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1.

What could have been the key reasons behind successful implementation of Lean
Manufacturing at Easterline Technologies?

According to Rober cremin, COO and chairman-“Many companies talk about lean
manufacturing-we live and breathe it. For lean to be successful, management must create an
environment that honors the true value people bring to business. Making our people a responsible
part of a manufacturing team and giving them authority to change their own work for better has
been critical to success”.

The key contributing factor are

1. More power to people i.e. people involvement: Freedom to choose from a broad menu of tools
that worked for them simplifying product flow and level loading work across all process
elements, systematic thinking and view the entire process as an integrated set of activities.
2. Employee training.
3. Standardized task for continuous improvement.
4. Authority to change their work for better.
5. Performance measurement supported the implementation of lean initiatives.
6. Setting Annual goals: 1) Profitable Growth
2) Return of Investment
3) Aggressive implementation.

2. What do you think are the key implementation challenges faced by the Easterline Technologies
towards Lean implementation. How as Operations Manager working with Easterline’s Kory plant
would you have gone ahead with Lean implementation.

 Key implementation challenges are:


1. Conflict between Lean manufacturing and Esterline IT systems.
2. Rigid and inflexible IT systems.
3. No room for process modification if necessary.
4. IT systems failed to apply to process flow plant.
 Lean Implementations by Operations Manager
1. Most of the advantages of the ERP systems could be achieved through Process
Simplification.
2. Lean Production methods without relying on the complex computer systems.

3. “For Lean to be successful, Management must create an environment that honours the true
value people bring to the business”. Why do you think Bob Cremin’s comment is critical for Lean
implementation?

According to Bob Cremin, “Making our people responsible part of a manufacturing team.
Giving them authority to change their own work for the better has been critical to our success.
That is why i continuously travel to all our locations and talk directly to our workforce on the
importance of advancing Easterlines capabilities as a lean enterprise. During these visits I make it
clear that lean does not eliminate jobs – it creates capacity and opportunities, and I emphasize my
philosophies that changes more likely to occur if employee do not have their hands tied by
inflexible IT systems”.

Once the people were sure their jobs were not going to go away they started contributing for the
operational effectiveness of the system.

4. What do you think are the key reasons behind the failure of IT based MRP system in a
company which has successfully implemented Lean Management. How could you as an
Operations Manager could have done things differently.

 Jidoka was a concept of lean management which had no use in an IT platform because
problems were fixed immediately and there was no need for complex problem tracking.
 Lean concept like Corrective Action System had no need in the company because the
computer was able to perform this task very fastly
 There was no MRP that was actually present in the company before required for Vendor
Mnaged Inventory.

In 1998, core executives hired a team of consultants for a new MRP system. The consultants went
around the company asking the requirements from employees. So, 3 months into implementation,
core executives noted that asking employees what they wanted in a computer system is like
putting kids in a candy store.
Therefore, they had to call of the implementation and the exiting MRP system supported only
long range planning. By 2006, no longer support for MRP systems was available. So they had to
buy new software at any cost.

As an operations manager, rather than calling it off as a whole, I would have broken the processes
and gone for phased implementation with updated requirements.

5.How do you think Lean Operations where material flow is based on customer pull and MRP
systems which is based on material being pushed through the value stream can co-exist ?

Push and pull approaches have advantages and disadvantages. In a world of shrinking product
cycles, product proliferation, global competition, mass personalization, and volatile demand, you
need strategies and tools to support more efficient and effective performance. MRP’s forecast-
driven approach alone may not be up to the task, given its tenuous ties to demand. By the same
token, pull-based lean manufacturing means you need to be constantly on top of demand. A
combination of the two might be the best approach

 Enabling faster throughput, shorter manufacturing lead times, and reduces the amount of
inventory needed to support customer service objectives lowering production costs. Limits
WIP (work in progress) inventory levels.1 Just-in-time (JIT) material deliveries and
demand-pull scheduling reduce the incidence of excess inventory
 Instead of adopting a purely pull or push system, we can adopt a hybrid system where
customer demand will be met appropriately.

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