A Study of Lean Management and Lead Time

This essay discusses the importance of Lean Management and Lead Time for business organizations. It covers concepts like 5S, Value Stream Mapping, and Andon. It also explains the calculation of lead time and its impact on business operations. The essay concludes that Lean Management and Lead Time are crucial for continuous improvement and growth of business organizations.

A study of Lean management
and lead time

Contents
Contents...........................................................................................................................................2
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................1
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................4
TASK 3............................................................................................................................................4
TASK 4............................................................................................................................................5
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................5

INTRODUCTION
Lean management is an important approach used for management of a business organization
which supports continuous improvement concept in it. It is a long-term approach that is used in
systematic working for achieving various small changes in various processes with the aim of
improving quality and efficiency of products. Lead time is expectancy that is there in between a
process’s starting and completion. The lead time depends on various things in an organisation.
This following essay is going to cover three main lean management concepts that are
being used in a business organisation for gaining many benefits that are being provided to it with
its help. This essay also covers various tasks that are related to lean management concepts.
TASK 1
Value provided to customers is important for the growth and development of a business
organisation in market. It also helps in gaining various competitive advantages from the market.
Lean management helps a business organisation in improving its tasks on a regular basis
(Argiyantari, Simatupang and Basri, 2021). Lean management helps the business organisations
to gain more and more profits from the market as there are reduction in numerous unnecessary
costs and activities in business operations and functions with the aim to achieve their goals and
objectives on a predetermined time period of the business organisation. The main three concepts
of lean management that are used by business organisations are as follows:
Concept 1: 5S
The 5S is an important lean method that is used in workspace optimization and this method
includes 5 consecutive steps. These steps help the team of management in organizing their
workplace for having the maximum efficiency in the process (Baumann, and Arlinghaus, 2021).
These 5S are originated from the Japanese words and these are Seiri meaning sort, Seiton which
means set in order, Seiso that means shine, Seiketsu which means standardize and the last one
Shitsuke which means to sustain. There are numerous benefits that these 5S are providing to
various industries as these are applied and used in manufacturing as well as knowledge work.
Some of the benefits of 5S are discussed as follows:
 It is used in separating the important and necessary tools those from unnecessary tools.
 It also helps in minimizing the waste activities with the help of better organization of the
working environment.
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 It helps in keeping tools and equipment in an organised manner as well as it is also
utilized with its full potential for organisation.
 It also helps the entity in standardizing its working process.
 It aids the business in sustaining changes that are there along with setting up for regular
and continuous improvement in its process.
Concept 2: Value Stream Mapping
Value stream mapping is also another lean management concept that aids business organizations
in visualizing, analyzing along with taking future actions and other important operations with the
aim of improving critical steps that are there in delivery process of a product (Chen, Palma and
Reyes, 2019). This concept illustrates the goods and products flow from suppliers to its
customers that are present in market in business organization. There are various benefits that are
being provided by value stream mapping to business organisation and these are discussed as
follows:
 Value stream mapping aids the business organisation in identifying as well as in
removing all those activities that are wasteful and unnecessary. This helps the business
organisation in reducing their costs also thereby resulting in gaining of more profits for
the business organisation.
 Value stream mapping also enables a business organisation in identifying and analyzing
all those activities and operations that are value-adding as well as non-value-adding to the
business organisation.
 Value stream mapping allows as well as enables a business organisation to focus and
concentrate on improvements of future by highlighting and focusing on the flaws and
problems in the present of all the operations and functions of the business organisation.
Concept 3: Andon
The Andon system is yet another important part of lean management that aids its operators to
have notice of the problems and issues that are there or can occur during the production process
in its business organisation (Dapperen, 2019). It is one of the important element that was being
made and implemented in the improvement of the control in the quality along with finding the
various defects of the business organisation process and other operations. There are numerous
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benefits that are being provided by the application of Andon in any business organisation and
these are discussed and explained as follows with its application:
 This helps the business organisation in improving the transparency in its operations.
 Andon provides business organisation to have an immediate reaction to its product’s
quality along with seeing and reducing the safety problems and issues for its employees
and staff members.
 It also helps the business organisation to have a cost effective manufacturing in its
organisation with the motive to reduce various costs and increase profits and sales.
 Using Andon, various business organisation and companies can easily detect the
problems and issues that are related to production in their organisation and that too early
in the production process. Thereby leading and resulting in less reworking and low
manufacturing costs for them.
 There is reduction in recurring issues and problems for the business organisation and
companies.
 With the help of Andon, all operators and business organisation can contribute and focus
in the identification of root or main cause of the issue or problem as well as in
elimination of that issue that will also decrease in recurring problems and issues that are
there in business organisation.
 There is increase in customer satisfaction with the help of Andon as the teams that are
made for lean manufacturing constantly work and try for improving their processes and
other operations because they have easily got the access of root of issues and problems
(Ghiffari, 2021). This results in the regular and continuous improvement in the quality of
the products and thus thereby leading to increase in the satisfaction of the needs and
wants of the customers.
 With the help of Andon there is reduction in downtime as the supervisors and operators
of the business organisation and companies are easily able to detect as well as resolve
their manufacturing problems and issues on a fast rate.
Continuous improvement in the business organisation also helps in improving the process. The
companies adopt continuous improvement with the help of these lean management concepts for
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doing continuous and regular improvements with focusing on growth by making development
and progress in their products for gaining more customers (Goshime, Kitaw and Jilcha, 2018).
The business organisation also with the help of these concepts create their working culture or
environment by motivating their employees for doing best with their capabilities thereby
resulting in increase in profits and sales in market. Toyota is that company that made value
stream mapping along with Andon famous in the manufacturing industry (Manmohan and Shalij,
2022). It has made and developed various practitioners to have a share of these important
processes along with applying them for application of the development of the software.
TASK 2
Toyota industries is selected as the organisations for this essay as it develops as well as it also
manufactures numerous automobiles along with automobile-related products and services in the
market. The main products and services that are being offered by Toyota are vehicles, car air-
conditioning compressors, engines, components and devices of car electronics as well as
stamping dies for the automobiles in the market (Mulugeta, 2021). The target customers or target
market for its products or services are from range of the age group of 30- 50 years of people.
Toyota focuses and concentrates on the middle-income group of target customers and audience,
which produces value for the amount of money in its vehicles. In the B2B segment for this
company, it serves various other companies that are present in tours, travel and hospitality
industry in market. The United States followed by Japan is the biggest and top worldwide market
in the globe for Toyota and its products and services.
TASK 3
Value stream mapping is an important concept that helps the company in many benefits and also
in gaining various advantages from the market (ROCHMAN, 2019). Some of them are discussed
and explained as follows:
 This lean management concept ensures and sees that all the activities in company are
being run smoothly and that too without any interruptions or delay in its operations.
Several strategies also enable the company in creating smooth flow of their activities
such as reconfiguring production process, along with training of employees and more.
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 This value stream mapping also helps company in knowing the value adding and non-
value adding activities as sometimes inventory is considered as a waste in the production
process. This helps company in applying limited inventory and work in process thereby
ensuring all needed materials and information that are available for smooth flowing of
working operations. It also ensures that the products that are being produced are able to
satisfy the needs and wants of customer.
 By adopting this concept of lean management by company, Toyota ensures that it
provides perfection in their work by its employees along with providing satisfaction to
customers with delivering products according to their needs.
 With the help of this concept the company also sees and ensures its continuous
improvement by focusing on increasing the productivity and profits from the market
(Sutharsan, Prasad and Vijay, 2020). It helps Toyota to operate its working in effective
and efficient way that will result in higher profit margins.
 Employees of company also get lot of ideas that are related to improvement and
development of organisation culture in their company. Therefore, with the help of this
value stream mapping concept as well as continuous improvement, its managers can take
ideas from their employees and this can lead to development of morale of employees
which can result in contributing more from their side towards the welfare and
development of the company in market.
TASK 4
The amount of time that starts from the beginning of a procedure and end to its conclusion is
known as lead time. Companies evaluate lead time in production, deliver chain control, and
venture control all through pre-processing, processing, and post-processing stages. By evaluating
outcomes towards hooked up benchmarks, they could decide in which inefficiencies exist
(Violita, 2018). Reducing the lead time could streamline operations and enhance productivity,
growing output and revenue. By contrast, longer lead time instances negatively have an effect on
income, sales and production processes.
This measures how lengthy it takes to finish a procedure from starting to end.
In production, lead time regularly shows the time production takes to create a product and supply
it to a consumer. Factors which can effect lead time consist of shortage of raw materials,
breakdown of transportation, shortages of labour, natural calamity, and human errors.
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A) The essential elements that make up lead time are pre-processing, processing, waiting,
storage, transportation, and inspection. The lead time between Alex placing the order and
displaying the item for sale in the shop will include the time taken to design, raising the
order, manufacturing and delivering all the parts of the bike, assembling the bike, and
delivering the finished product to the Alex shop. It has to be calculated as follows:
2 weeks + 1 week +4 weeks + 2 weeks +1 week = 10 weeks
The lead time between the placing of the order by Alex and being able to display the the item for
sale in the shop is 10 weeks.
B) As given in the question, Alex discusses the design of the bike with the manufacturer in Week
26. Alex and the manufacturer agreed and an order was placed with the manufacturer. And
the lead time as calculated above is 10 weeks. So, the week number in which the Bike can
be displayed is 26th week + 10 weeks, that is equal to 36th week.
C) In the above calculations, according to the question all the bike parts were from the UK. But
if the bike parts came from Italy, or from China then the pre-processing, processing and post
processing cost and duration would be increased. The time required for transporting and
delivering the item would be increased and hence, the lead time would be increased.
CONCLUSION
From the above essay it can be concluded that lean management and lead time is very important
for business organisations to grow and develop along with having regular and continuous
improvement in business organisation operations and functions. Lean management helps the
management of an entity that supports continuous improvement in it. It is also a long-term
approach used in systematic working for a business organisation.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals:
Argiyantari, B., Simatupang, T.M. and Basri, M.H., 2021. Transportation performance improvement
through lean thinking implementation. International Journal of Lean Six Sigma.
Baumann, L. and Arlinghaus, J., 2021. Algorithm-Use in the Field of Lean Management Principles: State
of the Art and Need for Research. IFAC-PapersOnLine, 54(1), pp.504-509.
Chen, C.K., Palma, F. and Reyes, L., 2019. Reducing global supply chains’ waste of overproduction by
using lean principles: a conceptual approach. International Journal of Quality and Service
Sciences, 11(4), pp.441-454.
Dapperen, R.L., 2019. Analyzing and optimizing the business processes of Universal Corrugated BV
using Lean Management (Bachelor's thesis, University of Twente).
Ghiffari, Y., 2021. Perbaikan Proses Produksi Komponen Coal Nozzle Burner Pltu Dengan Menggunakan
Lean Manufacturing (Doctoral dissertation, Institut Teknologi Sepuluh Nopember).
Goshime, Y., Kitaw, D. and Jilcha, K., 2018. Lean manufacturing as a vehicle for improving productivity
and customer satisfaction: A literature review on metals and engineering industries. International
Journal of Lean Six Sigma.
Manmohan, C.M. and Shalij, P.R., 2022. Optimal Prediction of Manufacturing Parameters for Integration
of Lean and Sustainability with QMS in SMES. Arabian Journal for Science and Engineering,
pp.1-9.
Mulugeta, L., 2021. Productivity improvement through lean manufacturing tools in Ethiopian garment
manufacturing company. Materials Today: Proceedings, 37, pp.1432-1436.
ROCHMAN, F., 2019. IMPLEMENTASI LEAN MANUFACTURING DALAM IDENTIFIKASI DAN
MEMINIMASI WASTE UNTUK MENGURANGI LEAD TIME PRODUCTION PADA AREA
PRODUKSI PRO 62 PADA PT UNIVERSAL TEKNO REKSAJAYA (Doctoral dissertation,
Universitas Mercu Buana Jakarta).
Sutharsan, S.M., Prasad, M.M. and Vijay, S., 2020. Productivity enhancement and waste management
through lean philosophy in Indian manufacturing industry. Materials Today: Proceedings, 33,
pp.2981-2985.
Violita, V., 2018. Implementasi Lean Service Pada Proses Pasang Baru Layanan Astinet Sme Dalam
Program Penetrasi Market Small Medium Enterprise Untuk Mengurangi Lead Time Dan Non
Value Added Activities Di Pt. Tkm Surabaya (Doctoral dissertation, Institut Teknologi Sepuluh
Nopember).
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