Japanese Approach to Business Management - Essay Example

CASE STUDY: LEAN PRODUCTION Name: Institution affiliated: Date of submission: Tutor: The lean production systems are a Japanese approach to business management. The lean production has its benefits to the companies that deal with the production or management of goods. The lean production is a management approach that has its focus on ensuring that they cut down waste while at the same time ensuring quality in production. According to the Japanese approach of lean productions, the approach should be applied to all the aspects of a business starting with the designing of the product to the time of production and distribution. In the competitive market that there is today, business need to ensure quality while reducing their costs. The lean production is a management approach that allows businesses to cut down their costs. The leans production helps in eliminating the activities within the production process that do not add value such as the unnecessary movement of the products and people around the production plant. The aspects of lean production are the cell production, , quality circles, total quality management, zero defect production, time based management, Kaizen, simultaneous engineering and the just in time production [Pas02]. The case studies of the four different industries are done to examine three major questions on the lean production aspect. The study seeks to determine the extent that towards which the production systems can be modified to accommodate changes in the organization for different circumstances. The study also seeks to determine the extent of adoption of the lean production processes, the company’s future plans and their current competitive strategy. The first case study of the auto plant identifies that the output of the manufacturer is a little less than the potential that the plant can produce. The company’s market share has been reducing due to the recession in the foreign market that has been caused by increased supply of the same products by different companies. The auto plant reflects a good example of the lean production system as it encourages the best resource usage. The workers are changed over to different stations to allow them become skilful in the different stations. The reduce demand for the products has allowed the company to have time for housekeeping whereby the production equipment is checked for maintenance purposes. As part of the Kaizen activities as provided for by the lean production systems, the company provided assistance to the operators to ensure that the tasks being carried out manually are well managed. The second case study is for printing circuit boards for the purposes of electric communication. The PCB factory is one of the Japanese largest corporations with two floors which allow for bare boards to be made on the first floor and the PCB assembly to be done on the other floor. The study revealed that although the production of the PCB’s requires manual operations, technological advancements in the field should be encouraged to encourage the production to be made in larger batches. As the company focuses on the production of quality goods, they should also encourage the diversification of product designs through planning. The study also sought to determine the application of a company’s lean production process through their flexibility in production. In case there is an increase in demand for the bare boards, the company should be flexible and adapt to the market changes by increasing their production. The batching together of similar boards should also be a means to promote the lean production through cutting down costs through the reduced resource usage. The third case study is for a refrigerator plant for domestic refrigerators established in 1954. In the Japanese market, the refrigerator company are around eight and thus competition is one of the major problems that each company faces. Increasing the market share in both the internal and external markets should thus be a long term strategy for the company. Having only ten percent of their production being sold to a foreign market, the company should try any improve the quality of their products to make them more appealing to the consumers in the foreign market and win their royalty. Having a variety is also a strategy to win the consumers royalty for their products. The company plans to increase the variety of refrigerators to nine only that the efficiency of the product after they have increased the varieties seems to be the major concern. The spacing required between the productions of each refrigerator remains a concern in the assembly lines when the add another variety to the brand as it might end up reducing either the quality of products through reduced production time or reduced production quantity. The fourth study is about an air-conditioner plant for domestic consumption that was established in the mid 1970’s. The company has established a variety of forty models for room air conditioning. The ownership of storage ware houses by the company ensures that they have reduced storage costs as opposed to renting out warehouses for the storage of the products. The storage methods should however ensure that the stock of finished goods is well managed to ensure that goods do not over stay in the warehouse. Stock management should adapt a basis such as the first in first out basis. The company both for the parent and its subsidiaries use manual means of production. The automation of the products could help reduce the costs incurred during production in the long run. The wide variety of the products also makes it hard for the company to improve the quality of each of their products. The standardization and specification of the variety of product to be produced would help increase efficiency while increasing the quality of the products being produced. The company imports most of its products and thus has to identify the means through which it would continuously import while at the same time incur the least cost to ensure that they offer their products to the markets at the least possible prices. Conclusion Among the key features in the production operations are fewer input resources required by the manufacturer. At the same time, the system increases the pressure to the producers in that it expects them to improve the performance of the output. The procedures for the processes under the lean procedure include resource inputs that are then transferred to the manufacturing system where an output based on performance is produced based on the needs and preferences of the customer to increase their satisfaction. In the resource input segment, the producer aims to reduce the resource usage through the advancement of technology while at the same time maintaining or increasing the quality of production. The manufacturing system entails the production of better quality goods, a greater production variety and higher technical specification. Better quality output allows better customer satisfaction thus increasing the market share of the company. The lean production has allowed the Japanese companies to increase the production of their products for both the domestic and international markets. Competitive pressure is another factor that has encouraged the adoption of the lean production processes. The Japanese companies work towards increasing their market share while reducing the prices at which they charge their products. REFERENCES Pas02: , (Pascal, 2002), Read More