The proven benefits that acquired from implementing Lean Manufacturing (LM) have led a sharp increase in the number of companies which adopt LM into their operations. Yet, not all the attempts have been successful due to the complex nature of Lean philosophies, tools and implementation process. It is not an exaggeration to say that there are a lot of challenges ahead for any manufacturing companies in order to gain and sustain beneficial LM operations. Previous research has mostly focused on the technical side of Lean tools such as how to apply and use them rather than considering what the most effective way to inherit into operations and workers from the training perspective. The issues of failures in gaining expected benefit from implementing LM are due to lack of a coherent and comprehensive workforce training framework. This research aims to examine the current LM state in the United Kingdom by focusing on the training related issues. The challenges that arise during the examination have led to develop a new training model WOTMLM (Workforce Training Model for LM). During the development stage, the training related information collected from Japan-based manufacturing companies was taken into account. The proposal of this model contributes to the manufacturing companies in providing a strategic guidance to organise the most suitable training programme. The model was successfully applied in two British manufacturing companies in order to validate its capability using direct observation, interviews, questionnaire and demonstration. To further demonstrate the viability of the model, an expert mathematical model was also introduced as a supportive function of the training model. To conclude the abstract of this thesis, original contributions to the knowledge of this thesis are the WOTMLM which aids the manufacturing companies in implementing Lean Manufacturing successfully and the expert mathematical system which supports to organise a low cost training programme. WOTMLM leads the manufacturing companies to organise a training programme systematically by providing a step by step guidance and carrying out an evaluation process after each step. Moreover, WOTMLM has a supportive expert mathematical model which chooses the most suitable trainee based on the several parameters in order to achieve a cost effective training. Manufacturing companies which employ those developed concepts will be able to enjoy the full benefit of Lean Manufacturing. Moreover, the flexibility of the WOTMLM enables to enhance the contributions to any sector or size of manufacturing companies.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:532882 |
| Date | January 2008 |
| Creators | Ichimura, Maki |
| Publisher | University of East London |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
Page generated in 0.0131 seconds