Applying Lean Management free essay sample

Executive Summary: As a part of course work I was to find the problems in the company and had to make recommendation relation it to lean Management. I don’t some research and provided recommendation on how the improvement can be made. The importance of Lean management is disused and how can a lean management be implemented, steps by steps is discussed here. While doing this report I had less time but I without going too deep I surface try to conclude and recommend the lean management to the company that was presented in the case study. Contents Introduction: J galt Lock ltd is a company dealing with the hardware products in the home retail and commercial market. Company had a single plant with just over 2000,000 square feet and is organised into different department. Recently company has been facing a bit of problems due to not managing the operation in the work area. The items are scattered and there is no any specific space for any of their goods. This is making tem slow in deliveries and always rushes in work even in the quite days. There has been more waste as well recently because they are not being able to produce the right quantity and right product because of the messy ware house. In effort to improve its service Halt Lock recently hired a consulting company. The company determined the following problems were rising in the ware house: 36% of the floor space was being used to hold inventory 25% was for work centres; 14% for aisles; 7 % for offices; and 18% for non-value-adding activities. Contents: Key Findings: Like every house is scattered and now well managed like a office or a small distributor. In the case of J Galt Lock limited also has some problems but Looking at the case study we can figure out that it is not just normal operation failure, here I can find the key problems are the following: Old Technology: Spread sheet is good data keeper as well as planner for a small company but for a company warehouse like J Galt Spread sheet turns out to be old fashioned technology because no one can handle such a large warehouse with the manual Spread sheet system record entry. This is the reason it is hard to find the total items went missing or theft or gone to retailers. This puts them in risk of loss. Prioritization: As mentioned above it will be difficult to handle all the incoming and outgoing and prioritising the goods just by spread sheet. Also the uses of different methods for scheduling the same thing will create other problem and confusion in the company. This will lead to loss of products and company as well. Planning: With different ideas used to prioritize a single batch and the decision contradicting between the supervision and expediters the time is being wasted and the goods are not being made in the proper time. This will lead to loss of customers again and loss of time with in return come a loss of Money. Late production and hence late delivery: There is no system on the prioritization in the company so there is no scope to work according to the time and the requirement by the customer. So there is late delivery and the dealers have reduced the lead time which is making more difficult to process an order. But the workers are always busy because they have to locate things before processing them. Housekeeping: The department dedicated to inventory storage consisting of 10 to 11 aisles of parts is not being used because of poor housekeeping service. They are scattered everywhere and they can’t find them to keep the department running more manageable way. Developing: For the development of the findings above and using the effective of lean management system the development proposal might be better. First of all â€Å"Lean management is an important part of lean thinking. As we implement lean in any organization the traditional way of managing does not guarantee right focus nor help sustaining lean initiatives. †(V Naik 2011). Lean management can be useful if the company operates same thing every day or more times a day, which perfectly fits with the J Halt Lock. Like the Toyota Company used lean management when it was a small company and still using the same management system even after being a massive company. â€Å"It began with efforts to reduce die change time on the stamping press which then allowed for a reduction of in-process inventory and this became just-in-time inventory management. This resulted in the need for less warehouse space, fewer forklifts, unnecessary space, etc. Once the flow of work can be interruption free, free of materials sitting, standing, and redo-loops, waste is eliminated. Lean is the elimination of waste. But, more importantly, lean is continuous improvement in all work processes. † (Management Meditation) Below are some of the way to describe the Lean culture : â€Å"Lean is a culture of continuous improvement practiced at every level of the organization and by every team. Lean is the application of the scientific method of experimentation and study of work processes and systems to find improvements. Lean is respect for people. It is respect for the voice of the customer and it is respect for those who do the work, who are â€Å"on-the-spot† and are, therefore, the â€Å"world’s greatest experts† in their work. Lean is the elimination of waste in all its forms. Lean is the ability to distinguish between work that actually adds value to your customers and work that does not. By eliminating waste, you free resources to devote to value-adding activity that serves your customers. Lean is a work environment that assures the quality and safety of all work for both customers and staff. Lean is a focus on improving the work process and not on blaming people or creating fear. Lean is a culture of teamwork, shared responsibility and ownership that cuts through organization walls or silos. Lean is a culture that returns the joy to work. Honda speaks of the three joys of buying, selling and making the product. We do our best work when we have joy in our work. Lean is flow. Lean is an interruption free process that flows from beginning to end without interruption. † (Management Meditation) The six sigma of the company can be benefited by the lean management now it’s to discuss the six sigma and implement them to the findings done earlier. Design Methodology Approach Findings Practical implications Originality Benefits of Lean Management: Lean manufacturing is a management phislosy that eliminates of waste in all business also known as a small improvement. The following are the main benefits of lean management: Improved quality, fewer defects: When batching and lot production are eliminated, there is less opportunity to manufacture defects. Reducing the batches means less inventories and easy to operate. Reduce Inventory: With the reduction in the batches the inventory will be less and therefore the operation will be easy to operate. Requires less space: With the less goods and with the good need only need for the flow it will require less space in the work place it will be manageable Enhances Manufacturing capacity: When the things are made in order in order with priority then it will be easy and takes less time to complete any task. Therefore more cusomers orders can be sent through and more profit for the business Simpler identifying: More space means less inventory and which means less goods and it will be easier to identify the food faster. Safety at work: with the reduction in the inventory and wide space to work means it is safer to work as there will not be that many of chance for unexpected movement and accidents. Team Morale: When the work flow is going smooth the morale of the workers will be better and in return more work will be done with happy staff and the boss. Implementation of Lean management in J Halt Lock: â€Å"Lean manufacturing is being utilized by businesses of all sizes today. Although it took a few years to become mainstream, the success stories from mid-size to large corporations have pushed lean manufacturing down to very small organizations. † (Carl Wright, 2011) The 20 Steps for lean management are: 1. â€Å"Form team (mix of lean manufacturing and relevant business experience) 2. Develop communication and feedback channel for everyone 3. Meet with everyone and explain the initiative 4. Begin to train all employees (lean overview, eight wastes, standard operations, kaizen, RCPS, PDCA) 5. Facility analysis – Determine the gap between current state and a state of â€Å"lean† 6. 5-S It is the foundation of lean. Workplace organization is critical for any lean initiative 7. TPM – Begin Total Productive Maintenance early (used throughout lean) 8. Value Stream Mapping – Determine the waste across the entire system 9. 7 (or 8) waste identification – Use with value stream mapping to identify system waste 10. Process mapping – A more detailed map of each process 11. Take time – Determine need to produce on all processes, equipment 12. Overall equipment effectiveness and six losses – Determine the losses on all processes and equipment 13. Line balance – Use, if necessary, with take time and OEE 14. SMED – Push setup times down to reduce cycle time, batch quantity and lower costs 15. Pull/one-piece flow/Continuous Flow Analysis – Utilize kanban and supermarkets 16. Analyse quality at the source application – Poor quality stopped at the source 17. Implement error-proofing ideas 18. Cellular manufacturing/layout and flow improvement – Analyse facility and each process 19. Develop standardized operations – Concurrently with SMED, line balance, flow, layouts 20. Kaizen – Continue improving operations, giving priority to bottlenecks within the system† ((Carl Wright, 2011) Conclusion: So after having read and research trough the lean model, it can be said for the company like J Glat Lock it is very important to approach for the betterment. J Glat Lock mainly focusing in the managing or organizing rather than changing will be nice for the companies who have limited money source and are struggling. Below are some of the recommendation made for J Galt Lock in relation to the lean management. Recommendation for J Galt Lock: Old Technology: With the application of Business Intelligence the spread sheet can be replaced and with the Transaction analysis system it will be easier to produce order staff employees, prioritize deliveries etc. See ap1 Prioritization: With application of lean model the inventory will be reduced ad the company can prioritize the goods accordance to the importance. Planning: Planning will be easy after the inventory is reduced and there is no work rush in the company, schedules can be made and work can be don’t on the float. Late production and hence late delivery: With less inventory and new technology the production will automatically be improved because of regular work flow and motivated staffs. Housekeeping: With the reduction in inventory and more space in the work place it will be easy to keep the work place tidy and with good work flow staffs won’t be in a rush they can contribute sometime in the house keeping as well. Reference: Management Mediation, What is lean management, available: http://www. lmmiller. com/blog/what-is-lean-management/ assess 30. 07. 13 Arnheiter,Edward D. and John Maleyeff (2005). The integration of lean management and Six Sigma. The TQM magazine 17. 1 (5-18. Carl Wright (2011), â€Å"Lean Manufacturing implementation†, Available: http://www. reliableplant. com/Read/11691/lean-manufacturing-implementation [Assess 30. 07. 13] Appendix 1. Business Intelligence system: How Transaction Processing System Performs