Lean Management has been successfully applied by companies around the world, mainly in production/manufacturing functions. Recently, the interest to investigate a wider application of Lean Management especially in service functions increased. However, it is not clear how Lean Management can be applied to IT organizations. Therefore, this study aims to provide an overview on common characteristi...

Actually, lean manufacturing is a must to improve productivity and reduce cost. One of the tools of lean is cellular manufacturing. This technique subdivides the factory to several small entities, which are easier to manage. The algorithm proposed in this paper is based on the simultaneous resolution of two interdependent problems. These two problems emerge when the notion of flexibility is int...

This paper reviews the Operational Improvement approaches of the last 30 years in Australia. They have included Group Technology, ERP, JIT, WCM, BP-R, TQM and Now Lean Manufacturing. It identifies what each approach consists of, the initial launch, implementation efforts and results. The paper finds that only the WCM program has had any real success. The reasons for the high failure rate for th...

High quality craft manufacturers adapting industrialized approaches to design and manufacturing face the challenge of maintaining the unique quality in their craft manufacturing while realizing improvements in efficiency through their industrialization process. We studied how quality is ensured and built into the products of one highly industrialized lean manufacturer and one craft manufacturer...

Computer manufacturers have been applying Six Sigma for continuous quality improvement and Lean Manufacturing for reducing process waste in order to maximally meet customer requirements. However, top computer manufacturers are now realizing the design and production with advanced capability for early failure detection, fault diagnostic and prediction will significantly improve product life cycl...

Once the company recognizes the need to change to compete, we need to define a way forward in implementing Lean Manufacturing. This guide consists of 5 phases: Plan, Implement, Deploy, Integrate and Excel. The first four stages are usually implemented from 1 year minimum to 10 years depending on the investment of time and resources in the project. Phase 5 has no end, because Lean is a philosoph...

With increased international competitiveness in the automotive industry, came the concern of the companies save costs and lower production costs. For this purpose many ways are designed to reduce costs and waste of raw materials and reduce activities that do not aggregate value to manufacturing processes. In the early XVII appears the manufacturing system, which processes were hard with little ...

The International Manufacturing Strategy Survey (IMSS) have collected data in 1992, 1996, 2000, and 2006. The paper does longitudinell studies on these data focussing on data relevant for Lean Management. We see that there has been an adoption of the Just in Time and Lean issues, but that there is still a way to go.

In order to face their global competitors, one solution consists for manufacturing companies around the world to implement the Toyota Production System (TPS). Lean manufacturing evolved from TPS. The purpose of the paper is to demonstrate that lean principles and concepts can be successfully applied in a company from the retail industry, such as Seven-Eleven Japan. Lean retailing is now a reali...