Case Study Of Lean Manufacturing

Lean manufacturing can truly transform an organization. Indeed, by its very definition, the lean manufacturing process will not be successful unless a company changes the way it does business. What do the experiences of bank management tell us about what it takes to succeed?

Management commitment - The lean manufacturing process is implemented at the worker level, but it has to start at, and be clearly supported by, top management. For example, the general manager/chief executive officer should be involved in leading some Kaizen events. An ongoing 20% improvement in productivity does not happen by itself.

Management must be involved and personally vested in the results. Top management should expect their personal commitment to exceed one year

Lean manufacturing needs a full-time champion to facilitate the process. Dedicated staffing should be equal to about 1% of plant site workers. For a floor with 100 employees, there should be 1 person with no other duties aside from focusing on lean manufacturing. For the smaller floor, the lean manufacturing champion will have non-production complementary duties such as quality control, personnel, or process engineering. A lean manufacturing initiative will typically reduce salaried and hourly staffing enough to easily find the appropriate headcount. Hiring should be from within if the right person is available and lean manufacturing training can be provided. Alternatively, about half of producers have hired a person with lean manufacturing experience and then trained them in the molded concrete business. An active and aggressive lean manufacturing champion will more than pay for his or her

For any change in organization to take hold and success, the resistance forces or barriers need to be identified and understood. Failure to access organizational and individual change readiness may result the management to spend significant time and energy. Dealing with resistance to change requires a lot of risk and hard work. The lean barriers are analyzed based on the status of lean implementation by the respondent Banks, which are indicated from the previous experiences. The three main barriers in non-lean firms are the lack of lean understanding, lack of senior management and middle management attitudes. On the other hand firms which are in-transition towards lean system, most of their barriers are in the lack of lean understanding and employees’ attitude. Again for lean firms, lack of lean understanding is identified as the main barrier to implement LM system successfully. Interestingly, all firms recognize the main barrier is the lack of lean understanding. This is because LM requires new knowledge and cultural change during the transition. LM should be applied comprehensively and holistically in principles and concepts. The ability of people to respond and adapt is critical when they face any change in situation. Appropriate communication and training on the concept and basic principles of LM system would give greater level of understanding about the system and encourage motivation and innovation in the work