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To start off with, what is lean production? One definition of lean production is; a manufacturing performance improvement approach and philosophy that emphasizes the minimization of the amount of all the resources (including time). It involves identifying and removing non-value-adding activities in design, production, supply chain management, and dealing with the customers. Put simply it’s a way to cut costs by taking away/minimizing time consuming activities. Note that implementing lean production is difficult.
The lean manufacturing history is thought to stem from the research Ford carried out in 1986 on Toyota, the business strategies implemented reduced production times, giving lower costs per unit, but it also gave an increase to quality. The lean manufacturing success of Toyota sparked the beginning of a new production method.
A common mistake among students is to identify lean production with Just in Time (JIT), although it is a part of it, it is not the basis of the production method. When/if a business decides to become a lean producer there and 4 principles they must apply for the lean strategy to work:
Lean quality
Lean design
Lean people management
Lean component supply
Lean Design
The first of the lean techniques involves assessing and improving upon product development, or product modifications, so that the firm can quickly and efficiently adapt to the changing business environment. Computer aided design (cad software) is one of the most flexible and quickest method for firms to design new products quickly, and transfer new product ideas from the conception stage to the market, this can lead to first mover advantage. First mover advantages include such things as; A high, if not 100% market share in the product, brand loyal customers (since they can see you as the first, therefore the best) and allows the business to establish a foot-in-the-door effect, which is needed to focus customers on their specific product when the copy firms move in.
When lean companies look for speedy product development and launch, time-based management plays a crucial role. Time-based management is, essentially, minimizing the time between product design and product launch. It looks for the areas in the business where simultaneous engineering can take place (decision trees are a good example of this) which cuts costs by saving time and money.
Lean quality
Quality is an expensive area for business organisations, but there are greater costs when ignoring quality. Bad quality can lead to bad publicity, a poor brand image and a great loss of customer loyalty. On the human resource side of things, one of the best ways to increase quality is by training the employees in all aspects of the production, making them multi skilled and making them feel more empowered giving greater motivation. The importance of quality will also be reflected throughout a firm’s culture. Quality techniques include quality circles and kaizen groups: using both of these would be the best way to bring in ideas from employees, this brings greater employee motivation and productivity.
Lean people management
What is people management? People management is simply as it says, a way in which people involved in and outside the business are treated and used. Lean producers will aim to fully utilize all the skills and ideas of their workers. They will attempt to ensure that all their workers are fully trained and multi skilled in the businesses production methods. Empowerment and delegation are key to lean people management and they therefore create participation schemes to enable staff to contribute their ideas and experiences. This not only makes them feel valued, but also benefits the firm by getting ideas from experienced workers. This delegation of decision-making power makes workers feel more involved and, therefore, more committed to the business objectives of the firm. Motivation is key to productivity and therefore lower costs.
Lean Component supply
Just-in-time (JIT) is a system of stock management that involves only requesting a new supply of materials once there is a definite need. This is the moment students say ‘Good, JIT, I know all about that.’ But, in addition to understanding the benefits of JIT such as: saving money on space and insurance and removing the risk of holding stocks that may become damaged or obsolete (as with food), the opportunity costs also need to be considered. The firm will no longer be able to benefit from bulk-buying discounts (economies of scale) or be able to respond immediately to a customer order. The conditions necessary for JIT to work also have to be recognised. The firm must have reliable suppliers who are able to supply on demand with a short delivery time. Proximity is always good and accessibility is also important for a quick supply and delivery.
Conclusion
To summarize, the key aspects of lean production students should know that: Lean production is expensive, there are high start up costs and it cannot be applied to every business, most economies of scale advantages are lost and it can take a long time for the workforce to adapt to a such a change and some employees may reject the changes.
Postal regulators have called for Royal Mail to be partially privatised in order for them to increase the effectiveness and quality of the business. It has been noted before, by Postcomm, that the financial issue of Royal Mail will only worsen over time unless bold action was taken.
Nigel Stapleton, (Postcomm’s chairman) has said that without private sector investment or some sort of government subsidy the business is looking to fail.
The only time Royal mail was truly secure in its placement was back in 1650, back when it held the a monopoly for 350 years which ended in 2006 when other operators were allowed to collect and deliver any mail they choose.
Although Royal mails dominance was not a short lived one it seems mostlikly that the business will fall to failure if private sector investment does not come into play. In the year to the end of March Royal Mail lost £279m. The core root of this loss is because Royal Mail has lost a lot of business in the lucrative bulk mail collection and sorting market, but still must uphold less profitable universal delivers.
This proposal does not come without scrutiny, the Communication Workers Union, (the main postal workers’ union), said Postcomm’s proposal overstepped its remit.
Although Royal Mail is falling into financial difficulties it still does hold 90% of the marker, the main issue it seems, besides the fact they constantly lose mail, is that they need to become a more effective and objective business. Royal Mail has had too light a ride with its 350 year dominance and has become lazy or, as economists call it, productively inefficient.
There is and has always been highly debated over, the idea of; a monopoly best because or A or is a competitive market best because of B. It is easy to notice that, not only from 350 years leading to failure but also form the lack of efficient allocation Royal Mail uses that it would be best for the business to have an open market forcing it to become a highly productive and efficient in the market.
“Royal Mail needs access to private capital and a stronger set of incentives to enable it to restructure and become more profitable,” Postcomm said.
The independent review of the postal sector will submit its final report this summer and will give deeper insight in where Royal Mail may be heading.
Darling has announced that banks must pass on the interest cuts. Interest rates have been cut by a further .25% as predicted; however, Darling said that banks are not always passing on the cuts, who could blame them. With many specialists predicting a housing crash similar to the 1970’s great depression all business are now uptight and simply ‘passing on’ the cuts to the full .25% may help the customer but it wont help the banks. Banks are desperately trying to hold onto the ‘loyal’ or ‘good credit’ customers while shaking away the bad. The problem is there is so much ‘bad debt’ that the only plausible way they can make back their losses is by lending (not going to happen) or by getting better margins on their lending by not passing on the full amount. Darling has the idea just the wrong implementation.
The sea cucumber has inspired scientists to create a new material that hopefully one day will be used to treat all types of problems associated with the brain, namely, Parkinson’s. This new material has the ability to go from stiff to supple and vice versa. How does it work? Well in a nutshell: In the absence of water, the nanofibres are held together by chemical links known as hydrogen bonds. This gives the material its rigidity. When exposed to water, the water molecules “competitively bond” with the fibres. This has an effect of “ungluing” the fibre-to-fibre bonds, and the material becomes about 1,000 times softer, with the consistency of rubber. This will hopefully lead to many further jumps and many abnormalities of the brain may be solved but, are they curing the problem or the symptoms?
Are you working at home or office all day, and realize that you finally need a change? Working in an office for long hours, definitely requires great tools, as it is the place where you spent nearly 80% of your work time. I mean why would you want to work on a wooden chair and a degraded table, if you are working on it for hours everyday? Just to compare, we choose a nice bed for us to sleep on, simply because we know that it will cost us money at first, but it is a relief for years.
Office desks shouldn’t be taken in a nonchalant attitude, as they are very important for your career. Get a new desk and a chair, and you can feel how motivating it is. Where can you get such appealing office desks? Intercounty.com has the solution. They have some amazing, office desks from as low as 53 Euro. Wow, that’s one amazing price, if you are saving money on desks, and even office furniture. Not what you are looking for? You can check out some office storage, and see how much of organization you can do, by spending a very little amount. Best of all, not only they have competitive prices in the UK market, but they also have a 8 year guarantee.
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With all the hype that surrounded the release of this game, I would say I was still very impressed with how it turned out. I don’t think they let many people down in the making of this game. It has state of the art graphics, which is even better with an HDTV. The structure of the game is similar in ways to the other series in this game, but one thing they improved drastically on was the equipment. Now there are more options then ever to choose from. There are tons of new weapons, which are all awesome. The coolest feature that I liked was the addition of the Bubble Shield, its fun to use while playing. You should go out and get this game if your into shooting, and multiplayer games.
Instead of me explaining the whole scenario, I’ll let the press take this one
Here is the press release
“Wal-Mart (WMT - Cramer’s Take - Stockpickr - Rating) topped third-quarter earnings estimates and lifted its profit forecast for the year, noting improved results at its U.S. division and a tightened focus on inventory.The profit beat and relatively optimistic outlook helped ease some fears about the retail giant’s position ahead of a holiday season that is largely expected to be sluggish. Shares of Wal-Mart were jumping $2.32, or 5.4%, to $45.64 early Tuesday.
The Bentonville, Ark., company reported third-quarter earnings of $2.86 billion, or 70 cents a share, up from $2.65 billion, or 63 cents a share, a year earlier. The results included a 1-cent-a-share tax-related gain.
Last month, Wal-Mart bumped up its third-quarter earnings per share estimate to a range of 66 cents to 69 cents from an earlier forecast of 62 cents to 65 cents — a surprise move amid continuing weakness in its home furnishings and apparel categories as well as an overall lackluster retail environment.
Analysts, on average, most recently expected a profit of 67 cents a share, according to Thomson Financial.
Wal-Mart’s revenue rose to $91.95 billion from $84.47 billion a year earlier. Analysts projected revenue of $91.77 billion.
Same-store sales, or sales at stores open at least a year, inched up 1.5%.
“Our results for the third quarter reflect the improved performance of our U.S. operations. Both Wal-Mart Stores U.S. and Sam’s Club increased profits faster than sales. Wal-Mart International posted a solid quarter as well,” said Lee Scott, Wal-Mart president and chief executive, in a statement. “Our focus on managing inventory this quarter was very positive.”
At the Wal-Mart Stores U.S. division, operating income jumped 11.1%, while sales climbed only 6.4%. In raising its guidance last month, the company pointed to improved expense controls at the division, which has been struggling over the last two years with meager sales growth.”
Walmart has had a quite a jump in revenue. Despite the economy fluctuations in the housing market, it didn’t stop walmart from making money. By the way, did you guys know that Walmart family is the richest family in the world? Well, I would never doubt that, as they have giant stores everywhere.
