Assignment:
Context = the Toyota Production System - LEAN...
a) In 1990 a book was published based on a MIT 5-year study of the future of the automobile: "The machine that changed the world" - Womach, Jones, Roos. (Rawson Associates Scribner, Simon & Schuster).
From Dust cover notes: Twice in the 20th Century the auto industry has changed our most fundamental ideas about how to do things. Now it is dong it again. Just as mass production swept away craft production, so a new way of making things, called Lean production, is now rapidly making mass production obsolete
b) Course text: Heizer& Render (p640) "Lean production can be thought of as the end result of a well-run OM function"
3 Questions Answer.....
1(a)What are the key premises of the Toyota Production "Lean" system (TPS) in both manufacturing and service organizations(Chap 16) and
1(b) Which of the fundamental 10 OM decisions discussed in this course (described in Chap 1) does TPS impact
(2) What, if anything has changed since the Womach/Jones 1990 book was written? Is Lean still important today? Why?
(3) What steps would you take to apply "Lean" to a SERVICE operation?