operational excellence
ITS-631 Operational Excellence
Alex Lazo, PhD
RESIDENCY POLICIES
In order to earn attendance credit, you must be here at the start of each day and at the end of each break. If you are late at all, you will not earn attendance credit, which will require you to attend a make-up session. There are no exceptions, so please don’t inquire.
While I’m lecturing, please do not chat or use your phone/device. Also, please do not get up to use the restroom or to make a call. My lectures will be short, so you’ll have plenty of time to use the restroom and make calls outside.
All the assignments during this residency are to be completed individually. There will be no collaboration or discussion.
INTRODUCTIONS
Please introduce yourself to the class. Here are some things you can share:
Name
Country of origin
How long you’ve been in the U.S.
Major
Career goals
FRIDAY LECTURE
JIT Philosophy and major elements
The core beliefs of JIT are the elimination of waste, the ability of the employees to see the “bigger picture,” simple solutions, continuous improvement, visibility, and flexibility.
JIT strives to produce the right products at the right time in the right quantities.
Continuous improvement and flexibility are important beliefs that help us achieve this goal.
The three major elements of JIT are just-in-time manufacturing, total quality management (TQM), and respect for people.
How does jit manufacturing work?
From an operations perspective, JIT manufacturing focuses on value-added processes in order to produce high volumes of high quality, and low-cost products that meet the customer needs.
Its key elements are the pull system, small lot sizes, short setup times, uniform plant loading, flexible resources, and a streamlined layout.
Toyota is a company that has successfully used JIT. It is the company that developed JIT.
JIT has resulted in short lead times, high quality, low costs, and flexible production.
Tqm and jit
TQM is critical in JIT since poor quality would result in not delivering the right products at the right time in the right quantities.
It would also cause us to either spend time fixing the product or scrap it if it can not be fixed.
Motorola, a winner of the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award, has successfully implemented TQM.
Motorola is also known for focusing on achieving Six Sigma quality, which translates into about 3 defective parts per million.
Jit and respect for people
Respect for people is important in JIT because everyone must be involved in managing and improving production.
The employees must work together effectively in order to successfully implement JIT.
Southwest Airlines is known for its high respect for people. They make a great team, where everyone lends a hand to help when needed.
Jit implementation process
The JIT implementation process consists of the following steps, which are listed in order:
Make quality improvements
Reorganize the workplace
Reduce setup times
Reduce lot sizes and lead times
Implement layout changes
Switch to pull production
Develop relationships with suppliers
Some steps must be done before others to allow us to be successful. For example, we cannot effectively and efficiently reduce lot sizes until we first reduce the setup times.
Questions?
FRIDAY ASSIGNMENT
The following must be submitted by the end of the day (11:59pm local time) today. No credit is available for submissions not made by this time. The system will not accept submissions made after this time. This is not a group assignment, so no collaboration or discussion is allowed; it must be worked on individually.
Write a five-page (1,250 – 1,500 words) double-spaced essay (not including cover page and references pages), in which you address the following eight objectives:
- Explain the core beliefs of the just-in-time (JIT) philosophy - Describe the elements of JIT - Explain the key elements of JIT manufacturing - Explain the elements of total quality management (TQM) and their role in JIT - Describe the role of people in JIT and why respect for people is so important - Describe the benefits of JIT - Discuss the implementation process of a successful JIT system - Describe the impact of JIT on service and manufacturing organizations
The essay must be original. Each objective must have its own section heading (e.g., “Core Beliefs of JIT”). You must incorporate at least five sources, both as references and corresponding in-text citations. APA format is expected.