Posted: June 26th, 2015

Week 5 Key Concept Exercise (Lean thinking in supplier optimisation)

our university of Liverpool is very strict to plagiarism check, all our assignments have to be submitted to turnitin and to be checked from where the resources brought. please try to reduce the percentage of similarity.
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Learning Resources for Week 5.
Required Resources and must use this reference list:
Required Resources
• Document: Week 5 Key Concept Overview (PDF)
• Bamford, D.R. & Forrester, P.L. (2010) Essential guide to operations management: concepts and case notes. London: Wiley.
o Chapter 6, ‘Developing lean operations (pp.103-119)

Week 5 Key Concept Exercise
Part 1: Lean thinking in supplier optimisation
In recent years, the introduction of lean production has been widely argued to be the solution to the gap between Western and Japanese manufacturing performance. Lean production systems are designed and operated with fewer resources than conventional mass production systems. They use less space and inventory and fewer workers to produce a comparable amount of output. The intent is to combine the advantages of mass production (high volume, low unit cost) and craft production (variety and flexibility). Lean production systems use a highly skilled workforce and flexible equipment to produce high-quality, low-cost items that can be customised to meet a variety of customer requirements. What are the positive and negative aspects of such a JIT for an organisation and its place in lean? What key behaviours and factors were behind the approach that warrants discussion amongst operations management?
To prepare for this Key Concept Exercise:
• Read the Green et al. (2014) article as well as the other Required Learning Resources for Week 5.
• Consider the factors affecting lean thinking.
To complete this Key Concept Exercise:
By Day 3, in an approximately 500-word response, address the following issues/questions:
• An area often neglected in the JIT literature is the linkage between JIT practices and the activities that provide support for the use of JIT practices. Even in the early JIT literature, there was an awareness of the vital contribution of a supportive infrastructure to the success of JIT. To enable JIT operation, lower levels of process variability than those found in traditional manufacturing environments are required. To achieve this, operating method standardisation is undertaken to reduce variability in work practices, thus allowing product and process quality standardisation and easier identification of improvement areas.
• Critically evaluate the lean approach. Consider whether lean was seen as a positive or negative impact on the organisation.
• In formulating your Key Concept Exercise, consider the following questions:
• What factors affected JIT success? What are examples of the modifications, problems and benefits of Total JIT implementation?
• If you work for the organisation that applies lean thinking, how would you integrate your lean thinking to your supply chain?
Be sure to read over your Key Concept Exercise before submitting it to your Instructor. Make sure the spelling and grammar are correct and the language citing, and referencing you use when providing your opinion are appropriate for academic writing.
This assignment is graded. See the rubric for specific grading criteria.
By Day 3, submit your Key Concept Exercise.
To submit your Key Concept Exercise to Turnitin, click the “View/Complete” link for Week 05 Key Concept Exercise — Turnitin.