Assignment

Answer the following questions:

1. Distinguish Lean Manufacturing and Just in Time.
- Companies that implement lean manufacturing are aiming to do the following: eliminate
wasteful materials and processes, streamline production, provide customers with the most value
for their dollar; while JIT manufacturing operation should be able to accomplish three important
things: eliminate waste, remove variability, improve throughput. Also, the main difference
between lean and JIT is that lean focuses on the customer while JIT focuses on the business
side of the manufacturing process. So, to make it simple and memorable: lean manufacturing is
a customer-centric philosophy, while JIT manufacturing is a business-centric philosophy.

2. Enumerate and Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of Lean Manufacturing.

Advantages of Lean Manufacturing

1. Waste Minimization - Waste is defined by any activity that does not add value to
the process. Common waste areas include: motion, inventory, waiting,
overproduction, defects, transportation, and over-processing. As companies sit
on large amounts of inventory and waste, this process eliminates outdated or
aged inventory. In addition, this process reduces the costs within the operation.
2. Enhanced Customer Relationships - Lean focuses on loyal customers' concerns
and suggestions to cut some wasteful processes. Rather than focusing on the
needs of all customers, companies are able to focus on their loyal customers to
build strong and reliable relationship.
3. Lean Infrastructure - A lean infrastructure means that you are only dealing with a
few components: building, tools, supplies, equipment, and labor to fulfill near-
term inventory demand. The facility does not waste space within the operation
and enables the facility to come as close as it can to production efficiency. 

Disadvantages of Lean Manufacturing

1. Equipment Failure - Lean has very little room for error. Equipment or labor failure
can lead to major inconsistencies and can make the entire operation fall behind.
In other mass production facilities, employees could move from one machine to
another in the event of a breakdown. In lean, there are not many other places for
employees to move to because everything within the operation is being utilized.
 2. Delivery Inconsistencies - In correlation with equipment failure, lean
manufacturing can lead to delivery inconsistencies. Using lean techniques means
that you have a smaller error margin. If your supply deliveries are late, you may
not have enough raw materials to meet your customer demands, leading to late
deliveries.

3. Employee Dissatisfaction - Adopting lean manufacturing processes requires

change among employees to more efficient production processes to ensure that
quality products are being made. This can be risky if employees reject the new
methods. Having good managers that can help support and persuade the change
from one technique to another can be helpful.

3.  Discuss Six Sigma in relation to Lean Manufacturing

- Lean Six Sigma is a systematic approach to reduce or eliminate activities that do not
add value to the process. It highlights removing wasteful steps in a process and taking the only
value added steps. The lean six sigma method ensures high quality and customer satisfaction in
the manufacturing. According to Sokovic and Pavletic, Lean means speed and quick action
(reducing unnecessary wait time) and Six Sigma means identifying defects and eliminating
them. As well as Lean Six Sigma Engineering means best-in-class. It creates value in the
manufacturing or service organization to benefit its customers and saves money without capital
investment. Six Sigma is a well-established approach that seeks to identify and eliminate
defects, mistakes or failures in business processes or systems by focusing on those process
performance characteristics that are of critical importance to customers’. It is a statistical
methodology that aims to reduce variation in any process, reduce costs in manufacturing and
services, make savings to the bottom line, increase customer satisfaction, measure defects,
improve product quality, and reduce defects to 3.4 parts per million opportunities in an
organization.