Module

The Management of Lean and Agile

Organisations
6ME015

Dr Jose Reyes

Week 18
Assignment Tutorial
Week 18
 Contents

• Why do we need to write assignments?

• Assignment sections – how to approach them
• Assignment’s format
• Assignment’s structure
• Research sources
• Plagiarism

• Characteristics of a good assignment

Why do we need to write assignments?

1. Reinforce and consolidate learning – student’s perspective

2. Evaluates learning – module tutor’s perspective

3. Demonstrate learning and understanding – student and module

tutor’s perspective

4. Apply theoretical concepts to the real world – student’s perspective

Assignment sections – how to approach them

‘S
 • The assignment consists of four sections that have been designed to
asses your understanding of the rational and application of the Lean
Manufacturing strategy

• Assignment General Instruction. Compile and write a technical

report covering the following Based on the
evidence
presented, it may
be argued that
I think Lean Personal Writing Technical/Academic Writing Lean Manufacturing
Manufacturing is is an effective
good because it Tells a story Comments, argues, analyses approach to
helps organisations operations
to improve their Non-technical vocabulary Subject-specific vocabulary improvement
operations because……..
‘I’ at the centre ‘I’ as observer and commentator

Information comes from the Information comes from sources and

writers experience refers to what others say

Personal views and feelings Evidence and arguments

Conventions for citation

Compile and write an academic report covering the following

Section 1. The rational, evolution and future of Lean Manufacturing

Rational
• What is Lean Manufacturing? (definition)
• What is the philosophy (objective) of Lean Manufacturing?
• Why does Lean Manufacturing look the reduction of waste (what are its
benefits?) and how can it be achieved according to Lean?

Evolution
• Where and when was Lean Manufacturing originated?
• In what business process (e.g. manufacturing, materials management,
purchasing, etc.) and industry was Lean originated?

• Has Lean been applied in a different business process or industry other

than in which it was originated? If yes, in which ones and why? Has it
achieved good results?
Evolution (cont’d)
• Has the acceptance and use of Lean decreased, been maintained or
increased since its proposal?

Future
• How do you believe Lean can evolve in the next few years?. For example,
the last “evolutionary step” of Lean may be its integration with Six Sigma to form what
now its called Lean Sigma

• Is Lean going to be applied even in a wider range of business processes

and industries? If yes, in which ones and why? What benefits can it bring?

• Is Lean going to disappear or be replaced for a new manufacturing

approach, or will it be alive for sometime? Why?
Compile and write an academic report covering the following

Section 2. The differences, using examples, between Lean and Mass

Production strategies
• What is Mass Production? (definition)

• What are the differences between Lean and Mass Production strategies in
terms of, for example:
ü Objectives (benefits)
ü Inventory and WIP management
ü Capacity utilization – what is capacity utilization?
ü Plant layout
ü Process flow
ü Etc.
• When is more convenient to follow a Lean strategy and when to follow a
Mass Production strategy? What are the advantages and limitations of both
approaches?
Compile and write an academic report covering the following

Section 3. The organisational, operational and human barriers that

may need to be overcome in order to ensure a successful
implementation of the Lean Manufacturing strategy
Organisational
• Does the implementation of Lean require a cultural change? Could that be
considered an implementation barrier? – what is cultural change (definition)?
• Is it expensive to implement Lean? If yes, Could that be considered as an
implementation barrier?

Operational
• Could Lean be implemented successfully if only some of its tools (kaizen,
kanban, cell manufacturing, etc.) are used?
• Could Lean be implemented with any type of market demand?

• May the implementation of Lean disrupt normal production? If yes, can it be

considered as a barrier for its implementation?
Human
• Do personal skills (e.g. communication, problem solving, teamwork, etc.) play
a role in the implementation of Lean? If yes, can the lack of these skills may act
as a barrier for the successful implementation of Lean?

• Does management leadership play a role in the successful implementation of

Lean? Can the lack of leadership skills in the management act as a barrier?

• Is Lean easily and widely accepted by the operators in the shop-floor?

Compile and write an academic report covering the following

Section 4. A discussion section expressing your personal opinion of

the approach and the practicality of its implementation in your
company, or another company of your choice

• What is your personal opinion about Lean? Can it help organisations to

improve their operations? Is it difficult to understand and adopt? Is it appropriate
for every organisation, business process or industry?, etc.

• Very brief description of the organisation of your choice

• Is Lean an appropriate production strategy for the organisation of your choice?

Why? What benefits it could bring if implemented?

• Based on the Lean implementation barriers identified for you in Section 3, Do

you believe it would be possible for your organisation to implement it?
Assignment’s format
Assignment’s format
• Font size 12 – Times New Roman or Arial

• Headings and subheadings in bold (in the text) and consecutively

numbered using Arabic numbers showing the distinction between the
hierarchy of heading
1. Lean Manufacturing overview
1.1 Definition
1.2 History
1.3 Evolution
2. Barriers to Lean implementation
2.1 Organisational
2.2 Operational
2.3 Human

• Spacing – assignment must be written using 1.5 spacing

• Figures and tables should be included as part of the report and their
captions should go below them. They have to be numbered. If the
figures and tables are taken from somewhere else work, they must be
referenced.

Lego G roup
Factor Level 1 Level 2
3%
B and ai
3% M attel
10%
E lectronic A rts
3%
S o ny
10%
Unplanned 5% 50 % of total
H as bro
7% downtime time
N intendo
6%
Reduced cycle 5% 30 % of ideal
O thers
55%
M ic ros oft
3%
time cycle time
Volume of 5% 30 % of total
quality defects production

Figure 1. Global companies share of toys Table 1. Deterministic input variables and
and games (Euromonitor, 2005) levels (Garza-Reyes et al., 2006)

• All pages must be numbered, except cover page, in the bottom right-
hand corner of the page
• References to publications must be in Harvard style and carefully
check for completeness, accuracy and consistency
Ø References must be taken from sources such as books, academic papers and
reliable websites (e.g. organisations, associations and consultants websites)

Ø Wikipidia references are NOT accepted

Ø Websites references must be limited

Ø You should cite publications in the text: (Adams, 2006) using the first author’s
name; or (Adams and Brown, 2006) citing both names of two; or (Adams et al., 2006)
when there are three or more authors. For example:

ü Hines et al. (2004) mention that much of the discussion in academic circles about lean
thinking still centres around the shop-floor

ü Nystuen (2002) reports that lean management has helped some organisations to reduce its
product lead time by up to 11 percent

ü Lean Manufacturing is currently considered the most important approach to manufacturing

(Liker and Sanders, 2005)
Ø At the end of the paper a reference list in alphabetical order should be supplied:

ü For books: Surname, Initials (year), Title of Book, Publisher, Place of publication.
For example: Harrow, R. (2005), No Place to Hide, Simon & Schuster, New York, NY.

ü For journals: Surname, Initials (year), "Title of article", Journal Name, volume, number, pages.
For example: Capizzi, M.T. and Ferguson, R. (2005), "Loyalty trends for the twenty-first
century", Journal of Consumer Marketing, Vol. 22 No. 2, pp. 72-80.

üFor published conference proceedings: Surname, Initials (year of publication), "Title of paper”,
Title of published proceeding which may include place and date(s) held, Publisher, Place of
publication, Page numbers.
For example: Garza-Reyes, J.A, Eldridge, S. and Barber, K. (2006), “Using dicrete-event
simulation and Taguchi methods to analyse the Overall Equipment Effectiveness of an
automated bottling process", Proceedings of the 16th International Conference on Flexible
Automation and Intelligent Manufacturing (FAIM), Limerick, Republic of Ireland, June 26-28,
2006

ü For electronic sources: if available online the full URL should be supplied at the end of the
reference, as well as a date that the resource was accessed.
For example: Castle, B. (2005), "Introduction to web services for remote portlets", available at:
http://www-128.ibm.com/developerworks/library/ws-wsrp/ (accessed 12 November 2007).

Refer to the “referencing guide” provided for a more detailed

information on Harvard Referencing
Assignment’s structure
Assignment’s structure
• The suggested structure of the report is as follows

Ø Title (cover page)

Ø Contents
ü Include the assignment total words count at the bottom of the contents

Ø Introduction

ü Gives an overview

ü Presents the central idea

ü Gives the background to the main topic of the assignment

ü Scope & limitations

ü Leads into main body

Ø Main body (discussion may be included in this section)

Ø Conclusions
ü Summarises the ‘answers’ to the questions the assignment set out to address, signalled
in the introduction

ü Points out what the assignment has and has not answered

ü Puts forward the writer’s view in the light of the evidence that has been presented

ü Does not introduce new information in the conclusion

Ø Recommendations (optional)

Ø References

Ø Appendices (optional)

Ø Bibliography (optional)
Research Sources
Research Sources suggested
• Slack, N., Chambers, S. and Johnston, R. (2007), Operations
Management, 5th edition, Harlow : Financial Times Prentice Hall, UK
• Liker, J (2004), The Toyota way, McGraw-Hill, USA
• Academic papers from

Ø If you want to
access Emerald from
home or any other
PC outside of the
University campus
you will need your
Athens password

Ø Academic paper
example
Plagiarism
What is plagiarism?
• Plagiarism is to copy, repeat, fake, borrow or to steal someone
else's work
• The most common type of plagiarism at University level is the “cut
and paste” practice

• For more information on plagiarism and how to avoid it go to:

http://www.derby.ac.uk/preview/chrismartindale/
• Plagiarism is detected very easily using Turnitin Software and the
electronic version, that you will provide, of your assignment

Percentage of
similarity with
other sources
Characteristics of a good
assignment
Characteristics of a good assignment
• Answers the question(s) asked
• Draws not only on curse material but incorporates material from
other sources
• Shows a good grasp of the ideas in the course

• Presents a coherent argument

• Adopts an objective, analytical style

• Clearly written

• Appropriate and clearly structured

• Properly referenced, no grammar or spelling errors

Questions