Introduction
Operation management importance has played a key role in the establishment of competitive advantage of many organizations. The importance of this field has, therefore, gained attention from managers in a bid to steer their organization in the path of continued growth in market share and consequent profitability (Slack, 2012). As a result, academician and managers have developed various strategies in order to improve the profitability of the organization. As such, there are three main improvement methodologies have been developed in relation to operation management and process control. Therefore, as the global competition continuously grows, the pressure to adopt the most workable approach is adopted by various companies.
Lean Thinking
Henry Ford is the person that is accredited to be the pioneer of the lean management approach in the United States. Also, Fredrick Taylor and industrial engineer Dr. Deming, who is seen as the father of quality control, are other key Americans whose works had an immense contribution to the subject of lean management. In Japan, the concepts have also been applied widely with Taiichi Ohno, Eliji Toyoda and Shingo Shineo being the pioneer people to refine the concepts of lean management in the Toyota production system. According to Taachi, the role of the Toyota production line was to shrink the time involved between when the order is made and the time the order is converted into cash. Therefore, according to the three specialists, there were seven significant wastages that the approach reduces substantially namely (Plenert, 2007).
Over production wastage implies that the methods will results to the elimination of producing of more commodities than the amount in which the customers had ordered.
Waiting wastage refers to the time consumed when there is no value that was being added to the product. The main cause of waiting can be attributed to the high level of inventory, employees and information
Transportation wastage refers to the unwarranted movement of parts, multiple movements of parts and any other movement that does not add any value to the production value addition process. Several reasons are attributed to the transportation problem namely the high level of inventory, the layout of the value adding production system and frequent shifting of priorities in the company.
Inventory wastage refers to unwarranted work in progress, raw material and finished goods. Therefore, this is attributing to the company making investment in material that the customers do not currently need. Also, ‘just in case’ mentality and the flow of inventory can be attributed with the inventory wastage.
Motion wastage refers to the movement of the company employee that does not have any value addition purpose to the production line. The main causes of this wastage can be attributed to poor flow of work due to designs and the inefficient workplace organization structure. In some cases, the unnecessary movement may be the cause of health concerns to the organization.
Over Processing wastage refers to the wastage that arises, as a result, of addition of processes that do not add value in the production line. As such, this can be attributed to the thought that when one continues to work on the product will make it of high quality. However, such thinking is wasteful as it results to zero value added to the process.
Defects wastage refers to the form of wastage that is caused by the need to rework or even a total reconstruction of the product. Therefore, it implies that there are some work efforts that will need to be done away with in order to achieve the quality standards that are needed by the customer. Poor production line, ineffective equipment and lack of adequate process control are some of the reasons that result to the high rate of defective items.
However, latest research and developments in this filed have identified another wastage category. The eighth wastage category has been called a failure to tap into the human creativity. As such, this wastage means that the company fails to embrace the dynamics in relation to human thinking that can be effective in assisting the organization improves o its products.
The basic foundation was popularized in the United States and consequently in the other parts of the world by James Womack and Daniel Jones in the 90’s. As a result, the lean concept evolved from lean manufacturing to the modern day lean thinking concept (Bamford and Forrester, 2010). Therefore, the work by jones and Womack can be understood in terms of five principles of lean management. As such, Toyota applies the concepts as follows;
Specification of the value is one of the five concepts that govern lean management. Therefore, as stated in the work of jones and Womack, the most important starting point in lean management is value. Also, they added that the value can only be defined by the final user of the commodity whereby the consumer will define the value by evaluating the extent to which the products meet the expectation. Therefore, this will amount to evaluation of the quality of the product.
Identification of the steps in the value stream is the second principle. Therefore, for one to benefit from the concept of lean thinking, it is paramount that one has effectively to evaluate the flow of work, in relation to materials and information, in order to bring out a high quality product that has the capability of meeting the customers' expectation. As such, after a successful mapping of the value addition stream, then it becomes possible for one to identify the value adding steps and the non-value adding steps (Plenert, 2007).
Creation of a smooth flow is the third principle. Therefore, after one has identified the value adding steps, the most logical action to take is ensuring that the steps are arranged in such a manner that smooth’s flow of work is realized. The importance of the flow is reducing the lead time and wastage.
Customer pulls value is the fourth concept. The essence of this principle is summing up the first three principles into an actual process. Therefore, the principle relates to a situation in which first three principles are assembled together to form a working production system that will only produce the amount of products that match the demand of the product (Bamford and Forrester, 2010). This is called the pull system of production. The pull is the exact opposite of push system that relied on forecast or production schedule. As such, at this level, the Toyota production lines are created.
Seeking perfection is the last principle that lean thinking is founded. Under this principle, the company is deemed to continuous seek to understand the concept of value as viewed by the customer. Therefore, the principle makes Toyota Company continuously to refine its production line to match the changing customer perception of value (Bamford and Forrester, 2010).
The company combines lean thinking with two other control approaches namely six sigma and theory of constraints. Therefore, the importance of six sigma come in handy in the company aim of reducing defects, reduction of the cycle time and increasing throughputs and customer satisfaction. As the advancement of Carl Frederick Gauss works on normal curves and analysis and Walter Shewhart works in control charts, Motorola developed this tool that has become a significant model in operation management and quality control.
Six Sigma Management Systems
The application of the model is based on advancements made by Motorola that resulted to the development of six sigma management system that addressed the initial challenges that limited the effectiveness of the method. However, the system is still based on the founding principles that were earlier held. As such, the six sigma applied by the company is based on the following concepts
Define is the first concept, which is the most important stage in this model. At this stage, the company creates the process map, project charter is developed and the customer critical requirements are defined (Furterer, 2009). At this stage, this is the first phase in which lean thinking and six sigma management systems are integrated. As such, the process map that will be used is defined based on lean thinking.
Measure is the second concept. The company engages in the identifying what is to be measured. Therefore, this will be essential since it determines the data that will be collected, the data collection plan, calculation of the base sigma and the performance of the baseline capabilities.
Analyze is the third concept that is applied. As such, due to the importance that prevails in the need of establishing and identifying that a problem exists in the first place, this stage serves as the defining stage that will assist the management to identify actual existence of wastage (Furterer, 2009). At this stage, the firm conducts data analysis, root-cause analysis and process analysis.
Improve is the fourth concept. At this stage, the company considers the entire outcome from the first three stages and considers the most appropriate way of improving. Also, the second combination between lean thinking and six sigma management system is observed. This is because the process map that was used to obtain the data is defined through sigma thinking (Furterer, 2009). Consequently, in the event that the production line will need to be improved, and then it implies that the lean thinking model will also be reviewed to spot the wastage process. Control is the continuous process is which the sigma management system is monitored to ensure that it operates in the expected manner.
The purpose of the six sigma management system is process improvement (Slack, 2012). Therefore, if the process is currently functioning optimally and fails to meet the expected results, then it implies that the production system needs to be redesigned.
Theory of Constrains (TOC)
The theory of constraints is another supportive concept in operation management. The theory holds the view that a chain analogy is only as strong as its weakest link (Dettmer, 1997). Therefore, any improvement that does not address the weakest link is a waste.
It has been argued that TOC is a tool that only focuses on the chasing HERBIEs. However, from a critical perspective, TOC can be seen as a tool that focuses on the manner to improve and control system constraints (HERBIEs) in the system as a whole. Therefore, the theory primary focus is on the entire system that comprises of various interdependent subsystems (Dettmer, 1997). In other words, TOC is an approach that first focuses on the system leverage points and the effect that all the other components of the system may have on the leverage points of the system.
TOC is based on scientific concepts of cause and effects in understanding the systems. In science, there is a common conviction that in many effects, there are usually very few causes. As such, the application of the cause and effect construct becomes the guiding principle in evaluating processes in this approach (Dettmer, 1997). In most cases, many organizations treat the symptom instead of addressing the cause. However, in the company, this theory is seen to be playing supportive roles in the application of six sigma management and lean thinking.
TOC is based on a thorough understanding of the system that is being evaluated. Therefore, this is realized earlier by application of both lean and six sigma management system. Upon fulfillment of this requirement, the company applies the following steps (Dettmer, 1997);
- Identification of constrains
- Determination of how to exploit the identified constraints
- Subordinate everything else to the identified constraints
- Elevate the system identified constraints if there is justifiable need to do so
- In the event that constrains have been broken, then start over from step one. However, one should not let resistance be a constrain
However, the application of the listed steps mainly relates to physical constraints. In most cases, their application is usually straightforward and obvious. However, there are complex constraints that relate to the policies that the organization is using. In such a situation, the company applies the five steps as follows (Dettmer, 1997);
- What to change
- What to change to
- How to cause the change
The application of this approach is beneficial to the firm since it looks at the world through the lenses of cause and effect logic and consequently focuses on managing the system constraints, variability and interdependence. Therefore, the company decision to apply it as part of its operation management plays a major role in boosting the company operation management policies since it boosts the application of both lean and six sigma.
Conclusion
The company has achieved the most effective production lines in the modern history of manufacturing. Therefore, it is evident that the combination in application of the most popular operation management and quality control tools has yielded desirable results that can be emulated. Therefore, although the success in the production line is also due to other factors, it is factual to claim the application of the three approaches has boosted Toyota production lines.
References
Bamford, D. R., and Forrester, P. L. 2010. Essential guide to operations management concepts and case notes. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.
Dettmer, H. W. 1997. Goldratt's theory of constraints: a systems approach to continuous improvement. Milwaukee, Wis. ASQC Quality Press.
Furterer, S. L. 2009. Lean Six Sigma in service: applications and case studies. Boca Raton. CRC Press.
Plenert, G. J. 2007. Reinventing lean introducing lean management into the supply chain. Burlington, Mass. Butterworth-Heinemann.
Slack, N. 2012. Operations and process management: principles and practice for strategic impact (3rd ed.). Harlow. Pearson.
