M.Ing. / The principles of lean were understood to be relevant to the operations of a manufacturing enterprise meaning processes associated with material supply, component production and delivery of products and services to the customer. It was identified there was growing awareness that lean principles could be transferred readily to other functions and sectors. The purpose of the study was to investigate the application of lean principles to knowledgebased activities such as engineering design and product development. The organization under study was Olifant Manufacturing Company (OMC), a division of British Aerospace Systems, Land Systems South Africa. Lean product developments (LPD) was identified as one of the leading approaches currently adopted by organizations attempting to maximize value, increase quality, shorten lead times, and lower the costs for product development (PD) processes. The justification for the research was due to and in response to current adverse market trends. There would be the adoption of processes that would radically reduce the product development lead time, product introduction lead time to market, increase process efficiency and product quality and reduce development costs at OMC. The problem statement was formulated as: “Would the researched Lean principles enable OMC to improve its traditional PD to LPD?” The Life Cycle Management (LCM) framework was the mandated organizational framework that guided the execution of projects at BAE Systems The development of the research literature was guided by research questions that sought to identify the relevant framework that would be tailored within the overarching (LCM) framework to enable process improvements. The main findings were that Lean transformation is an organizational journey that would begin with a top down philosophy or strategy approach. Aspects of Lean Product Development were identified and were found to be integrated into a system framework that integrated the transformation of people, processes and tools and technologies.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:uj/uj:8895 |
| Date | 01 August 2012 |
| Creators | Dem, Andile Charles |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
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