Read the summary and the most important questions on Lean Production for Competitive Advantage A Comprehensive Guide to Lean Methodologies and Management Practices | 9781439894163 | John Nicholas

• 1 Race without a Finish Line

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• How did Xerox win back market share from the Japanese?

  By addopting new management approaches that included principles of lean production and total quaility management. costs were reduced by nearly 50% and production output doubled

• What is the fundamental and important beginning of differentiating competitiveness in industrial companies?

  Paying attention to customers and knowing what they want

• What distinguishes lean companies from traditional companies?

  • Making things better = quality
  • Making things cheaper = price
  • Making things faster = time
  • Being more agile = change
  • traditional seek improvement at discrete times through capital intensive means, wheras lean seek improvement through small continuous refinement in processes and procedures, and investment of human capital
    

• What are the differences between Lean firms and traditional manufacturers in terms of making things better (quality)?

  Tradition manufacturers:
  - strive for quality by relying heavily on CAD/CAM to enhance product design and manufacturability
  
  Lean firms:
  - rely more on group technology and cellular manufacturing
  - Good condition and proper placement of equipment
  - smaller manufacturing units
  - improved-focused employee team
  
  Both:
  - rely on statistical process control
  - Defect reduction programs
  - Vendor quality programs

• What are the differences between Lean firms and traditional manufacturers in terms of making things cheaper (price)?

  Traditional manufacturers:
  - tend to rely on job enlargement programs, automation, and robotics to reduce direct labor content
  
  Lean firms:
  - seek to achieve low costs by redesigning and simplifying products and processes
  - Standardized products
  - Reducing lead times and cycle times

• What are the differences between Lean firms and traditional manufacturers in terms of making things faster(time)?

  Traditional manufacturers:
  - rely on robotics and flexible manufacturing systems
  - Location of facilities
  - Improved labor-management relations.
  
  Lean firms:
  - Emphasize continuous reduction of lead times and setup times
  - Equipment maintenance
  - Broadening of workers' jobs

• What are the differences between Lean firms and traditional manufacturers in terms of being more agile(responsive to change)?

  Traditional firms:
  - Seek agility through technology
  - Process flow improvement
  - Quality management
  - Cross-functional communication improvement
  
  Lean firms:
  - Programs aimed at producing things better and faster also aim at agility.

• What is the difference between traditional and lean firms in terms of product development?

  Traditional firms:
  - products tend to move sequentially through functional areas
  
  Lean firms:
  - Production development teams - the latter allows integration during early design stages, take less time, and result in a better product at lower cost.

• What do Lean production and TQM emphasize?

  Continuous attention to product and process improvements, and involvement of frontline workers in those improvement efforts

• What is the focus of lean production organizations?

  On continuously identifying and removing sources of waste so that processes are continuously improved.