Lean Manufacturing and its Operational Advantages
Companies in the manufacturing business are confronted with the problem of competition, which has compelled them to develop proper manufacturing management strategies in order to increase market competitiveness. The implementation of lean manufacturing has resulted in operational advantages. Lean manufacturing or production is utilized to develop a quality, seamless process that will aid in the production of items that meet the needs of the customers. According to Pearce and Pons (2013), the lean idea is a culture that firms must commit to creating in order to increase production and profitability. According to Taiich Ohno, (1988) lean production can be related to Toyota production which is an integrated socio-technical system that was developed by Toyota. It helps in organizing manufacturing and logistics for manufacturers as well as enhancing the interaction between suppliers and customers. Lean production or lean manufacturing is focused on waste minimization while ensuring quality. Since mass production is not able to handle urgent orders or separate orders, lean production assist in countering this problem.
Advantages of Lean Production System
Lean production system assists organization to be flexible and focused in meeting the needs of the customers. It cuts down costs by ensuring that the business is efficient and responds effectively in producing quality products. This approach was developed by Toyota in 1960s and has been adopted in many sophisticated manufacturing activities in different businesses.
Implementing Lean Manufacturing in Different Industries
Organization all over the world are realizing that it’s crucial to eliminate waste resources, improve quality and ensure customer satisfaction in the competitive market. There is always a need of reducing the manufacturing operation, inventory cost and increase efficiencies. However, the main challenge is being able to adapt these concepts and technologies in different types of industries. They can be able to implement lean manufacturing principles by fostering the culture of continuous improvement, quality focus, lean thinking and customer satisfaction.
Improving Product Quality with Lean Production Principles
Organizations that use lean production principle are usually aimed at improving the quality of their products. It eliminates the sources of defects, minimizes the possible errors and potential contributors that result in variations in the process of production. Using defective component parts may result in poor quality products which may in turn reduce the yields, hence slowing down the speed of product flow in the system. This significantly reduces the supply of products in the market. Lean production helps an organization to avoid the use of poor quality and defective components, thus improving the quality of the products manufactured.
Significance of Lean Distribution in Business
Lean distribution on the other hand is focused on improving the processes starting with the customer order and eliminating waste in the businesses (Reichhart & Holweg, 2007). Both Lean production and lean distribution are important in a business since they create flexibility and reduces the cost that could have been brought about by wastage of resources. An organization that does not have a relationship between production and distribution will find it difficult to meet the needs of the customer because of competing priorities between maximization of production and meeting the organizational goals.
Key Aspects of Lean Distribution
Lean distribution therefore deals with both customer service and distribution. This principle begins from the elimination of wastes, creating flow and the implementation pull based processes that creates a value chain that is caused in meeting the demand of the customer. The approach has captured the global supply chain hence assisting organization to eliminate losses.
The Adoption of Lean Production Principle in Distribution
The implementation of the distribution approach requires the adoption of lean production principle together with supply chain systems that need to work together and be able to respond to change in the organization (Ravet, 2011). The approach requires reevaluation of the existing processes and practices in order to break the trade-off that is based on planning. It usually takes a market approach and the supply needs to move quickly. Therefore, it does not use a forecast and plan-based approach which tries to optimize and execute plans. This is because forecast and plan approach are not flexible and resist market changes.
Responsive Nature of Lean Production in Distribution
Lean production process is able to change the distribution approaches due to its responsive nature to market changes. Organizations using this approach are able to respond quickly to the market demand by changing processes and operations to suit the demand. This system requires that the suppliers deliver the items to be used for production in time and the manufacturer to also produce the product in time for shipping to the customer thus increasing the product flow in the system.
The Influence of Lean Production on Distribution Approaches
Lean production has significantly influenced distribution approaches of the Toyota production systems by eliminating three negative aspects from their manufacturing process such as muda or waste. This type of waste included: waste as a result of overproduction, inventory, waste incurred in waiting, motion, the process of transportation, rework and over processing. Mainly the largest source of waste is usually from overproduction, which is the worst type of waste since it can lead to other sources of waste like waiting, too much inventory and additional defects.
Reducing Waste in Inventory, Labor, and Transportation
The principles of lean production are applied in distribution to reduce waste in inventory, labor, and transportation. In order for a company to accomplish this, the concept of customer satisfaction and delivery on time is guaranteed, by not holding into large inventory but through distribution channels. Similarly, lean distribution does not depend on the manufacturing of goods in the order life cycle. It can apply to any production company with either make-to-order or the make-to-stock models.
Effect of Lean Production on Distribution in Supply Chain
Lean production approaches greatly influence the distribution of goods in the supply chain. Since its main focus is to eliminate waste in the production industry, most of the goods produced using this approach have a well-defined distribution channel to reduce the wastage caused by waiting and inventory. On the other hand, the supply of raw materials is made on order to reduce the inventory wastage and minimize the storage cost.
Conclusion
To sum up, lean production approaches are important in shaping the distribution approaches of the goods produced by an organization. In order to enhance effectiveness, the production process of any organization must match with the distribution so to reduce wastage due to overproduction and inventory. Both lean production approaches and the distribution approaches used by an organization need to be focused on meeting the customer's needs, profitability, and customer satisfaction. Therefore, lean production could change the distribution approaches to enable the company to respond quickly to the market changes. This approach requires the suppliers deliver the items to be used for production in time and the manufacturer to also produce the product in time for shipping to the customer thus increasing the product flow in the production process.
References
Ohno, Taiichi (1988). Toyota Production System: Beyond Large-Scale Production (English translation ed.). Portland, Oregon: Productivity Press. pp. 75–76. ISBN 0-915299-14-3.
Pearce, A., & Pons, D. (2013). Implementing lean practices: managing the transformation risks. Journal of Industrial Engineering, 2013.
Reichhart, A., & Holweg, M. (2007). Lean distribution: concepts, contributions, conflicts. International journal of production research, 45(16), 3699-3722.
Ravet, D. (2011). Lean production: the link between supply chain and sustainable development in an international environment. In Colloque Franco-Tchèque Trends in international business (p. 20).
