Baring some limited exceptions, all large non-manufacturing organisations want to improve quality together with reducing costs, and the deployment and implementation of continuous improvement methodologies is commonly viewed as a daunting and sometimes even an impossible undertaking. Many organisations and their leadership fail to properly structure or support continuous improvement initiatives incorporating customer centricity, which ultimately doom them to failure. Business performance excellence programmes enables firms to provide a mechanism to identify and eliminate operational waste; enhance customer experience; and systematically increase profits. Thus, performance excellence has become a key indicator of a firm’s ability to achieve sustained profitability and competitiveness. This study has led to the development of a theoretical framework for effectively implementing and deploying an appropriately adapted Lean Six Sigma (LSS) in large non-manufacturing companies. It also creates a better understanding of the impact that an adopted Lean Six Sigma can have on the success of large non-manufacturing companies, and establish how effectively such organisations can implement the revised methodology, as measured against the said theoretical framework, thus to be able to make recommendations on how they can reduce cost, optimise their performance and become customer centric. A literature survey was done on Lean, Six-sigma and Lean Six Sigma to evaluate the history, benefits, and challenges during implementation, applicability to services oriented industries and the defining of the critical success factors required for effective implementation.The conceptual background from the literature review identified the research gap on which a theoretical framework for non-manufacturing companies was developed. Field-based interviews were conducted with the relevant senior personnel of four large non-manufacturing companies in order to complete the structured questionnaires to provide the data for understanding the mechanisms by which Lean Six Sigma deployment is addressed in the organisations. Fieldwork consisted of interviews with directors, senior executives, line managers and other staff that have in-depth knowledge of their organisation’s Lean Six Sigma deployment activities. These personnel members were selected on the basis of their direct decision-making and long-term involvement in their organisations’ continuous improvement activities throughout the assessment, negotiation and implementation phases. Detailed research on each organisation’s Lean Six Sigma activities preceded every interview. The interviews themselves were highly structured, and focused on the specific organisation’s Lean Six Sigma challenges on implementation and deployment of the method. The questionnaire was designed around the key factors needed in order to successfully manage Lean Six Sigma deployment challenges, as identified by theory and case studies and to test the degree of conformance to these theories by the four non-manufacturing companies. The findings in this study proves that, South African non-manufacturing companies are not adopting Lean Six Sigma to the point where it is going to make any sort of significant difference to the bottom line over a significantly meaningful period of time, judging from the statistical analysis from the survey results presented. The proposed framework provides for clearly defining the project infrastructure and methodology before the Lean Six Sigma project begins. This clearly helps to gain funding to embark on the projects, and will be helpful in any non-manufacturing company that must justify, as most do, how they spend the capital budget. The detailed cost/benefit analysis created during the implementation phase provides for the ability to gain funding for the implementation activities. People used to think of customer-centricity programmes mostly in terms of Customer Relations Management systems. Therefore, this research proposed a framework for management, supported by technology to become customer centric in a holistic manner. Many projects need not begin with any major technical investments. What matters more is a sustained focus on the financial goal and the transformation effort required to achieve that goal. Profitable Lean Six Sigma companies focus not only on integrating customer centricity into the organisation, but on ensuring that the entire “ecosystem” of the business - stakeholders, along with organisational processes, and structures - are aligned in ways that support Lean Six Sigma and customer-centric growth strategy. / PhD (Business Administration), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2015

ITC/USA 2009 Conference Proceedings / The Forty-Fifth Annual International Telemetering Conference and Technical Exhibition / October 26-29, 2009 / Riviera Hotel & Convention Center, Las Vegas, Nevada / Sponsored by the Central Test and Evaluation Investment Program (CTEIP), the integrated Network Enhanced Telemetry (iNET) project has created a proposed architecture for network enhancing aeronautical telemetry. Given the static nature of the current aeronautical telemetry architecture (it has not significantly changed in over 50 years), it is recognized that iNET must be carefully deployed to avoid test disruptions and safety issues. In support of a smooth transition to this new architecture, the Naval Air Warfare Division Aircraft (NAWCAD) conducted an extensive continuous process improvement project. This paper will describe the process, defined and launched by this study, to assure the safe deployment of iNET.

Purpose - The purpose of this thesis is to investigate how two Swedish companies conduct their lean work, what similarities and differences they have in their lean-maturity and also how a higher level of lean-maturity can be generated.  To fulfil the purpose the following three questions where formulated:   How do the two companies conduct their lean work? What level of maturity do the companies have in their lean-work and what similarities and differences occur between them? What should the companies focus on to reach a higher level of lean maturity?   Method - To fulfil the purpose of this thesis a literature review and case study was conducted in two companies. The companies are referred to as company X, and Y in the report. The case study was conducted through a survey, interviews and observations. The data were compared with a theoretical framework and generated into the study´s results.   Findings - Both companies conducted their lean-work in a successful way, which means that they have a higher lean-maturity level than the average in Sweden. Generally it is about building a solid foundation and then gets the employees to follow the system that was built up. The result of the thesis showed that both companies have a higher level of maturity then the Swedish incision within all the 14 principles but despite this both companies have a lot to improve.  In the thesis multiple improvement suggestions have been made for the companies and the first thing they need to focus on are to build a solid foundation in the lean philosophy. The companies need to create a common target and get a functional system to be able to higher their maturity level. Another important factor is to focus on lean- and leadership-education, which will result in a higher level of knowledge.   Implications - The thesis have resulted in a few areas for improvements for both companies.  Other companies with the same conditions as case X and Y can probably identify their level of maturity and also follow the suggested improvements that are presented. In the thesis no new theories have been used instead existing theories have been used but in a different context.   Limitations - The thesis contains a two case study since the study is conducted in two companies. The thesis could easily been conducted in even more companies to get the result more trustworthy and also get higher generalizability. The survey that was used in the thesis had a few flaws since it is general and takes a production perspective. Since companies usually never work with lean in the same way the flaws may have affected the result of the thesis. Keywords - Lean, Maturity, Assessment, Lean 14 principles

Bakgrund: Ett framgångsrikt ekonomisystem fungerar som ett instrument för kompetenta människor. Det är inte ekonomisystemet som skapar förändringar inom en organisation utan det är människan och dess förmåga att kommunicera. Att kommunicera prestationsmätningar har visat sig vara en betydelsefull process och ses som helt avgörande för användning av mätningarna. Trots detta är forskningen på området bristfällig vilket motiverar genomförande av denna studie.  Syfte: Det övergripande syftet med uppsatsen är att öka kunskapen om kommunikation av prestationsmätningar. Detta uppnås genom att beskriva och förklara sättet Speed Group kommunicerar prestationsmått i pulsmöten, samt att analysera de effekter som kommunikation har på styrning. Metod: Utifrån studiens syfte och forskningsfråga valdes att genomföras en fallstudie. Datainsamling är primärt från semi-strukturerade intervjuer och observationer men data är även sekundärt insamlat från dokument.  Slutsats: Pulsmötets utformning grundas i en standardisering av mötet. Vad som även framkommit är att pulsmöten hålls frekvent, snabbt och med fokus på avvikande mått. Pulsmötet tycks vila på lean kommunikation och betydelsen att pulsmöten ingår i en pulsmötesstruktur framgår ur studiens resultat. Visualisering med en mötestavla har även visat sig vara ett praktiskt verktyg som stärker kommunikationen i pulsmöten. Effekter pulsmöten ger är att få ett helhetsperspektiv på verksamheten, stärkt integration mellan olika enheter, styrning av beteenden och handlanden, ökad kontroll samt att det utgör ett verktyg för att implementera en kultur av att eliminera slöserier och styra verksamheten diagnostiskt. / Background: A successfull management control system acts as an instrument for competent people. It is not the management control system that creates changes within an organization, it is man and its ability to communicate with each other. Communication of performance measurements has been found to be an important process and is seen as crucial for its use. Despite this, the research regarding communication of performance measurements is insufficient, which justifies the making of this study.  Purpose: The overall purpose of this study is to increase knowledge about communication of performance measurements. This is achieved by describing and explaining the way the Speed Group communicates performance measure in pulse-meetings, and to analyze the impact of their communications on management control.  Method: Based on the purpose and the research question, the decision was made to do a case study. Data collection is primarily from semi-structured interviews and observations, but the data is also collected from documents.  Conclusions: The design of the pulse-meeting is based on standardization. Pulse-meetings are frequent, fast and focuses on performance deviations. Pulse-meeting seems to rest on lean communications and the importance to be connected to a pulse-meeting structure. Visualization with a board has also proven to be a practical tool that enhances communication in the meetings. The effects of the pulsemeetings is to provide overall perspective on the business, strengthen the integration between subsidiaries, controlling behaviors and actions, increased control and is a tool to implement a culture of eliminating waste and controlling diagnostic operations.

Till följd av allt högre kundkrav och mindre marginaler krävs en ökad medvetenhet hos de svenska industriföretagen. För att skapa en större konkurrensfördel har fokus riktats på de primära resurserna, som tidigare varit det finansiella kapitalet, till mer kunskap och information (Allee & Taug 2006). Med hjälp av begreppen Lean production har verktyg tillämpas såsom Kanban, som inte har syfte att lösa företagets problem utan systematiskt och grundligt förbättra deras produktionssystem (Shingo 1984). Inom Lean production arbetar man med ett flertal faktorer som kan bidra till minskad icke-värdeskapande tid, den tid som kunden inte är redo att betala för. Det finns påvisade faktorer och en mängd rekommendationer för att lyckas med en implementering. I detta fall Kanban, men i vilken teknik man än väljer att implementera så är grundstenen för förbättring att känna sin egen produktion. Referensföretaget i denna studie arbetar med en stor variation på sina produkter som består av biltillbehör till en större del av den internationella fordonsmarknaden. För att implementera Kanban i delar av deras produktion har det genomförts en ABC-analys för att klassificera produkter med syfte att lagerhålla en större del av A-artiklarna för att kunna hantera en varierad efterfrågan. Syftet med studien är att undersöka möjligheter med Kanban i två av deras produktionsavdelningar. En väl genomarbetad förstudie ska presenteras för en eventuell implementering av Kanban. Möjligheter och brister har visualiserats med hjälp av en SWOT-analys, detta för att ta lärdom av tidigare beprövade erfarenheter. En genomarbetad värdeflödesanalys har genomförts av nuläget, samt för framtida läge, för att skapa en utökad förståelse över syftet med studien för personalen på Mont Blanc. Slutsatsen av studien är att Kanban är tillämpbart på båda avdelningar men under bearbetningen på företaget visade sig att Kanban inte skulle generera ett bättre materialflöde på en av avdelningarna. Det hade medfört överflödigt lager samt en större problematik med den stora variansen av produkter och de kontinuerliga revideringar som är i den vederbörande avdelningen.

Purpose: The aim of the study is to investigate how industrial administrative support processes and visual control can be streamlined, visualized and communicated by the introduction of lean.  To be able to answer the aim of the study, three research questions have been formulated: 1. Which non-value adding activities are limiting the efficiency of the administrative support processes and the visual control, within the industrial orders and shipping departments? 2. How can the support processes and visual control within the industrial orders and shipping departments, potentially be streamlined, visualized and communicated by the introduction of lean? 3. By the introduction of lean, what potential metrics will visualize and communicate the industrial administration support processes within orders and shipping departments? Methodology: A case study, a benchmarking study and literature review have been performed in order to answer the research questions. The literature review is based on a study of lean from a strategic and operational perspective, with a main focus on support processes and visual control. The case study was based on value stream mapping of support processes combined with observations and interviews in the area of visual control and visualization of workplace and information. Furthermore, the benchmarking study was based on observations and interviews of performed lean transformation and visual control. Collected data from the case study and benchmarking study have been analysed with the support of the literature. Findings: Non-value adding activities that are restricting the efficiency of the support processes and visual control, were identified and present opportunities for improvements. The support processes had different wastes, lacked guiding principles and were found to be unstable and unstandardized. The lack of visual control could be traced back to the lack of structure and design of daily meetings, control boards, suitable lean metrics and management of identified challenges. Factors like absence of framework for continuous improvements and visual workplaces and information, were identified. A new structured and pedagogical design was proposed. The new design include an introduction of lean within management, the design of an action plan, the selection of guiding principles and a redesign of value streams. Furthermore, the proposed design include a new design of daily meetings, control boards, lean metrics and a new framework for continuous improvements and visualisation of workplace and information in order to streamline and visualize support processes and visual control. Implications: The purpose of the research study has been achieved by solving the research questions. By the identification of non-value adding activities a new efficient design has been proposed. However, only one case study was performed, therefore its ability to create scientific value, can be regarded as limited. Recommendations: For further studies, it would be of interest to study several businesses with similar problems in order to increase the generalizability of the study and the ability to create scientific value. / Syfte: Forskningsstudien syfte är att undersöka hur industriella administrativa stödprocesser och dess visuella styrning kan effektiviseras, visualiseras och kommuniceras genom införande av lean. För att kunna besvara studiens syfte har tre problemfrågeställningar formulerats: 1. Vilka icke värdeskapande aktiviteter begränsar de administrativa stödprocessernas och den visuella styrningens effektivitet inom industriell order- och speditionsverksamhet? 2. Hur kan stödprocesserna och styrningen potentiellt effektiviseras, visualiseras och kommuniceras inom industriell order- och speditionsverksamhet, genom införande av lean?3. Vilka potentiella mätetal kan visualisera och kommunicera de industriella administrativa stödprocesserna inom order- och speditionsverksamhet, genom införande av lean? Metod och genomförande: En litteraturstudie genomfördes parallellt med en fall- och benchmarkingstudie för att besvara studiens frågeställningar. Litteraturstudien bygger på en studie av lean utifrån ett strategiskt och operativt perspektiv med fokus på stödprocesser och visuell styrning. Fallstudien består av en värdeflödesanalys av stödprocesser samt observationer och intervjuer rörande visuell styrning och visualisering av arbetsplats och information. Benchmarkingstudien bygger på intervjuer och observationer av genomförd leantransformation samt visuell styrning. Datainsamling från fall- och benchmarkingstudien har analyserats med stöd av litteraturstudien. Studiens resultat: Olika icke värdeskapande aktiviteter som reducerar stödprocesserna samt den visuella styrningens effektivitet har identifierats och utgör grunden för möjliga förbättringar. För de administrativa stödprocesserna identifierades olika former av slöseri, avsaknad av vägledande principer samt att processerna inte var stabila och standardiserade. Bristande visuell styrning kunde härledas till bristfällig struktur och utformning av dagliga möten, styrtavla samt mätetal och avvikelsehantering. Ytterligare identifierades bristande kontinuerligt och strukturerat förbättringsarbete samt avsaknad av ramverk för visualisering av arbetsplats och information. Med utgångspunkt från resultat från fall- och benchmarkingstudie har en ny strukturerad och pedagogisk utformning föreslagits. Den potentiella utformningen bygger på en förankring av lean inom ledning samt utformning av handlingsplan och vägledande principer. Ny utformning av värdeflöden, daglig möten, kontinuerligt förbättringsarbete samt ramverk för visualisering tillsammans med lean mätetal har föreslagits med syfte att effektivisera och visualisera stödprocesser och styrning. Implikationer: Forskningsstudiens syfte har uppnåtts genom att samtliga problemfrågeställningar besvarats. Genom identifikation av icke värdeskapande aktiviteter har en ny potentiell utformning föreslagits med stöd från litteratur- och benchmarkingstudien. Dock har endast ett fallföretag studerats vilket begränsar studiens förmåga att skapa vetenskapligt värde ur ett större perspektiv.  Rekommendationer: För vidare studier förordas en utökad studie av fler verksamheter med liknande problematik med syfte att öka studiens generaliserbarhet och vetenskapligt värde.

No description available.

Lean has during the past two decades grown to become a worldwide management concept. The purpose of lean is mainly to create value for customers and reduce the downtime for organizations. It origins from the automotive industry and was firstly introduced by Toyota. The concept eventually caught on and spread to other industries, service businesses and most recently to the public sector. A few years ago municipalities in Sweden introduced lean in their organizations and used it as a solution to many of their operational challenges. However, research suggests that the knowledge within the field of lean in the context of municipalities is limited. The study was designed as a single case study of the municipality Södertälje which was one of the first municipalities to adopt the concept of lean. Data was collected through semi-structured interviews with key individuals in Södertälje municipality who had been a part of the introduction of lean or in some way influenced the process. In addition, interviews were held with middle managers who were currently working with lean. Furthermore, text documents such as decisions, objectives and budget documents provided by Södertälje municipality were also analyzed. To get a better understanding of how lean can be used in the context of municipalities the aim of this study was to examine how Södertälje municipality introduced lean, how it was applied and which forms the concept has taken. More specific the study has used institutional and translational theory to investigate how lean has been transferred and translated from the private- to the public context. The empirical data was analyzed through two phases. The first phase was decontextualization which was used to understand how lean was differentiated from the private context by the municipality. The second phase was contextualization which has been used to see how Södertälje municipality introduced lean in their organization and how they interpreted the concept. The findings suggest that the municipality had a problem-oriented approach where lean was considered a possible solution. To transfer lean, Södertälje municipality first recruited Robert Kusén, an executive from Scania, to “carry out” his knowledge and experience from working with lean. Second, the management of the municipality visited Scania and the social district in Copenhagen to “bring in” knowledge about the lean concept. Therefore, the municipality partly used organizational arenas in the same sector and partly organizational arenas in a different and more distant sector than the municipality. The study conclude that the contexts included in the transfer of a concept affects the translation. To translate the concept of lean, Södertälje municipality applied “the translation hierarchical chain” with few exceptions. Further, the municipality developed their lean philosophy and what they thought about lean by what they call “Växthuset”. By doing this and by interlocking lean with their existing vision and values, enrollment rules were used to establish lean in the local context. Using pilot projects also helped creating local references to the idea. Furthermore the municipality used specific rules for translating and reshaping lean. The mainly emphasized instrument was imitation, but there have also been indicators of addition and subtraction. This was expressed through the political context which narrowed the use of long-sightedness and instead resulted in a focus on democratic aspects. The municipality’s use of lean was from the beginning intended to include the entire organization but had instead mainly been practiced by the social welfare department. The poor adaption was largely caused by a lack of interest from the personnel and because key stakeholder had left the organization or had been replaced.

How companies choose to design their supply chain is important for their competitiveness. Supplier relationships are becoming increasingly important to maintain a market position. A key factor for success is to deliver material in the right quantity, at the right time and to the right place. Other factors that play an important role are quality standards, leadership and above all, customer first. The customer should be placed at the top of the value chain, and be treated with respect. Markets are driven by short lead time and companies cannot rely on brand loyalty. The purpose of this study is to develop a general model for analysis and improvement of the supply chain for manufacturing companies, with focus on components from external suppliers. The model is created based on a literature review and to examine this, the model was tested at Företaget. The empirical data is mainly conducted by interviews, complemented by one observation. The analysis model consists of seven areas based on Supply Chain Management, Logistics and Lean. A key factor to analyze these seven areas is to map the current situation. The results have been filtered through the analysis model and have led to suggestions for improvement. These suggestions are only recommendations and the companies choose what to take further into action. Företaget is one of Sweden’s leading window manufacturers with two strong brands, Produkt 1 and Produkt 2. Most of the production process is carried out in Edsbyn and the size of the factory is as big as ten football pitches at 65,000 squares meters. Wooden-aluminum windows are an increasing trend and stands for two thirds of the sales. The study is focusing on one selected component which is the flow for aluminum profiles. The conclusion shows that supply chain management, logistics and Lean play an important role while building an efficient supply chain. Relationship, communication and information sharing with suppliers are of great importance and needs to be constant developed and improved. Leadership is a key element to get all the areas to work and it is the leaders that characterize the culture of the company. The study has resulted in a number of improvement suggestions for Företaget. One suggestion for improvement is to develop a routine for documentation when a deviation occurs in the final assembly. This will enable the follow-up and help to find the main cause for appearance.

Fallföretaget är i behov av standardiserade rutiner fördokumentation. Även införande av arbetsinstruktioner är nödvändigt för att reducera risken av att vara beroende av enskilda individers kunskap. Detta blir i synnerhet kritiskt vid en eventuell generationsväxling. En av fallföretagets mest kritiska punkt beror på underleverantörer och dess ojämna kvalitet samt oregelbunden leveranssäkerhet. Därmed ser vi ett tydligt behov av leverantörspolicies. Vi ser även att dagens kommunikationsflöde inte är hållbar vid ytterligare expansion.Tydliga ansvarsområden bör utformas i linje med fallföretagets värderingar som också bör formuleras. För att få ett effektivare kommunikationsflöde bör fallföretaget se över möjligheterna att implementera ett nytt affärssystem. Ovanstående medför förbättrad materialhantering samt insamlingen av data som kan bearbetas vilket slutligen effektiviserar processerna i verksamheten inom ramen för standardisering. I samband med att medarbetare utbildas inom ständiga förbättringar skapas en mer självstyrd grupp med ett standardiserat förbättringstänk. Slutligen bedömer vi att Gnosjöandan tillsammans med leankonceptet med fokus på 5S skall införas och kombineras där Gnosjöandan kan beaktas som ett komplement till 5S i vårt fallföretag. Detta är för få en förbättrad struktur och en jämn standardiserad kvalitet kring rutiner och processer vilket skulle frambringa en utmärkande styrka i fallföretag. Vidare bedömer vi att svenskt näringsliv, framförallt SMF kan dra nytta av Gnosjöandans tänk som ett komplement till leankonceptet.