- Visit a repetitive manufacturing facility in your area. What are the major causes of inventory? Be sure to ask about lot sizes and setup times. Would a lean
production system work in this facility? Why or why not?
- Define repetitive manufacturing and compare it with job shop or batch manufacturing.
- Why did the concepts, principles, and techniques of lean emerge and evolve in Japan, not in the Western countries?
- State the lean tenets in your own words.
- Why is a stable master schedule desirable for a lean
production system? What is the effect if it is not stable?
- How can lot sizes and inventories be reduced in a lean production system? Discuss specific approaches.
- Describe typical supplier relations before and after embracing lean tenets.
- How do workers and managers in a lean production system differ from their counterparts in traditional non lean environments?
- Discuss how lean thinking can lead to a reduction of costs (material, labor, overhead), other than inventory. Be specific.
- Are there repetitive manufacturing firms that should not use lean? Why?
- Find an example from the Internet of the application of lean thinking to a service operation. Describe how the lean tenets are applied in this setting.
- How can lean thinking be applied to accounting, finance, human resources, and marketing processes?
- Identify some of the seven forms of waste in the following situations.
- Restaurant
- Doctor’s office
- Construct a value stream map for the following processes.
- Cafeteria
- Grocery store
- What does it mean to say that a supply chain can be too
lean? Give examples why this may be a problem
