Fixing logistic management

Lean and JIT Model
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Lean and JIT Model
Question 1
Lean Thinking and Just in Time (JIT) Concept are two primary concepts that altered the way businesses undertake their operations. Before these concepts get to the mind of business managers and manufacturers, firms incurred significant losses and numerous inefficiency cases even without realizing the underlying cause. However, Toyota’smanufacturing company developed this strategic manufacturing thinking to enhance the production process and uphold the utmost customer satisfaction strategy (Khalfallah, 2020; Lara, 2022). even though most people can confuse the two ideas, Lan and JIT, companies adopt them for different reasons. As Taghipour et al. (2020) identifythe difference in them, Lean thinking focuses on enhancingefficiency to improve customer experience. Contrastingly, the JIT concept majors on creating that efficiency as it eliminates manufacturing wastes that compromise production efficiency. In addition, Taghipour et al. (2020) state that Lean management can be applicable across various business departments, like production, manufacturing, distribution, and marketing. Therefore, companies use it to introduce JIT, but JIT is what businesses use to doaway with companies’ waste. Thus, companies implement lean thinking and the JIT concept to eliminate waste in the manufacturing process and enhanceprofitability.
For instance, the concept of lean thinking is presented by Saudi Aramco company. It is also called Saudi Arabian Oil Firm. It deals with natural gas and petroleum, and Arukhe et al. (2014) emphasize that it has the second-largest oil reserves in the world, possessing more than 270 billion barrels of crude oil. Despite that outstanding reputation in the oil industry, the firm has faced constant challenges like underproduction of energy that cannot meet customers’ increasing demand for oil products.That forced it to implement Lean thinking and the JITconcept as the ultimate solution to boost its operation and enhance efficiency. It launched one of the most effective expansion strategies in the world, including crude oil production, refining, producing gas, and undertaking petrochemical projects at the same time to meet the high energy demands in the world(Chaurasia et al., 2016). Dealing with such multifaceted projects requires intensive efficiency procedures, making lean and JIT management the only way to cushion from associated wastes that could impede its production process.
Therefore, the firm has tried its best to ensure it utilizes more efficient means of maximizing output while minimizing manufacturing costs by expanding technology advancement to enhance production processes and advance supply chain procedures. Therefore, the company gets rid of outdated manufacturing tools that might cause waste in the manufacturing process and replaces them with new efficient ones. In this way, the firm will effectively leverage time wasted on dealing with less efficient tools and minimize labor intensity.
Question 2
The guiding principle that Lean Thinking revolves around is the elimination of waste. Companies must try to eliminate waste in all stages of companies operations. Therefore, Saudi Aramco has provided a perfect example of how firms can identify waste to stop in their production process. Chahal andNarwal (2017) identify seven wastes (inventory, over-processing, overproduction, waiting, motion, defects, and transport) as the primary focus of each company that wants to enhance efficiency. The first and major one is overproduction. Chahal and Narwal (2017) emphasize that overproduction is highly overreaching. When firms fail to address it effectively, it can cause all other ones to occur. Saudi Aramco, for instance,ensures they do not produce more than what customers will need as a way of escaping this waste.
Motion involves all other wastes that come from the movement of people, machinery, and other firm resources. For example, Chahal and Narwal (2017) state that motion waste occurs when a firm assigns numerous tasks to a single person to manage, causing delays to complete, while other people have no significant work to partake in. Moreover, companies must watch the waste of time as it results in slowed operations, compromising the efficiency of completing tasks. For instance, when one employee deals with more functions than it can handle, other procedures that depend on specific tasks face time delays. Therefore, companies must minimize such cases to ensure every operation runs smoothly and meets the time assigned.
Inventory is another waste that firms using Lean thinking must be aware of. Its primary cause lies in the amount of unprocessed stock. Therefore, firms incurconsiderable costs in maintaining and storing the unprocessed inventory when they have no value to the firm. Additionally, inventory waste is detrimental since it camouflages other wastes that the company incurred in the production process. It also exposes the manufacturing company to problems like incurring extra costs to replace damaged goods. Over-processing also leads to similar consequences. Chahal and Narwal (2017) indicate that every firm must watch out to avoid processing inventories that are unnecessary to prevent overreaching outcomes.
Moreover, most companies incurtransportation waste when they seek supply of manufacturing products far from their production sites. Chahal and Narwal (2017) state that minimizing such inefficiency is necessary to avoid wastingresources and high transportation costs to get materials to the site. At the same time, defects offer another strategic waste that companies should be aware of to avoid significant losses incurred when products deviate from the quality standards set to meet customers’ expectations. Allowing defects to occur can cost the company to lose its customers.
Question 3
Each stakeholder in a business organization stands to derive tremendous benefits from implementing Lean thinking. Lean management has a greater role in supply chain management in light of these provisions. Karim et al. (2011) indicate that it is a perfect way for businesses can establish a more substantialcompetitive advantage by advancing their supply chain management above their competitors. Through this lens, Lean thinking works efficiently in eliminating inventory, over-processing, transportation, and defective wastes. These processes work as a feasible way to overcome overreaching consequences like extra costs in inventory management and lack of production materials because specific tasks overuse resources and provide a strategic framework that helps manage the firm’s inventories. By helping companies eliminate inventory waste, the Lean concept acts as an insulation coat that prevents detrimental consequences of additional expenses the firm experience from poor management. Suppliers are the only group that benefits from this stage.
Lean thinking eliminates production waste. That is how itimproves production efficiency. In this light, it provides companies with significant ways to initiate efficient techniques and possible approaches that will aid in identifying viable wastes that might cause inefficiency in the production process. Also, firms implement this strategy to correct areas presenting feasible flaws and initiate ways to leverage them to save the firm. For example, Karim et al. (2011) indicate that when Saudi Aramco identified that using old tools and equipment was no longer possible, it replaced them with new and highly efficient ones. Therefore, it managed to initiate a strategy that will effectively help drive the expansion programto serve a more extensive customer. End users will consequently experience enhanced customer satisfaction as Lean thinking boosts suppliers’ operations to offer enough products in the market.
Additionally, Lean thinking aims at customers’ experience. Every company seeks to fulfill its customers’ needs and providequality goods and services. According to Karim et al. (2011), implementing the Lean concept offers a feasible way to enhance quality by enhancing flexibility, eliminating waste, and ensuring utmost efficiency. For instance, avoiding defect waste ensures that every product distributed to the customers meets the quality standards aimed in the planning process. In addition, Karim et al. (2011) emphasize that Lean thinking strategy helps manufacturers focus deeply on factors that enhance the quality oManagement operations to ensure the firm has a clear insight on what to do and how to do it at a particular time. At the same time, they collect and analyze customer reviews to get strategic ways of improving quality. Therefore, customers can get practical and high-quality products to meet their expectations from the company’s supplies.
References
Arukhe, J., Hanbzazah, S., Ahmari, A., Al Ghamdi, S., Yateem, K., Aramco, S., …