1. Lean Production

2. Lean Production
The minimisation of waste and costs in the production process. It involves a number of strategies, including:
Just-In-Time
Cell Production
Kaizen
Total Quality Management

3. Lean production
Just in time - carefully scheduling the arrival of materials and components to the production process in small quantities as they are required.
reduces the cost of stockholding and the space required.
Cell Production– involves splitting a production process into sizeable steps, each of which becomes the responsibility of a team of employees. Team members are multi-skilled to make the team more flexible.
Encourages interaction and makes contribution to speed, job satisfaction and motivation

4. Lean production
Total quality management (TQM) – building ‘culture of quality’ which influences the attitudes and actions of every employee. Can be a slow process where shifts in management style and employee motivation are required (being responsible for quality of own work)
Kaizen (TQM approach) – means continuous improvement, typically drawing ideas from everyone for small improvements and constantly looking for better ways to do things. It emphasises getting things ‘Right first time’
high quality – please customers and earns reputation for reliability
Minimises rejects saves costs

5. Quality Control Effective lean production can reduce the need for
Quality control – checking finished products for defects
It moves a business towards more of a Quality Assurance system – with the entire production staff being responsible for quality.

6. Competitive advantage
Main advantages of lean production are:
reduction in waste
Concern for quality reduces rejects and change of faults
Ability to make changes quickly
Minimising waste will lead to falling average costs – which could be passed on as lower prices
These all give source of competitive advantage

7. Limitations of lean productions
lean production is disrupted if deliveries fail
Workers need commitment and managers have to be ready to delegate, share and to trust

8. Exam style questions
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