(lean)Supply Chain and Operations Management - Essay Example

Lean Supply Chain And Operations Management Lean Supply Chain and Operations Management Leansupply chain and operations management is the administration of a nexus of interrelated businesses partaking in the provision of services and/or products demanded by the end-consumer in a supply chain. It is essentially a team-based approach on how supply chain processes can be streamlined to initially reduce and ultimately eliminate non-value added practices or “waste” from the supply chain in its totality.

Waste can be measured in unnecessary costs, time and inventory (GATTORNA, 1998). Value added activities are such that efficiently contribute to the production of a product or provision of a service to the consumer from inception to its end.Many large corporations have intricate purchasing and supplying operations that inevitably create waste and foster non-value added activities. In order to minimize waste and reap maximum profits, corporations exercise lean management practices. One such corporation that practices lean management is Toyota Motor Corporation.

It has remained one of the key practices in Toyota (KERBER AND DRECKSHAGE, 2011). One of the key steps in lean is to recognize which steps create value and which do not. By breaking down all activities in to the two aforementioned categories, concrete steps can be taken to promote the former and eradicate the latter. The lean management identifies seven activities as the “seven wastes”, they are as follows:Transportation: When a product is being moved it runs the risk of being lost, damaged or delayed.

It does not transform any product the customer is paying for, and does not add value.Inventory: Inventory could be in the shape of finished goods, raw materials and work-in-progress represents expenditure which has not yet produced profit or income, which in turn acts as waste.Motion: This refers to the damage inflicted on the equipment used for manufacturing during the production process (JACOBS AND CHASE, 2010).Waiting: Whenever goods are not in transportation or being processed, they are waiting.

Since this has not produced income, it acts as waste.Over-processing: This occurs when more work is done on a product than required by the consumer, which includes use of more expensive tools increasing production cost (SCHNIEDERJANS et al, 2010).Over-production: This occurs when more products are produced than what is demanded by the consumer. One common erroneous practice is the production of goods in bulk, as often transpires that customers need change over long periods that products in bulk require.

This practice is considered the worst source of waste, as it begets all the other wastes, as more inventory and expenditure is required for the storage and preservation of goods; this does not benefit the customer nor generates income (TAYLOR AND BRUNT, 2001). Defects: Defects in products require rescheduling of production and extra costs are incurred in reworking the product. This sometimes doubles the cost of a product.The following steps should be taken to create the ideal lean management system: Designing a simple manufacturing system: In this a simple demand-based flow system of manufacturing is adopted in which production only occurs to meet a consumer’s demand.

Room for improvement: Lean is an ever-evolving system of product and process amelioration, and the eradication of non-value added practices (MENTZER, MYERS AND STANK, 2007).Continuously improve: This is the mindset which a company is required to adopt. It must always work on the incremental enhancement of processes, services and products over time, with the aim of reducing waste and maximizing profit.ReferencesTAYLOR, D. H., & BRUNT, D. (2001). Manufacturing operations and supply chain management: the lean approach.

Australia, Thomson Learning.MENTZER, J. T., MYERS, M. B., & STANK, T. P. (2007). Handbook of global supply chain management. Thousand Oaks, Sage Publications.JACOBS, F. R., CHASE, R. B., & JACOBS, F. R. (2010). Operations and supply chain management. New York, McGraw-Hill Irwin.SCHNIEDERJANS, M. J., SCHNIEDERJANS, D. G., & SCHNIEDERJANS, A. M. (2010). Topics in lean supply chain management. New Jersey, World Scientific.GATTORNA, J. (1998). Strategic supply chain alignment: best practice in supply chain management.

Aldershot, Hampshire, England, Gower.KERBER, B., & DRECKSHAGE, B. J. (2011). Lean supply chain management essentials: a framework for materials managers. Boca Raton, [Fla.], CRC Press.