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Essay on Toyota Lean Manufacturing Japanese automotive manufacturing industry derived lean principles from early 1902

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Toyota Lean Manufacturing

Japanese automotive manufacturing industry derived the lean principles from as early as 1902, to be specific Toyota Corporation. The whole idea of lean management has been improved by various individuals over time. Lean in business or manufacturing environment will simply mean  a wholesome philosophy that brings together a collection of tools and methods  in a business organization to optimize time, human resource, assets and increase productivity while ensuring constant improvement it he level of  quality of  products or services of their customers(Becker, R. M. 1998). Lean manufacturing may also refer to Toyota production system. Recessionthat occurred at the beginning of the 21st century forced numerous organizations to adopt lean manufacturing system as they believed it had an answer for cost cutting and improvingproductivity (Baum, J., & Singh Sang wan, K.2014). This has led to further research about lean manufacturing to be undertaken globally to determine its aspects, factors and said benefits. An example of a case study of lean manufacturing implementation is the implementation in the Kaban System which is one of manufacturing strategies for lean production within minimal inventory and reduced costs (Rahman, et al, 2013). Examples of lean management include pair programming, Demand based (pull) flow manufacturing, continuous improvement mindset, value stream mapping and synchro production system implement by Trumf. Principles of lean manufacturing include Elimination of waste, kaizen/continuous improvements, respect for human elements, level of production, just in time production, mistake proofing, detecting errors through automation and quality built in. Factors such as organization structures, size of the organization, organization cultures, and level of technology adopted and type of management may affect implementation of lean manufacturing in an organization.

Elimination of wastage is a key aspect of lean manufacturing as it reduces total cost increasing value (Jác, et al, 2013)... When wastage is eliminated, unnecessary costs are eliminated. Elimination of waste in any manufacturing organization cuts across several aspects that includes waste in terms of production of defective products, information, time, over production, inventory management cost, unutilized man power, extra processing activities and transportation. Wastage in terms of defective products occurs when a firm produces goods and services that are either substandard, defective or incomplete goods which can’t be sold and hence that turns out to be a loss. Wastage through production of defective goods can be eliminated through ensuring there are automatic systems in place to detect errors, mistaking proofing and quality control. Wastage of information may happen when incomplete or inaccurate information is passed or received and thus it doesn’t fulfill its desired purpose. Wastage through unutilized or underutilization of human resourceoccurs in many organizations every day. Some organizations lacks proper mechanisms of handling and ensuring that their human resources is fully utilized because of various weaknesses in management or facilities. Wastage through un utilized or underutilization of human resource should be eliminate through mechanisms such as proper surveillance of works at work place to ensure they are working as required and through other ways such as making rules and motivation. Some unnecessary costs might be incurred by an organization if it over produces and don’t get enough customers to the products. The company should adopt some operational methods such as just in time method to avoid wastages through overproduction. Some policies like just in time and demand pull will all help to eliminate wastage in terms of the costs used to manage inventory while in the producer’s premises. Wastage in time occurs when customers are waiting or when production time goes beyond the standard production time, waiting for information, large batches among various other ways. Just in time policy will eliminate wastage of customer time (Pawlyszyn, I. 2017)... When waste is controlled and eliminated, the organization will reduce unnecessary expenses, improve its production, improve the quality and improve customer delivery and the goal of lean of maximizing value is attained (Marhani, M. A., et al, 2013).

In summary, adoption of lean management is seen to be helpful and beneficial to many organizations that have adopted. Due to the recession that happened in the beginning of the 21st century many organizations adopted it and believed it can help them to eliminate wastage and cut on overall costs (Baum, J., & Singh Sang wan, K.2014).Toyota Corporation through lean has been able to eliminate wastage, improve customer delivery, good human element management and increased value due to the use of lean manufacturing system. Lean manufacturing have been credited with benefiting organizations with three broad benefits which includes operational improvements, administrative improvements and strategic improvements which all have improved the performance of organizations that have adopted it(Kilpatrick, J. 2003).According to Krafcik, J. F. (1988) an automotive manufacturer that implemented lean had good balances sheet, cash flow statements income statements and other performance indicators was positive indication of lean being a booster to performance.Blank, S. in Harvard business review (2013) indicated that 90% of the startups fails but those that adopt lean must succeed and goes to the next level.Lean crosses all industry boundaries, addresses all organizational Functions, and impacts the entire system including the customers and all other stake holders. There is enough evidence that Lean has a positive impact in organizations general performance.

In conclusion, Lean as a style or design of operations management seems to be of great importance to organizations in modern day business world when every organization is striving to find ways of cost reduction. To me, Lean seems like the next big thing in the world of organizations and business management. Further research should be undertaken to shed more light and make newrevelations concerning lean so that business people, social organizationsmanagers and corporations willuse the knowledge gained and benefit.


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