Assessment 4 due in 48 hours

The second part of the report will focus on how lean systems can be incorporated into organizations. Most importantly we will address how to create and sustain Lean Cultures, Create Sustainable Supply Chains, Promote Positive Social Change, and Measure and Improve Performance.

This report will be useful to the organization's leadership because it will provide important insight into how you can apply lean thinking to your company to increase company benefits.

Part 1: What Is Lean Thinking?

Introduction to Lean Thinking

Lean thinking is a methodology used in business that helps in eliminating waste by proposing new ways of thinking that help to organize human activities in a way that will lead to more value to individuals and more benefits to the society at large. The key elements of lean thinking include value, value streams, flow, pull, and perfection.

Lean thinking is used in organizations to make them more adaptable and flexible in their operations. A good example is how manufacturing companies use lean product development to make their product development processes more efficient and effective.

Implementing lean thinking can be challenging because the cultural aspect of lean thinking can be hard to understand for some employees. The team can also disagree on value definition which makes it hard for a lot of time wastage. Some organizations also view lean thinking as solely a cost reduction method and this is not always the case. “The lack of strategic aspect in lean implementation can create isolated short-term benefits disconnected from the employees and the entire supply chain” (Amaro, Alves, & Sousa, 2019).

Lean Thinking Applied to Product Systems

Lean thinking is applied in product systems by improving the visibility of the company, improving coordination of company processes, and improving the flow of work. When applying lean thinking to product development systems, the company should have the whole system in mind to avoid creating the downstream effect of its waste. Lean can also be applied in product systems through re-use of knowledge and encouraging teams to be autonomous in how they plan their work. Combining tools and methods with behaviors and culture makes lean product development successful.

Lean Thinking Applied to Service Systems

Lean thinking is very valuable to the service industry. It can be applied in service systems by establishing what the customers value most and optimizing this value by removing waste and perfecting operations. Customer support and fast response times are examples of things that customers attach value to when it comes to service delivery. Lean thinking can help in optimizing the service delivery process to improve customer experience. Unnecessary processes that do not add any value to the customer are also eliminated.

Lean Layouts

The lean layout is a way of making use of lean principles in big processes mainly more than one process. Lean layouts look at the bigger picture instead of focusing on the minutia as most companies do. The whole organization can be reorganized if need be to ensure that it is in line with the concept of flow. It helps to free up labor and save on costs. A good example of how lean layouts are used in an organization is an agricultural company that rearranges the shape of the factory layout to reduce the number of workers needed and increase the speed of production.

Part 2: How to Incorporate Lean Systems

Creating and Sustaining Lean Cultures

There are several ways that organizations can use to create a lean culture. Communicating a clear vision for the organization is one of the ways. A lean culture that is successful needs a strong investment and commitment from the management of the organization to ensure that the employees feel the value of their input. To sustain a lean culture, commitment and nonstop effort are very key. Constant training is also necessary for sustaining lean. The difference in domestic versus global environments is that the lean-in global environments increase the operating efficiency and asset utilization as well.

Creating Sustainable Supply Chains

Communicating the expectations of the organizations to both the customers and the suppliers helps to incorporation their value and culture hence focusing on the sustainability within the supply chain. Developing capacity and training programs is also a key step in improving sustainability by driving behavioral changes all through the supply chain. Mapping the organization’s supply is key, this will help a lot in knowing the efforts of the company and hence prioritizing them with those of the suppliers.

Promoting Positive Social Change

Organizations have come upon the realization of the importance the 'environment' has and have hence altered their ways of carrying out their businesses. From an environmental perspective, many organizations have incorporated environmental issues as a crucial part of social responsibility. When it specifically comes down to supply chains, it becomes very crucial to consider the suppliers as well as other organizations. The consumers' and suppliers' behavioral changes on the awareness and sensitivity of social issues have helped a lot to emphasize activities that are related to social responsibility.

Measuring and Improving Performance

Performance measurement can be defined as the regular measurement of results and outcomes which generates reliable data on the efficiency and effectiveness of programs. In general terms, it can be described as the process of data collection, analysis, and reporting in regards to the performance of a group, organization, or individual. On the other hand, Continuous Improvement is the ongoing effort to improve a process, service, or product. In most cases, these efforts seek 'incremental' improvement over a certain period or 'breakthrough' improvement which occurs at once.

The performance measures that are put in place by the organization are supposed to support the strategic plans of the company. It should also be able to provide the work teams together with the management of the necessary information for them to meet their goals. The organization can also incorporate the CIP by choosing the improvements which are small and manageable by conducting self-assessment as a company. Working as a team is also key in ensuring a continuous improvement environment is upheld.

References

Amaro, P., Alves, A. C., & Sousa, R. M. (2019). Lean thinking: a transversal and global management philosophy to achieve sustainability benefits. In Lean Engineering for Global Development (pp. 1-31). Springer, Cham.

Caldera, H. T. S., Desha, C., & Dawes, L. (2017). Exploring the role of lean thinking in sustainable business practice: A systematic literature review. Journal of Cleaner Production, 167, 1546-1565.

Improta, G., Romano, M., Di Cicco, M. V., Ferraro, A., Borrelli, A., Verdoliva, C., ... & Cesarelli, M. (2018). Lean thinking to improve emergency department throughput at AORN Cardarelli hospital. BMC health services research, 18(1), 914.

Tezel, A., Koskela, L., & Aziz, Z. (2018). Lean thinking in the highways construction sector: motivation, implementation, and barriers. Production Planning & Control, 29(3), 247-269.

Yadav, V., Jain, R., Mittal, M. L., Panwar, A., & Lyons, A. C. (2019). The propagation of lean thinking in SMEs. Production Planning & Control, 30(10-12), 854-865.