Question

Critical Thinking

The global marketplace has witnessed an increased pressure from customers and competitors in manufacturing as well as service sector (Basu, 2001; George, 2002). Due to the rapidly changing global marketplace only those companies will be able to survive that will deliver products of good quality at cheaper rate and to achieve their goal companies try to improve performance by focusing on cost cutting, increasing productivity levels, quality and guaranteeing deliveries in order to satisfy customers (Raouf, 1994).

Increased global competition leads the industry to increasing efficiency by means of economies of scale and internal specialization so as to meet market conditions in terms of flexibility, delivery performance and quality (Yamashina, 1995). The changes in the present competitive business environment are characterized by profound competition on the supply side and keen indecisive in customer requirements on the demand side. These changes have left their distinctive marks on the different aspect of the manufacturing organizations (Gomes et al., 2006). With this increasing global economy, cost effective manufacturing has become a requirement to remain competitive.

To meet all the challenges organizations try to introduce different manufacturing and supply techniques. Management of organizations devotes its efforts to reduce the manufacturing costs and to improve the quality of product. To achieve this goal, different manufacturing and supply techniques have been employed. The last quarter of the 20th century witnessed the adoption of world-class, lean and integrated manufacturing strategies that have drastically changed the way manufacturing firm’s leads to improvement of manufacturing performance (Fullerton and McWatters, 2002).

1. Assess the reasons for using lean thinking (suitable examples), what are the benefits from Suppliers to end users?

2. Due to COVID 19 emergency do you think agile supply chain is the right concept in this kind of situation? Give reason with example.

The Answer should be within 1- 2 pages. for each question

The Answer must follow the outline points below:

• Lean Thinking and JIT Concept
• Agile Supply chain
• Their Main functions
• Reasons with suitable Examples
• Reference

Answer 1

Reasons for using lean thinking:

Lean Production eliminates and/or minimizes out - of-process non-value job operation. Below are four reasons that a business would start adopting Lean Thinking:

• Streamlines the operations of the enterprise – Implementing Lean allows a supplier to streamline their procedures in the organization, from the front office to delivery. Efficiencies are experienced, and the producer is capable of operating to the max. It results in lower production prices and greater volume to market.
• Removes waste-Lean tackles the Nine Waste Areas: travel, material, waiting time, transportation, knowledge, efficiency, overproduction, manufacturing and innovation. An organization can reduce time wasted on repetitive projects by disposing of waste.
• Lean will develop employee commitment – To create a Lean project, an organization needs to understand that improvement is required. Using Lean operations needs a commitment to all members of the team. Use Lean methods in many instances also allowed a company-wide evaluation of their production practices, which promotes collaboration and coordination.
• The work never gets completed – "constant change" is a core aspect of Lean. This means there are constant changes to get leaner.

Lean thinking changes the whole process. It improves customer satisfaction, increases employee satisfaction as well as improves the process to reduce the cost which then later can be transferred to the customers.

Yes, I think an agile supply chain is a right concept in this COVID19 situation.

The agile supply chain essentially relates to the use of agility, competency, versatility, and intensity to control how effectively an individual in the supply chain works every day. Like the lean supply chain, the agile supply chain, as described by Martin Christopher in Industrial Marketing Magazine, uses real- and modified knowledge to optimize existing processes and real- against market forecasts while helping to increase the overall performance and competitiveness of the organization.

Another main advantage of supply chain stability is to focus on preventing future shortage and reducing overly packed inventories. Overstocking inventory was, in a way, a traditional Lean model reaction. Since lean definition focuses on making operations more productive and productive, many supply chain companies often ending up with a large product inventory. Unfortunately, developments in the global environment, customer appetite and the rising automation of goods have led to a reduction of prices as inventory has become ineffective or discarded over time.
In a McKinsey & Company survey, up to 94 percent of businesses that have integrated supply chain strategies with other approaches will deliver on schedule and incomplete, without keeping stock for more than 85 days. Similarly, businesses that did not adopt agile methods often kept inventory rates for more than 108 eight days in the factory, and only 87 % of deliveries were on-time. It would not even address how many orders, such as delays in delivery procedures, customization, or failures in order selection systems, may not have been met.
The above knowledge offers insight into how lean principles vary from an agile value chain in the supply chain. Yet a full definition of supply chain agility has to clarify how lean principles apply to the agile supply chain.

The organization has eliminated additional costs along the way for supply chain companies who have adopted or incorporated lean principles in supply change management.

For instance, using a computerized program to make orders and robotics automatically to select those orders will be similar to leaving the concepts in supply chain management.

The flaw in the lean supply chain, however, lies in the fact that this insight obtained from the lean supply chain isn't used to provide a systematic, objective prediction of what is expected in the future. Consequently, the supply chain also has overstocking problems and is unable to offer an almost optimal degree of exposure.

Moreover, among many other considerations, the agile supply chain will respond to dynamically evolving conditions such as climate, innovation, patterns, and consumer demands. Through allowing a supply chain to respond to these problems quickly, supply chain companies may successfully handle the chaos that can occur and pose itself in the manufacturing, delivery, and reverse supply chain of logistics.
Practices of agility allow the supply chain to improve the way operations are run. The supply chain might have enhanced the efficiency of individual workers with the introduction of lean principles. Nonetheless, as GT Nexus and Kurt Salmon clarified, the introduction of agile supply chain approaches with integrated real-time data and reserve compositions for raw materials must be put as near as possible to the finished product. Resilience helps supply chain participants to work together to deliver the number of commodities needed hourly, not dependent on weekly, monthly, or annual predictions. In general, agile approaches are a way of bringing the lean supply chain and strengthening it to adapt and cultivate partnerships between supplier and client to a producer.

Agility also brings other benefits to the supply chain business. Supply chain institutions may respond to high variance while retaining resilience, as Martin Christopher explains abrupt increases in quantity. Sadly, this means that, if such products are available, the supply chain may not be able to deliver a large number of goods. As a result, supply chain companies who have adopted agile supply chain strategies realize who real-time data means that the unexpected demand shift could occur without notice and could compromise the supplier relationship. Such companies have also tried to find ways to both arrive at the same final product but with a personalized result for each order.

For instance, a supply chain agency may not publish the individual products of fashion or garment printing until such time that a customer has already purchased such products. However, this means that printing on the products would not be feasible until a request has been produced and, therefore, the printing operations would have to take place as close to the location where the order will be completed as feasible. In the end, this key stage in the agile supply chain dates back to breaking down hierarchical silos and static systems to help satisfy local demands.