Question

make recommendations for lean improvements in such areas as scheduling, layout, kanban, task groupings, and inventory. Use quantitative data as much as possible; state necessary assumptions

Answer 1

To have lean improvements it is better to have quality assurance experts on board to work on the quality related issues or trained employees to react to the actions on existing bad quality issues. This can be done by adopting the Just-in-time (JIT) strategy for lean improvement by reducing the waste which helps in doing the right work at first time, by ending the process immediately as things goes wrong. The employees can act on the quality of the output they produced by enabling the quality among them. In case of the fast pace of the work if any of the issues percolated against the quality then employees themselves should stop the work. Regular stand up meetings or ‘quality circles’ can be introduced to have common meetings on quality issues which helps in reducing quality defects by having proper solutions. The usage of JIT does not leave any room for surplus activities by applying the simple rule of ‘when you can’t do it then no need of it’. The essential elements to have advantage from lean principles such as focuses networks, usage of Kanban product control system, use of JIT principles, use of minimum time principle to complete the task.