Lean Principles and Application Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Lean Principles and Application - Essay Example p. 57). The challenges facing the sustenance of lean thinking include the need to develop the skills needed and the time needed to adjust to systems change. The lean production model is one that emphasizes the elimination of waste, by cutting down on the business processes that do not yield value to the customer, yet they consume production costs and time. The seven areas of waste reduction exploited by Toyota Motors include inventory, transportation, overproducing goods, waiting, defective products (defects) and over-processing. The success for the lean model is greatly hinged to change performance in the respective areas, for senior managerial staffs and also the employees. The advantages of the model include increase in productivity, reduction in product defects, and customer lead times. The benefits enjoyed in the long-term include increases in customer satisfaction, financial performance and staff morale (Dahlgaard and Dahlgaard-Park, 2006, p. 263). The model is heavily dependent on the principles of continuous improvement and making informed decisions at all points in the production process. The model works well for companies with clearly defined value chains, for example automotive (Toyota), pharmaceutical and industrial engineering companies. Business process management is the management model in use by the management of the department, and its outlook is relatively different from that of lean. When using this model, the R & D department will be explored in a holistic manner, as a collection of business processes. The model is used to leverage on the designing, modeling, execution, monitoring and the optimization of the production system, by automating the management of the processes. Through this paper, the writer will compare the differences in the organizational culture of Toyota (lean model) and that of the R & D department (BPM); the paper will explore the impacts of the differences in the implementation process for lean, and