Inventory, Management, and Scheduling Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Inventory, Management, and Scheduling - Essay Example In this system, rather than placing the inventory in the centralized warehouses, it is placed in small stockpiles conventionally referred to as kanban at strategic points along the assemble line. â€Å"Both [lean manufacturing and the Total Quality Management (TQM)] strategies empower workers on the assembly line, in the belief that those closest to production have the greatest knowledge of how the production system should work† (Blacharski, 2011). Example of the lean manufacturing system can be of a car manufacturing company that takes the order for making a certain type and number of tyres for a day, and the producers are required to deliver them within a limited time to a certain loading bay. Companies benefit from the lean manufacturing because the use of kanban serves to cause a considerable reduction in the amount of waste along with bringing a manifold improvement in the overall productivity of the work. Lean manufacturing also ensures that the work is accomplished in accordance with the consumers’ expectations about the quality of the product. In order to achieve this, each part is analyzed for defects immediately after its creation. In case a defect is noticed, functioning of the production line comes to a halt in order to allow the analysts to determine the problem in its very initial stages. Requirements for balancing JIT and lean systems include commitment of all departments of aligning with a unified goal that is acknowledged and approved by the top management so that planning can be done and resources can be arranged in time accordingly. Initial stages of implementation of lean system require a lot of financial commitment. In order to achieve the required level of efficiency in the system, it is imperative that employees are adequately empowered. Production decisions should be allowed to be made at the lowest level in the hierarchy of the organization structure. Employees that are the most affected if a company decides to switch to a