Lean Management and Lead Time Optimization - Northampton Study

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of lean management principles and their application in optimizing lead time. It begins by defining lean management and its core principles, emphasizing value stream mapping, continuous workflow creation, pull systems, and continuous improvement. The report then explores lean manufacturing, lean six sigma, and lean software development, providing real-world examples such as Toyota, Amazon, and Intel. A case study of Marks and Spencer is presented, discussing how lean manufacturing can improve efficiency, reduce waste, and enhance customer satisfaction. Finally, the report includes a lead time calculation example, illustrating the factors that influence the time between order placement and delivery. Desklib offers a wealth of similar solved assignments and study resources for students.

STUDY OF LEAD
MANAGEMENT AND LEAD
TIME

Table of Contents
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................1

LEAN MANAGEMENT AND LEAD TIME
Lean management is an approach that help in optimising the processes by reducing the
time and efforts spent on the task that adds no value to the products or services offered by an
organisation (Espadinha-Cruz, 2021). It is a process that focuses on improving the performance
level of the organisation and especially by enhancing their profitability and quality. In other
words the purpose of lean management is to create value for the customers by optimal utilisation
of the organisation's resources. Based on the actual demands of the users it helps in creating
stable workflow management. It helps in boosting the productivity and efficiency of the
company by optimal utilisation of resources without wasting any resources. The present essay
represents the different concepts of lean management that are used by different organisation in
successful running of their business with higher productivity and efficiency. Also it evaluates the
the concept that Marks and Spencer uses in its operation for optimal utilisation of its resources
for higher level of customer satisfaction.
Lean management refers to the concept of managing the company which supports the
concept of continuous improvement in the long term that systematically seeks in incrementing
changes in processes so that there cane be higher efficiency and better quality (Cunnane, 2018).
The primary focus of lean management is to induce value for the consumers with efficient
optimization of the resources which will help in creating a steady workflow based on the demand
of the users. On the other hand it helps the company in eliminating its waste time if and also,
revise the efforts and money of the organisation in appropriate steps and leading the company
towards success. There five principles that are incorporated by lean management. It includes the
following principles:
 Identifying value
 Mapping the value stream
 Creation of continuous work flow.
 Establishing a pull system
 Facilitation of continuous improvement.
The lean management principles are used by every organisation in order to improve their
overall performance and efficiency (Malakhova, 2019).. However, there are various principles

that are used on the lean management that helps the company in inculcating changes with higher
efficiency and effectiveness.
Lean manufacturing concept
Lean manufacturing is the process of production that is based upon the ideology of
minimising the waste and maximising the productivity in the manufacturing operation of a
business. In other words it is based on the principle that waste is anything that does not add value
which the users will be willing to pay for (Montgomery, 2018). The main purpose if the concept
is to improve the processes by eliminating the waste and sustainably delivering the value to the
consumers. On the other hand, Toyota is one of the significant example of the company that
uses lean manufacturing in adding value to the customers. That is the company is using this
concept for over years that has helped the company in eliminating unnecessary waste such as
transportation, excess of inventory, over production etc. thus, providing the company with
several advantages. That is it helps in saving time and money and efficiently utilising the limited
resources available. Also helps in production of eco friendly environment and increasing the
customer level of satisfaction. The main concept that is related with the lean manufacturing is the
involvement of various tools and practices that would ultimately assist the main process of
manufacturing in terms of reduction of wastages. This will aim to raise the efficiency of the
company’s operation in terms of making it free from wastages.
Lean six sigma concept
The lean six sigma concept is an approach that seeking in improving the overall
performance of the organisation by elimination of the defects and waste. It combines the six
sigma tools in elimination of eight kinds of wastage which are known as DOWNTIME that is
Defects, Overproduction, Waiting, Non-utilised talent, Transportation, Inventory, Motion , Extra
processing. However, it uses “Belts” such as yellow, green, black, master belt that helps business
in analysing their overall performance (Mar and et.al., 2021). On the other hand, it can be
evaluated that regardless of the size of the business it provides a standard process in solving the
problems. Thus it helps organisations in reducing their operational costs as six sigma provides
road map which help the company in drastically reducing their exposures to risks. On the other
hand, it also helps organisation in improving their timeliness and efficiency with higher accuracy
and controlling. Thus, helps the organisation in improving their customer service and offering
higher satisfaction to the users. One of the biggest example of a company that uses the lean six

sigma concept is Amazon. That is it uses the six sigma tools in setting their processes according
to the desired objectives of the customer experiences and then works backwards through the
process to make it happen. It focuses on the concept of understanding the customers demand and
thus, meeting those needs and requirements which is a teaching of lean six sigma concept.
Lean software development
The lean software management is a framework that is based on the optimisation
development time and resources, elimination of wastage. Thus, ultimately resulting in delivery of
products and services that are required and needed by the users. However, this concept help th
company in streamlining their approaches towards more functionality so that products could be
delivered on time (Issa, 2021). It helps in development of team by enhancing the decision
making thus boosting the morale of the employees of the organisation. Thus, helps the
organisations in faster decision making by integration of integral processes that helps in
optimising the utility. One of the biggest example of the Lean software development can be seen
in the Intel. It is one of the largest producers of computer chips and the company is governed by
the principles of lean software development. Thus, it helps the company in catering to the
requirement of its users with optimal utilisation of its resources. The methodology that is related
with the lean software development includes the focus over the aspect of decrease in cost, waste
along with efforts (Bongiorni and et.al., 2018). This means that this software work in the
direction of raining of efficiency along with reduction of cost, efforts and time.
Marks and Spencer is a British multinational retailer organisations that was founded on
the year 1884 by Michael Marks and Thomas Spencer. Its headquarters is situated in the London.
The organisation specializes in the selling home products and fashion clothing and food
products. M&S is a brand that focuses on selling highly quality fashionable products to its target
audience at affordable prices. It main aim is to provide its customers with high class trendy
clothes with affordable prices. The company specialises in selling high street fashionable clothes
with high quality at minimum prices. The company offers products for everyone that is men,
women and children. It targets mainly the women as they are the one who shop frequently and
for their family. However, it mainly focuses on fulfilling the needs of consumers who are willing
to spice up their wardrobes and are always willing to be ahead with the trends in the fashion
industry. The products of the company are targeted towards the needs and requirements of the
customers so that higher level of satisfaction can be derived from buying the goods and services

of the company. It offers it target audience with online as well retails store services so that it can
ease the process for the consumer and help in enhancing their satisfaction level.
However, it can be evaluated that with the uses of the lean manufacturing concept ot will
help Marks and Spencer in eliminating the waste and will help them in improving the overall
efficiency and performance of the organisation. With the inculcation of lean manufacturing
concept it will the company in eliminating the unused material and poor processes which drian
the productivity level of the company. However, it will help the company not only in earning
higher profits from maximization of its sales but it will result in providing higher customer
satisfaction level to the customers. Thus, it will help provide the Marks and Spencer with four
major benefits. That is the first benefit it will offer the company will be it will result in
eliminating waste. That is waste ifs considered one of the negative components that affects the
cost of the products. Also, it uses unnecessary resources and extends the deadlines and adds no
value to the goods and services offered by the company.
Secondly it will benefit the company by providing increasing their customer loyalty that
so by improving the quality of products it will help the company in increasing its visibility and
loyalty among the target market and the customers. In other words, it will help Marks and
Spencer to stay ahead of its competitors by regularly meeting the changes according to the needs
and requirements of the consumers. With effective designing of its processes it will help them in
gaining higher consumer satisfaction level and will result in growth of the company. Thirdly, it
will help the company in reducing its cost of production. That is with proper monitoring of the
manufacturing operation will lead in no over production and thus, will result in no extra cost in
storing the extra productions. Thus, it will help M&S in reducing their cost of production with
enhancing its production efficiency. And lastly, it will help the company in reducing time that is
with elimination of unnecessary and inefficient manufacturing processes it will help in creation
of shorter lead times and will help in faster and quicker delivery of goods and services.
Calculation of lead time:
Lead time refers to a time that is related with the sum of time right from receiving to
making a delivery of order to the customer (Dey, Bhuniya and Sarkar, 2021). This can be
calculated as adding time of pre-processing, processing and post processing. It is an important
aspect that is related with the company because it would lead to making a prediction of sales,

raining of efficiency related with operations along with making an improvisation in the customer
satisfaction. In the present case it can be calculated as:
Lead time: designing the bike+ raising of order for the part of the bike+ manufacturing and
delivery of all the part of bike+ assembling of bike+ delivery of finished product to the shop of
Alex
= 2+1+4+2+1
= 10 weeks.
This means that a period of 10 weeks will be required in placing the order and make it display
for sales. This shows the lead time that would be required by the Alex.
The bike will be displayed after week 36 i.e. in 37th week. This is because after making a
delivery of bike to Alex it will be made displayed in the showroom of Alex.
As the part of the bike are coming from UK then the lead time is around 10 weeks but in case if
they will be imported from the Italy or China then the lead time will raise. It is also to be noted
that while considering the distance then the time that will be taken from the Italy will be less
while making it compared it with the China. This is because the distance4 of UK and Italty is
less in comparison with the China. In the same way with the aspect of other restrictions including
the trade barriers and the compliance of trade regulation would further lead to raise the lead time
that is related with the Alex.
From the above essay it can be concluded that lean management play an important role in
an organization that will assist the firm in reduction of wastage along with enhancing the
efficiency and effectiveness of operation. This also summarize the three major concept of the
lean theory that would also work with the aspect of reduction of wastage from the firm operation
and enhancement of company’s effectiveness. This process also leads to play an important role
in terms of raising of customer satisfaction along with assisting saving towards the company in
terms of wastage reduction from its operational processes.

REFERENCES
Books and journals
Bongiorni and et.al., 2018. 2018 EHRA expert consensus statement on lead extraction:
recommendations on definitions, endpoints, research trial design, and data collection
requirements for clinical scientific studies and registries: endorsed by
APHRS/HRS/LAHRS. Ep Europace..20(7). pp.1217-1217.
Cunnane, R.T., 2018. The femoral approach to lead extraction: a critical skill for complex lead
management. EP Lab Digest.18(5). p.5.
Dey, B.K., Bhuniya, S. and Sarkar, B., 2021. Involvement of controllable lead time and variable
demand for a smart manufacturing system under a supply chain management. Expert
Systems with Applications. 184. p.115464.
Espadinha-Cruz, P., Fernandes, A. and Grilo, A., 2021. Lead management optimization using
data mining: A case in the telecommunications sector. Computers & Industrial
Engineering. 154. p.107122.
Issa, Z.F., 2021. Outcome of transvenous lead extraction of leads older than 20 years. Journal of
cardiovascular electrophysiology.
Malakhova, V.S., 2019. ESSENCE AND CONCEPTION OF LEAD MANAGEMENT.
METHODS OF DEVELOPMENT AND IMPLEMENTATION OF LEAD
GENERATION. (3). pp.529-534.
Mar and et.al., 2021. Poorer Outcomes Associated With More Invasive Lead Management
Strategies for Abbott Riata® Leads in a Large, Multi-Center Retrospective
Study. Circulation, 144(Suppl_1), pp.A13597-A13597.
Montgomery, J.A. and Ellis, C.R., 2018. Lead Management Consensus in 2018: From
Recommendations to Research. The Journal of Innovations in Cardiac Rhythm
Management. 9(12). p.3464.
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