<p>There is usually much reaction among employees when a new system is introduced in an organization. These things are intended to improve performance but sometimes cause considerable controversy amongst the employees and management. This study examines the implementation of LE and it attempts to analyse the reactions of employes in a manufacturing company in South Africa - GKN Sinter Metals (GKN), Cape Town. According to the literature review, the implementation of the LE can play a significant role in improving the company's performance.</p>

<p>There is usually much reaction among employees when a new system is introduced in an organization. These things are intended to improve performance but sometimes cause considerable controversy amongst the employees and management. This study examines the implementation of LE and it attempts to analyse the reactions of employes in a manufacturing company in South Africa - GKN Sinter Metals (GKN), Cape Town. According to the literature review, the implementation of the LE can play a significant role in improving the company's performance.</p>

Magister Commercii - MCom / There is usually much reaction among employees when a new system is introduced in an organization. These things are intended to improve performance but sometimes cause considerable controversy amongst the employees and management. This study examines the implementation of LE and it attempts to analyse the reactions of employes in a manufacturing company in South Africa - GKN Sinter Metals (GKN), Cape Town. According to the literature review, the implementation of the LE can play a significant role in improving the company's performance. / South Africa

The diploma thesis describes practical usage of Lean Enterprise and Six sigma tools in Honeywell Brno o. z. The aim of this diploma thesis is to demonstrate Lean Enterprise and Six Sigma tools like one of the most effective tools of continous improvement in production.

Lean Production is a well-established concept that has been most prominent within the car manufacturing industry. It bases on the ide to remove all waste and to strip away unnecessary steps that do not add value to the customer. Agile, on the other hand, is a flexible concept, aimed to stay put during volatile circumstances. This thesis deals with the phenomena of Lean Enterprise, which is an elongation of Lean Production. Now the whole organization, on all levels, is included. The thesis also explores the concept of agile, as in agile development and not in a software focus. The purpose of this study is to identify the dispersion between lean and agile philosophies and methods of working within the Swedish textile industry. No previous research about this subject have been made, solely on Lean Production, both in the textile sector and others, or Lean Enterprise, but then not within the chosen sector. Moreover, have no study been made regarding the Swedish textile sector. In order to pursue this study the authors had to explain what characteristics that are describing the phenomena of Lean Production, Pettersens (2009) research was chosen to display these. Then, these groups of characteristics were transmitted into a suitable Lean Enterprise way of thinking, to lift lean up from solely producing environments. By using this information a quantitative survey with 33 assertions have been assembled and executed on three different companies with a total of 16 respondents. The conclusions that can be drawn from this study are that there are indications that lean do exist on an operative level, throughout whole organizations, with the most prominent group of characteristics being scientific management. The least implemented group of lean characteristics within the participated companies is defects control. The results also did indicate that agile characteristics do exist but however in various amounts and in various parts. This thesis is a pilot study which will be used as the fundament for an upcoming study, therefore the latter part of this thesis’s purpose was to conduct, test and give suggestions for improving a survey. / Program: Applied Textile Management

<p>This study is about to see whether the two models representing the strategies of lean production is to use and apply in different companies. The models are structured in two different ways in which one of them is checking the softer elements of lean production in the form of leadership and strategies. This model is called Lesat and is based on interviewquestions. The second model, called "learning to see" is about identifying flows. This, together shall then give an idea of how mature companies are when it comes to a whole in the concept of lean production, and susceptibility to use these models to their respective companies.</p><p> </p><p>The study is conducted in two companies, SKF couplings systems and AQ parkoprint. SKF is a company that makes connections through a special method called the oil injection method. Parkoprint produces mainly parking meters of all kinds, this is done in close cooperation with customers and their preferences.</p><p> </p><p>The study has been carried out by means of interviews of individuals in leadership positions in each business. We also interviewed operations personnel and has developed facts through observation and computer systems to make the flow surveys.</p><p> </p><p>The results show that the models themselves are useful and functional. However, it became more difficult to use the Lesat showing soft data, rather than "learn to see" that focuses mostly on flows. This is for several reasons. One of the reasons was that the companies examined were not quite at the level existing strategies and leadership that Lesat calls, this makes it difficult to estimate where in the assessment firms ports when the people interviewed do not really are in line or understand how the model or concept works in some areas. In addition to this we experienced it difficult to make a fair assessment when the model in any way based on subjective assessments from companies and then marked in a way that also tends to be of subjective nature. From this perspective, we believe that Lesat model fit better in a study of the companies that has made more of work on lean production and has achieved a higher degree of maturity, and thus become a little easier to rate and provide a more realistic sense.</p><p> </p><p>It appears that the models worked with different conditions and also with different results. However, the two worked so well that it clearly has been able to see the potential strengths, weaknesses and possible improvements in the respective organization. This means that the combination of the two satisfactory to achieve a whole, and that any use, ie organization, can help to improve and lead organizations to more effectively work with and against the lean production.</p>

This study is about to see whether the two models representing the strategies of lean production is to use and apply in different companies. The models are structured in two different ways in which one of them is checking the softer elements of lean production in the form of leadership and strategies. This model is called Lesat and is based on interviewquestions. The second model, called "learning to see" is about identifying flows. This, together shall then give an idea of how mature companies are when it comes to a whole in the concept of lean production, and susceptibility to use these models to their respective companies.   The study is conducted in two companies, SKF couplings systems and AQ parkoprint. SKF is a company that makes connections through a special method called the oil injection method. Parkoprint produces mainly parking meters of all kinds, this is done in close cooperation with customers and their preferences.   The study has been carried out by means of interviews of individuals in leadership positions in each business. We also interviewed operations personnel and has developed facts through observation and computer systems to make the flow surveys.   The results show that the models themselves are useful and functional. However, it became more difficult to use the Lesat showing soft data, rather than "learn to see" that focuses mostly on flows. This is for several reasons. One of the reasons was that the companies examined were not quite at the level existing strategies and leadership that Lesat calls, this makes it difficult to estimate where in the assessment firms ports when the people interviewed do not really are in line or understand how the model or concept works in some areas. In addition to this we experienced it difficult to make a fair assessment when the model in any way based on subjective assessments from companies and then marked in a way that also tends to be of subjective nature. From this perspective, we believe that Lesat model fit better in a study of the companies that has made more of work on lean production and has achieved a higher degree of maturity, and thus become a little easier to rate and provide a more realistic sense.   It appears that the models worked with different conditions and also with different results. However, the two worked so well that it clearly has been able to see the potential strengths, weaknesses and possible improvements in the respective organization. This means that the combination of the two satisfactory to achieve a whole, and that any use, ie organization, can help to improve and lead organizations to more effectively work with and against the lean production.

The diploma thesis focuses on the analysis of the company and its evaluation. The practical part of the thesis includes proposal to expand the business by producing a selected product rather than solely providing services to the sector in order to increase sales and level of customer care.

This research explores the effect of proposed management policies and related structures on the dynamics of value streams, particularly under demand instability. It relies on methods from the systems thinking and modeling literature and was designed to fulfill three main objectives. Objective 1: Provide insight into the causes of problematic behavior in traditional value streams. Objective 2: Identify modes of demand behavior suitable for pull-based systems operation. Objective 3: Propose and test alternative value stream management policies and structures. The achievement of objectives 1 and 3 required the fulfillment of both a hypothetical and a real case. The hypothetical case was designed to describe the problem and improvement alternatives in generic terms, whereas the real case served to contextualize the main generic modeling elements in a real world situation, thus serving as an illustrative example. The research approach was one based on system dynamics modeling and simulation methodologies that reflect the scientific method. Three alternative policies were created and tested. Policy 1: a decision rule for altering the number of kanbans in circulation at the protective decoupling inventory during production cycles. Policy 2: a decision rule for defining the amount of demand to include in value stream schedules. Policy 3: a decision rule for setting a purposefully unbalanced downstream production capacity. The results suggest a benefit from the combined use of Policies 2 and 3 in the face of sudden demand peaks. Policy 1 is expected to provide minor benefits but also significantly increase the risk of upstream instability and therefore its use is not recommended. This study provides a causality perspective of the structure of value streams, and gives enterprise engineers new insights into the state-of-the-art in value stream design. / Ph. D.

Podemos perceber muitos avanços e progressos na sistemática de gestão e controle de sistemas produtivos. Estes avanços têm sido reportados tanto por especialistas acadêmicos quanto por gestores e formadores de opinião. Técnicas inovadoras de administração e gestão em diversas áreas e processos de negócio (tais como desenvolvimento de produtos, logística integrada e cadeias de suprimentos, gestão da qualidade, estratégias de vendas diferenciadas, etc.) têm impulsionado melhores resultados de forma cada vez mais dinâmica. Fazem parte deste contexto, em especial, os conceitos da Produção Enxuta, que não se limitam aos aspectos técnicos e podem permear os diversos níveis e áreas de uma organização. No entanto, podem ser relatados diversos problemas (e, portanto, oportunidades) relacionados à falta de um tratamento sistêmico para lidar com a variação (ou desnivelamento) na utilização da capacidade produtiva, dentre os quais podemos destacar: vendas desbalanceadas em relação à capacidade do sistema produtivo (em termos de volume e/ou variedade), desnivelamento de vendas ao longo de determinados períodos (ao longo do mês, por exemplo), sistemas de premiação e desempenho que desencorajam a adoção de comportamentos nivelados, etc. Este trabalho explora referências bibliográficas acerca das principais fontes causadoras deste tipo de comportamento desnivelado e, em seguida, será apresentado um modelo simplificado para representação das entidades envolvidas e seus relacionamentos associados à geração de variabilidade. As principais causas e problemas serão relacionados neste modelo e, por fim, são apresentadas as principais soluções, ferramentas e dicas identificadas na literatura e em aplicações práticas na busca pela eliminação destes problemas. / Several advances and progress may be noticed regarding management and control issues of productive systems. These advances have been reported both by managers and by academic experts and opinion formers. Innovative techniques of administration and management in various areas and business processes (such as product development, integrated logistics and supply chain, quality management, sales strategies, differentiated, etc.) have driven to increasingly better results. Included in this context, are the Lean Production Principles, which are not limited to technical aspects and can permeate several areas and business processes of an organization with significant gains. However, they may be reported several problems (and opportunities) related to the lack of a systemic treatment to deal with the variability (or unevenness) of the demand for productive resources, among which we highlight: sales unbalanced in relation to the capacity of the production system (in terms of volume and/or variety of products mix), great variation of total sales among certain periods (during the month, for example), performance and reward systems that discourage the adoption of leveled behaviors. This paper explores bibliographical references on the variation of demand for productive resources and then will be presented a simplified model for representing the involved entities and their relationships associated with the generation of demand variation. The main causes and problems related to the creation of variability of demand will be related to this model. Finally, we present some solutions, tips and tools identified in the literature and practical applications in the quest to eliminate these problems.