Leadership and Sustainability in the Milling Industry, GCC

Leadership and Sustainability
An investigation into how Lean, Agile and Leagile impacts sustainability in an Organization. A
study in the Milling industry, GCC
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30/06/2019
Masters of Business Administration, Leadership and Sustainability
Student ID number:
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Abstract
There are distinct research approaches and studies done on lean manufacturing and on the
agile organization. The purpose of this Dissertation will be to determine whether synergies exist
between lean manufacturing practices, methods and an agile organization; and how will it be
possible to sustain these productive synergies if they exist.
The two systems of lean and agile will be the main focus. Some organizations assert that lean
manufacturing is to focus particularly on the following:
 Less Waste
 Just in Time working
 Elimination of non-value-added activities
 Focusing on core competencies
 Minimizing costs through outsourcing
 Cost saving in keeping relatively small inventories
Conversely, agility is:
 Quick response to customer needs
 Rapidly changing production processes using existing equipment, labor and designs
to create new products in a short timespan
 Robust IT systems with the ability to give updated information in near real-time on
all relevant aspects of the organization
If any similarities exist between agile and lean approaches, what would they be? This issue will
be looked at specifically with regard to the milling industry in the GCC., where the specific steps
required to implement a creative reconciliation between lean and agile will be explored.
Therefore, this Dissertation will look at the synergies of the two methods and likely benefits for
the milling industry in GCC.
(In your dissertation proper conrad, you may need formally to
define synergy and its management, if you go down this road)
Keywords are: Agile Manufacturing, Lean Manufacturing, Leagile Manufacturing, Sustainability
and Company Culture
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Table of Contents
CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION..........................................................................................5
Background............................................................................................................................5
History of the Topic...............................................................................................................5
Brief Overview of the Topic....................................................................................................6
Research Problem................................................................................................................10
Research Aim.......................................................................................................................10
Research Question...............................................................................................................10
Research Objectives.............................................................................................................10
Delimitations........................................................................................................................11
CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW............................................................................12
Introduction..........................................................................................................................12
Overview of the manufacturing context............................................................................12
Lean manufacturing............................................................................................................12
Lean Manufacturing Enablers...........................................................................................14
Lean Manufacturing Capabilities......................................................................................15
Agile Manufacturing...........................................................................................................16
Agile Enablers......................................................................................................................17
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Agile Capabilities.................................................................................................................18
Leagile manufacturing........................................................................................................19
Benefits of Leagile manufacturing.....................................................................................20
Application of Leagile manufacturing...............................................................................21
Research gap........................................................................................................................22
Conclusion............................................................................................................................22
CHAPTER 3 RECEARCH METHODOLOGY............................................................................24
Research Philosophy......................................................................................................................24
Research Approach........................................................................................................................24
Research Strategy..........................................................................................................................24
Time Horizon.................................................................................................................................24
Ethical Issues of Data Collection/Confidentiality.........................................................................24
Validity and Reliability of Data.....................................................................................................24
CHAPTER 4 DATA COLLECTION METHOD..........................................................................24
Secondary Data Presentation.........................................................................................................24
Primary Data Presentation.............................................................................................................24
Summary of Data and Analysis.....................................................................................................24
CHAPTER 5 CONCLUSION.......................................................................................................24
Discussion of Results.....................................................................................................................24
Generate Immediate Impact...........................................................................................................24
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Generate Sustainable Impact.........................................................................................................24
Summary of Conclusion................................................................................................................24
Limitations of the Research and Recommendations for further Research....................................25
CHAPTER 6 RECOMMENDATIONS........................................................................................25
Immediate Impact..........................................................................................................................25
Sustainable Impact.........................................................................................................................25
References......................................................................................................................................25
CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION
Background
The following research is based on the study of the sustainability of the lean and agile process
combined with the different kinds of environmental changes that need to be implemented in the
milling industries. The research starts with a brief history and overview of the topic.
History of the Topic
The terms, agile and lean management refer to the segregation of a number of large works into
different kinds of small increments. This minimizes the amount of front planning and design.
Instead of aiming for a moving target that is months or years in the future, Agile project
managers work with teams to break work into small, manageable pieces (Mittal, et al., 2017).
These changes may take a few days or a few weeks to complete, depending on the amount and
type of work. This iterative form of development good minimizes risk and allows for flexibility
in the development process. The goal for each of these iterations is to create a piece of value,
with minimal bugs, at the end of each iteration. In this method, working software is the primary
measure of progress. Apart from this, the presence of agile combined with lean management
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reduces needed time, while it increases communication and productivity for the organization
which helps the industry to gain a competitive advantage in the market.
Brief Overview of the Topic
The challenges facing contemporary organizations are: increasing cost savings combined with
instability of economic factors which increase the difficulty in attaining and upholding
sustainability. Especially in the milling industry, factors such as commodity volatility, customer
needs for rapidly changing products that will serve their needs and the challenges of competition
have meant that organizations need to rethink the way they tackle and respond to changes in the
commercial sectors of their business. The volatile environment has forced many organizations to
look at other methods and ways to cope with it (Goodrich, 2015) Hence, there are a number of
different challenges that are being faced by the modern organizations.
Apart from these challenges, general economic instability increases the difficulty to maintain
sustainability. The milling industries especially are affected by the internal interactions between
different factors like commodity volatility, changing needs of the customer for the different types
of the products, the demand of the customer for customized products that match the trends and
their specific choices and many moiré as such (Bazigos, et al., 2015). Apart from this the
challenges offered by the competition have meant to change the way the organization performs
in the market. The management of the business organizations must rethink on the way they
tackle and respond to the changes in the different sectors of the commercial market where the
business operates (Mittal, et al., 2017). The contemporary market environment has changed its
traditional nature and fundamentally quickened. This change has persuaded some organizations
to look beyond normal market conditions and engage in novel ways to ensure success for the
business market.
A potential solution to the challenges facing companies trying to adopt a more sustainable
culture could be the agile option combined with lean manufacturing methods – so-called Leagile
organizing. Therefore, the goal of this research is to determine whether Leagile is indeed the
most plausible strategic way forward for companies in the milling industry.
The implementation of lean manufacturing methods in this regard can help the business to be
successful and more productive. The combination of the agile option along with lean
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