Background and situation

The article talks about several problems that might happen in the process, the line of on-going improvements, and how to improve the plant process by corresponding measures. Bottlenecks are the barriers to process improvement. The steps for solving bottlenecks are to identify them and decide how to exploit them.

After implementing strategies for solving problems, an evaluation system is important to give feedback. Once the bottleneck has been broken, another bottleneck will go the same pathway. The steps on the system’s constraints go similar ways. And problems in the process are usually about efficiency improvement, batch size setting, cost control, inventory management.

In terms of process management, it involves both material and people behavior. In the real situation, plan schedule, release material in advance, rebuild the inventory for buffer time, budget and cost are considerations when making process decisions. In the organization, the contribution of a person is strongly dependent on the performance of other people and the goals of organizations.

For example, in this case, the responsibilities of these people are different. Therefore, they will think about the problems from different aspects such as capacity constraint, sales. Because of the need to coordinate the interests of all parties, the plant issues usually become complicate.

2.Synopsis of assigned reading on “Lean supply chain & logistics mgmt.”

What is included in the readings, why do you believe it was assigned for this week?

The content in this topic is the Lean opportunity assessment (LOA). It helps to identify the potential improvement in the organizations. For assessment, the various aspects of the target organizations should be identified and analyzed. Ranging from the traditional supply chain to the world-class supply chain are covered in the template. The Value Stream Mapping (VSM) is the first step to the LOA.

It means all actions, including value-added and non-value added activities that deliver products and services to customers. Therefore, the map could assess the value stream from beginning to end based on a team approach. Moreover, the benefits result from the Value Stream Mapping (VSM) are obvious as it connects the flow of activities, information, and material that make impacts on lead time.

However, it is important to narrow down the scope of VSM to a specific product segmentation when applying this method. As one of the barriers of process, bottlenecks are expected to be identified and improved. Because it decided the constraints and limitations of the whole process performance. In the section, steps on how to create VSM are mentioned and explained with a detailed examples.

For the development of VSM in the future, the main improvement would focus on creating a continuous, flexible, agile system to face the fast-changing market. In fact with the customer needs, a good understanding and correct inflection on customer needs to product requirements are very important to better satisfy their needs. Digitalization application in the supply chain and logistics would be promising topics.

3. Collaborations and discussion

The first material shows a real problem that happens in the process. Employees discussed the found solution to the problem. And the solution covers lean process management. The second part of the material, mentions the definition, benefits, evaluation, and other aspects of the lean supply chain. It gives theoretical supports and directions for real industrial problems.

To be more specific, the lean supply chain comes up with five performance aspects, which are delivery reliability, responsiveness, flexibility, cost control, asset management. These five topics are mentioned in the first reading material in an oral way. Therefore, although the expressions of the two materials are different, they actually made relevant suggestions and conclusions for lean.

For delivery, the right time and right place are important to reliability. Measures on delivery performance such as data, shipping conditions, order fill rate, accurate fulfillment are crucial indexes, which is related to the quality of responsiveness.

Proved by the reading material, a balanced scorecard is a good way to think and evaluate comprehensively in the plant. It looks at four different views of financial, customer, internal business processes, learning, and growth to ensure success from each of the identified perspectives. These are tied to the job responsibilities of different roles in the organization, as shown in the detailed discussion in the first reading material.

Reference

1. Myerson, P. (2013). Lean supply chain and logistics management. New York: McGraw-Hill Education.
2.Goldratt, E., Cox, J., & Goldratt, E. (2014). The goal a process of ongoing improvement (4th ed.). Japan: 2014 Goldratt1, Ltd.