The article on The Air Plane Game is very enlightening and makes it easier to understand the different aspects of lean manufacturing and lean accounting that would otherwise be challenging to understand. The game was an interesting one even for students who had no knowledge of the lean processes. After going through the game, the understanding of the lean processes become practical and a student is able to point out the various challenges that are encountered in the manufacturing process and how they can be overcome by both the participants and the management. In this case the management was represented by the MBA students at the raw materials supply, and the quality control point. The major lessons learnt from the article are as follows;
Training
Training is an essential requirement for employees that are involved in a lean process. They need to be highly trained so that they are skilled and highly aware of what is expected from them at every stage of a lean production process. For instance, the participants in the game understood that taking slightly more time at the production stage to improve the quality planes was better than taking a short time with production and eventually having the planes returned by the quality control team.
Communication
Almost every team that participated in the game concluded that communication is a very critical element in the lean process. More specifically, junior-level participants emphasized the importance of communication between the quality control team and the production team. Such communication will help the production team to understand exactly the expectations of the quality control team. This would reduce the instances where a product has to be redone by the production team or be regarded as scrap and thus, result into losses.
Inventory Control
Lean processes also involve inventory control. Having more inventory than is needed is usually costly for the company as there are costs of storage to be incurred as well as pilferage and accidental damages to the inventory. A lean process should therefore, ensure that the purchasing department has minimal inventory at the end of a period and the production department also has minimal work in progress inventory at the end of a period. The just-In-Time production model is one of the strategies that can be applied to lean manufacturing to ensure low levels of inventory.
Quality and Quantity
The simulation game teaches an important lesson on the importance of giving high preference to quality rather than quantity in a lean production process. Preference to quantity will result into high levels of production of low quality products that will eventually be returned by the quality control department. On the other hand, few but high quality products will go through the quality control stage and to the selling agent and hence spare the company the cost redoing a finished product.
In conclusion, the article has also demonstrated the importance of lean accounting in a lean manufacturing process. Lean accounting helps analyzing the cost involved and coming up with production strategies that help in reducing the costs and saving money. It is through lean accounting that the teams were able to realize that having many planes being redone or discarded was making the production process more expensive. Through lean accounting, the participants were able to understand that quality of the planes and a proper design that enabled them to fly far was more important than producing more faulty planes.
