Strategic operations management - Essay Example

Therefore, the understanding of customers and market-place is vital in establishing a successful supply chain. An organisation can build a proper supply chain by understanding the constraint of an exiting market. A well managed supply chain can reduce the overall cost of an organisation and also can improve customer satisfaction. Just-In-Time (JIT) and lean manufacturing have been a pioneering innovation by the Toyota Production System. It can go a long way in helping a company to implement a successful supply chain method.

Lean manufacturing was first employed on a global scale in 1980s. This process aims to reduce as well as eliminate overall industrial waste (Mason-Jones, 2000). Lean and agile supply chain have been implemented by many of the organisations in present with tremendous success. The term ‘lean’ comes from leanness i.e. developing a value stream for eliminating all kind of wastes like time and also to ensure a level schedule. The term ‘agile’ comes from agility which transforms to using market understanding and also a virtual corporation for exploiting beneficial opportunities in a volatile marketplace.

Many organisations have implemented both lean and agile supply chain for gaining competitive advantage. Lean method (or lean manufacturing) essentially focuses upon the reduction of wastes from the manufacturing process. The basic principle of this process has been the ‘pull’ strategy that is based upon the demand from the end of the customers. It is a made-to-stock approach which relies mainly upon completed materials inventory. Toyota production system have used this method to streamline their overall supply chain.

In fact, a major portion of the lean manufacturing has been developed in the Toyota Production System. Lean process tries to avoid sturdiness in manufacturing by calling for the demand of a product to be stable through the utilization of market knowledge and forward planning and also