Lean Operations Assignment - Essay Example

Lean Operations Assignment Q What is Value Stream? Is it different from Lean? Value stream is a manufacturing techniquethat divides products for manufacture in terms of the product types or the type of customers who need the products. However, at times value streams can form mergers with the firm’s criteria during production (Schonberger 1). Lean manufacturing is a way of product manufacture using the most cost and time effective means. Despite value stream manufacturing being a lean technique, it differs from canonical lean manufacturing technique in that it lays emphasis on customers’ special needs.

Lean technique lays emphasis on cost and time efficiency in manufacturing regardless of customer specifications. Q. 2. Summarize the performance metrics There are five major performance metrics for Boeing as discussed in the paper. These five include the process flow time, inventory, space of manufacturing, number of staff in rapid response team and production cost. Process flow time is the time that one unit of a Boeing plane takes from the first assembly point to the last point when its assembly is complete.

The inventory performance metric focuses on the number of raw material units in the storage and the number of days stay in the storage. Space of manufacturing as a performance metric focuses on space occupied by machinery used in manufacturing of the planes. Production cost is a major performance metric as it affects the profit of any company. In Boeing, the cost of production per unit is a major consideration (Schonberger 1). At Boeing there exist rapid response team staff whose job is to resolve problems that may arise in the assembly lines in the quickest way possible.

The number of rapid response staff on the assembly line is a major consideration when accessing the performance and efficiency of the assembly line. Q.3.Summary of problems faced by Boeing One challenge facing Boeing is the uncertainty of whether they should consolidate the assembling moving line and non-moving line into one super line. The value stream concept currently in use at Boeing is another issue that has been a challenge. There is a challenge of getting a better way to implement value stream technique at Boeing as the current concept in use is the jumbled.

Irregularity is another problem that Boeing faces due to the jumbled value stream concept currently in use. The irregularity faced is in regard to the number of parts required and members of the rapid response team required. The assembly line has also been having frequent problems which the rapid response team has had to take action on. These problems have been due to lack of repeatability, incoming materials delay and defective materials (Schonberger 2). Improving the fuel efficiency of the Boeing 737 is another issue presented in the paper as a challenge facing Boeing. Q.4.

Solutions approaches suggested by author for each issue Regarding the issue of consolidating of the moving and non-moving lines in a single super line, the author suggests that this would be a bad idea. Consolidation of the lines would increase time taken for each production, increase costs and the risks of disruption would be high (Schonberger 2). Instead, the author is of the idea that separate lines are necessary with more mobile facilities. On the current value stream concept currently at use at Boeing, the author is of the idea that line 1 and line 2 need separate value streams with specific tasks.

This would allow for line 1 to handle high-end plane configurations while line 2 would handle low-end configurations. On the issue of frequent problems arising on the assembly line, the author states that solution to these problems would be having a dedicated line 1. The author also suggests that the company should focus more on identifying of their popular plane configurations and understanding of their customers (Schonberger 3). This could be the missing ingredient Boeing production. Work Cited Schonberger, Richard.

"The Missing Ingredient?." Engineering and Management Solutions at Work. 43.6 (2011): 1-3.