company does so well that it provides the company a competitive advantage. Core competency gives the company hard-to-imitate advantage. One of the Toyota's core competencies is their production system which is known as Toyota Production System (TPS). This is consists of Lean manufacturing and Just-In-Time (JIT) Production. Lean Manufacturing is the production practice in which it is focusing on the elimination of waste and continuous improvement over long-term. Lean Manufacturing has been proven to be successful in improving productivity and reducing cycle times. On the other hand, Just-In-Time production is the production practice in which it is focusing on synchronizing the material flow so that when one item moves out from a work station, another item is ready to move in. It allows Toyota to keep their inventory to the minimal levels and this can help the company to reduce the cost significantly. Toyota Production System has enable Toyota to gain competitive advantage over their competitors. Many companies viewed Toyota and argued that many of those companies which have studied Toyota Production System for decades and try to imitate their production system but not many companies have not been proven to be successful in imitating their production...
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...plans manufacturing of fan parts based on predicted construction needs using an averaged three-year sales history. Riordan’s new program is call make-to-stock definitely benefits the customers who need products quickly with orders filled from inventory when received. With their shipping department being so enormous, this brings variety and reliable distribution solutions from the plant in China to the customers worldwide. “Theirs R&D are, and will remain, the industry leader in identifying industry trends. Theirs Customer Relationships Long-term relationships will be required by maintaining rigorous quality controls, innovative solution, reasonable pricing and a responsive business attitude. Riordan Manufacturing will strive to be a solution provider for theirs customers and not be a part of theirs customer’s challenges.” (riordan-manufacturing.com) Riordan Lean Production Principles Riordan has tried to keep a reasonable amount of excess stock in an attempt to combat the periodic individual orders, but sometimes it has been hard for them to keep up with the demand. “Lean manufacturing offers them a proven method to reduce costs, eliminate waste, increase productivity, maintain high levels of quality and still make a profit. Implementing lean manufacturing, and proper application of its principles, can help any company survive in these difficult financial times.”(Lean...
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