This document takes a critical look at the first lean principle, Value. The meaning of value is ivestigated in: 1.) general context, 2.) product development context and 3.) the business literature context. Insights about the linkages between the value perspective and customer value are also covered. / Lean Aerospace Initiative

The changing role of manufacturing has ushered in an increasing number of initiatives aimed at improving operations. Specifically, various themes in operations have evolved over time, from forecasting and planning in the 1950s and 1960s through productivity and quality in the 1970s and 1980s respectively, to adaptability and responsiveness in the 1990s. Even though the emergence of agile paradigm had spurred a large stream of research by scholars, yet most of the research had been at the manufacturing level. Very few researches have gone beyond the manufacturing level to the larger supply chain level. And there are even fewer researches discussing about the combination of lean thinking and agile thinking in supply chain level. Based on the above statement, the purpose of this study is as follows: 1. To identify the definition and characteristics of ¡§Lean¡¨ and ¡§Agile¡¨. 2. To explore the relationship of the two kinds of thinking. 3. To prove the practicability of the findings. This research is organized as follows. Chapter 2 clearly describes the origin, definition and characteristics of lean thinking and agile thinking, and comparison of the two kind of thinking. Chapter 3 introduces the major combination factors of these- material decoupling point, information decoupling point, and postponement. Followed by introduction of three practical ways to combine the lean thinking and agile thinking.

In the ongoing pursuit of excellence in products and services, many enterprises have been seeking ways to ensure their superiority in process and quality. To improve competitiveness, many management techniques and concepts have been tried, for example; TQM, Lean Thinking (Lean Production), Six Sigma, and Design for Six Sigma, etc. These are quality management systems currently having widespread application in virtually all well-known companies. This empirical study utilizes a questionnaire to explore the relationship between Process Excellence (PE) with that of quality performance (QP). In a correlation analysis we have found a positive correlation between QP and such categories as ¡§leadership and information analysis¡¨ ¡§resource utilization and participation¡¨ ¡§improvement of quality process¡¨ ¡§clear objectives and customer oriented¡¨. We have also found that two of these categories ¡§improvement of quality process¡¨ and ¡§leadership and information analysis¡¨ play especially important roles in raising QP performance. We can conclude that the greater the emphasis on these two items the better will be the performance of QP. We are also assured that the company can experience continuous quality improvement by acting on the basis of the above research findings.

<p>This examination paper is the final part of the three years long engineering education in industrial engineering and management, with focus on logistics and leadership, at the school of engineering in Jönköping.</p><p>The purpose of this thesis is to investigate the material flow method that is used at the time on an anonymous company and to study which opportunities and problems the company has while trying to become more efficient in its internal material flow process from the storage to the production area.</p><p>The current material flow system that the company uses from the storage to the production area is usable and the production is working with this system. The company sees potential in developing and becoming more efficient in the time used for material handling.  The tied up capital in the storages and the use of the floor area that is used, do also have potential in becoming more efficient according to the company.</p><p>The current material flow system from the storage to the production area was studied and mapped. Even the flow within the chosen production cell was studied. After these studies three possible vision opportunities were developed. The three vision opportunities were all focused on using batches in the production that were formed into the exact quantities needed to produce an order. How this kitting should be done was the difference between the vision opportunities.     </p><p>A simulation of the production with material kitted into the exact quantities required in the production cell where made, to see what possible gains and which losses that could occur with this new way of material handling. The results from this simulation and the knowledge that was given were among others the identification of a bottleneck in the production and diverse problems that could complicate a kitting of material. Further positive and negative effects of kitting are also reflected over in the report.</p><p>The simulation contributed, as said earlier, to the identification of a bottleneck in the production, but also to the discovery of how the order-batches from the customers have to be synchronized with the purchase-batches and the production-batches at the company. These results in relation to the theory part about kitting have lead forward to our suggestions of change and possible further work for the company and are seen under the final discussion part. These suggestions treat co-operation with suppliers’ synchronization of different batches and possible layout changes.</p>

Avsikten med denna rapport och undersökning är att belysa vikten av att införa Lean Thinking i företagets alla delar samt hur detta utförs på ett hållbart sätt. Med hållbart menas här att företaget ska ta vara på sina medarbetare och lyfta dem samtidigt som de lyfter verksamheten och effektiviserar processerna.  Syftet med studien är att studerar hur Lean Thinking fungerar i kontorsmiljö samt hur en organisation går till väga för att påbörja en hållbar implementering av Lean. Intresset för Lean föddes under kursen Lean Production och sedan dess har vi uppmärksammat fel och problem i mötet med olika företag vilket har motiverat till denna studie.   En deduktiv metod har använts och studien grundar sig dels på litteraturstudier, kvalitativa intervjuer, samt en fallstudie som har utförts i samarbete med ett företag som precis har påbörjat sin Lean-resa. I syfte att höja validiteten har en f.d. lean-föreläsaren, Anders Nylund, från Högskolan i Borås intervjuats.  I resultatet presenteras respondenternas svar och jämförts med råden och riktlinjerna som kommit fram under intervjun Nylund för att utvärdera om företaget har bra mål och korrekta tillvägagångssätt. Vidare presenteras en guide som i korta drag presenterar hur man ska gå till väga och vad man som företag bör tänka på vid implementation av Lean i kontorsmiljö. / The intention of this report and study is to highlight the importance of implementing Lean Thinking in all parts of the company and doing so in a sustainable way. To implement something in a sustainable way is to consider your employees and helping them reach new goals and possibilities and making the business more efficient at the same time.   The purpose is to study how Lean Thinking works in an office environment and how an organization initiates a sustainable implementation of Lean. The interest of Lean first started during the course Lean Production and since then we`ve noticed a lot of different problems that companies were having, that we hadn´t see before. This is the motivation for this study.  The study is based on a deductive method and is performed through literature studies, interviews based on qualitative methods and a case study performed in association with a company who just recently started their Lean journey. In order to increase the validity of the report we conducted an interview with an former lecturer, Anders Nylund, who works at the University of Borås.  The results of the interviews are presented and compared with the advice and the guidelines we gathered from the interview with Nylund to evaluate if the company´s goals and approach are valid. Furthermore a guide is presented that briefly explaines how a company should go about to implement Lean in an office environment.

Introduction. Improvement of the product flow by means of applying the lean principles, including the value stream mapping tool has become an important component in the at-tempt of many companies to make transition from traditional production to the lean manu-facturing system. It often implies modernization of organizational structure, relationships with sub-contractors, suppliers and transportation companies. The topic of this master the-sis originates from company HAGS Aneby AB that produces playing systems comprising different components. This report is an attempt to understand and analyze the problems in the product flow on the example of playing system Agito that includes Origo product fam-ily components as the main constructive part. Purpose. The purpose of this case study has been to identify, analyze and propose solu-tions for waste-related problems in the Origo product flow, by applying the lean thinking principles and the data collection methods. Method. The proposed case study methodology combines both theoretical and empirical approach. Data collected in interviews with sub-contractors and suppliers, and observa-tions at the mechanical workshop and warehouse, have constituted the input for the value stream mapping method. The value stream mapping method has been applied to construct the current state map of the Origo value stream and identify the wastes. Furthermore, other methods including the decision point analysis, the postponement theory, and the supplier/buyer dependence grid have been subsequently applied to analyze the company relationships with key business partners and assist in designing a draft of the future state map. Conclusion. It has been concluded from the constructed current state map of Origo value stream that the most critical wastes are waiting, transportation, unnecessary inventory, un-necessary motion and defects. Furthermore, the requirement of minimum quantity of raw material to be purchased from the supplier and the improper workshop layout has been recognized as the main reasons for the wastes. The measures to reduce the identified wastes have been pointed out. It has been proposed to better integrate the key actors into the HAGS supply chain. Adopting the cellular layout in the mechanical workshop has been found beneficial as well as orientation of production on customer orders rather than on forecasting. The mentioned measures to reduce wastes have been summarized in the draft of the future state map. The main advantages of the proposed future state are faster order fulfillment process, gained visibility and control of raw material and reduced costs in the flow of Origo components.

In this thesis, we have identified the difference between Agile and Lean methodsbased on stakeholder’s perspectives. To achieve the goal we have dealwith only Agile and Lean principles. In addition, in order to identify thestakeholders from Agile and Lean principles we have used the relevant practicesfrom both sides. As the principles of Agile manifesto are directly followedby most of the organizations, we have also used Agile principles directlyin this research. On the other hand lean methods have no pure principles,as a result we have used the most common and popular lean principlesderived from different authors. We have only considered the mostrelevant principles that might be useful in software development. To achievea stronger result of this thesis we have also considered stakeholder theory.Moreover we have identified the stakeholder’s involvement with Agile/Leanprinciples and stakeholder theory.

This examination paper is the final part of the three years long engineering education in industrial engineering and management, with focus on logistics and leadership, at the school of engineering in Jönköping. The purpose of this thesis is to investigate the material flow method that is used at the time on an anonymous company and to study which opportunities and problems the company has while trying to become more efficient in its internal material flow process from the storage to the production area. The current material flow system that the company uses from the storage to the production area is usable and the production is working with this system. The company sees potential in developing and becoming more efficient in the time used for material handling.  The tied up capital in the storages and the use of the floor area that is used, do also have potential in becoming more efficient according to the company. The current material flow system from the storage to the production area was studied and mapped. Even the flow within the chosen production cell was studied. After these studies three possible vision opportunities were developed. The three vision opportunities were all focused on using batches in the production that were formed into the exact quantities needed to produce an order. How this kitting should be done was the difference between the vision opportunities.      A simulation of the production with material kitted into the exact quantities required in the production cell where made, to see what possible gains and which losses that could occur with this new way of material handling. The results from this simulation and the knowledge that was given were among others the identification of a bottleneck in the production and diverse problems that could complicate a kitting of material. Further positive and negative effects of kitting are also reflected over in the report. The simulation contributed, as said earlier, to the identification of a bottleneck in the production, but also to the discovery of how the order-batches from the customers have to be synchronized with the purchase-batches and the production-batches at the company. These results in relation to the theory part about kitting have lead forward to our suggestions of change and possible further work for the company and are seen under the final discussion part. These suggestions treat co-operation with suppliers’ synchronization of different batches and possible layout changes.

Purpose/Research questions Aiming at the problem that the management efficiency of many Chinese small and medium-sized enterprises is generally low, the paper is to find the method in the aspect of marketing management to improve the management for the enterprise to meet challenges of globale market competition. According to the thoughts of Kotler(2006, p814), the future marketing shall be in a direction towards holistic marketing from marketing department . The paper discusses whether it is feasible for the Chinese small and medium-sized enterprises to use the precision marketing management method to optimize and integrate the resources and improve enterprises’ capacity. Research design/methodology/Approach The paper discusses the feasibility of the research subject through combination of theoretical research and case discussion. Analyze and discuss on experience of Parker Hannifin(China) to summarize ideas and implementation methods of precision marketing management to provide reference to the management of Chinese small and medium-sized enterprises. Findings Through the analysis and discussion on Parker Hannifin(China) and combination of marketing theory and value chains theory, I find that lean thinking may help the small and medium-sized enterprises inChinato utilize the limited resources in a reasonable way and improve enterprise capacity. Research limitations/implications Starting with marketing management, the paper discusses how to improve the efficiency of value delivery and thus win advantage through changing the extensive management method of enterprises. However, the small and medium-sized enterprises inChinastill have the problems such as brand resources and technological resources, etc., therefore, precision marketing can not generally improve the enterprises’ comprehensive competitive capability. Several competition methods, such as technique introduction, strategy alliance and so on are still needed to improve the enterprise’ comprehensive competitive capability, only in this way can the enterprises may win in the competition. Originality/value of the research Different from other papers, the paper, in the light of the characters of Chinese existing small and medium-sized enterprises, mainly discusses the application of precision marketing management of small and medium-sized enterprises adopting extensive management. Therefore, it has the particularity in marketing cultural environment, such as Chinese policy and customers' preference; its application shall be more specific, and has stronger pertinence.

<p>Introduction. Improvement of the product flow by means of applying the lean principles, including the value stream mapping tool has become an important component in the at-tempt of many companies to make transition from traditional production to the lean manu-facturing system. It often implies modernization of organizational structure, relationships with sub-contractors, suppliers and transportation companies. The topic of this master the-sis originates from company HAGS Aneby AB that produces playing systems comprising different components. This report is an attempt to understand and analyze the problems in the product flow on the example of playing system Agito that includes Origo product fam-ily components as the main constructive part.</p><p>Purpose. The purpose of this case study has been to identify, analyze and propose solu-tions for waste-related problems in the Origo product flow, by applying the lean thinking principles and the data collection methods.</p><p>Method. The proposed case study methodology combines both theoretical and empirical approach. Data collected in interviews with sub-contractors and suppliers, and observa-tions at the mechanical workshop and warehouse, have constituted the input for the value stream mapping method. The value stream mapping method has been applied to construct the current state map of the Origo value stream and identify the wastes. Furthermore, other methods including the decision point analysis, the postponement theory, and the supplier/buyer dependence grid have been subsequently applied to analyze the company relationships with key business partners and assist in designing a draft of the future state map.</p><p>Conclusion. It has been concluded from the constructed current state map of Origo value stream that the most critical wastes are waiting, transportation, unnecessary inventory, un-necessary motion and defects. Furthermore, the requirement of minimum quantity of raw material to be purchased from the supplier and the improper workshop layout has been recognized as the main reasons for the wastes. The measures to reduce the identified wastes have been pointed out. It has been proposed to better integrate the key actors into the HAGS supply chain. Adopting the cellular layout in the mechanical workshop has been found beneficial as well as orientation of production on customer orders rather than on forecasting. The mentioned measures to reduce wastes have been summarized in the draft of the future state map. The main advantages of the proposed future state are faster order fulfillment process, gained visibility and control of raw material and reduced costs in the flow of Origo components.</p>