Lean and the Marine Corps
Lean is a thinking process focused on the entire system. The physical assets and human resources found in a system and how they can be better employed will be discussed and an understanding of the Lean methodology will be gained.
The Marine Corps and the entire Naval Aviation Enterprise cannot afford to run business with the current system. We have struggled for years running the business as usual and we cannot get where we want to be due to many factors. We have insufficient budgets to perform the required activities under the current policies. We have excess inventories and excess "Work In Progress" that is treated as an asset vice a liability. We have no significant surge capacity. Most workers are over worked due to excess non-value added (NVA) work. We cost too much and take too long to complete required work. We tie up excessive fleet inventory due to NVA work processes and the inability to complete work in a required time.
These problems are being examined and processes put in place to prevent the old methodologies from returning due to complacency or stalwartness. The saying," You can't teach an old dog new tricks" is going away. Lean is a total business strategy/methodology to achieve significant continuous improvements in performance through the systematic elimination of all waste resources and time across the entire Naval Aviation Enterprise. Why is it that after decades of doing business "the way we have always done it" is the process under such close scrutiny and propositions of radical change are not being swept under the carpet once again? Through examination and analysis it has been discovered that waste is the culprit. We waste our physical assets and our human resources.
The roots of Lean go as far back as the early 1900's. Henry Ford believed in the continuous flow production and the elimination of waste. Samuel Colt believed in uniformity and the interchangeability of parts. Dr W. Edwards Deming believed that "It is not enough to just do your best or work hard. You must know what to work on." (SkyMark, 2006) The U. S. supermarkets operate with pull systems. Toyota production systems are world renowned for their high quality, efficiency, and low waste. Lean thinking is modeled after the Toyota production system, focused on the total elimination of waste, focused on the standardization of operations and is providing a foundation for rapid continuous improvement in quality, productivity, and customer service.
TONI, A.D.,TONCHIA, S. (1996) “Lean orgnanisation, management by process and performance measurement”, International Journal of Operations and Production Management, 16(2), pp. 221-236. [Online}. Available at: http://www.emeraldinsight.com (Accessed: 08 December 2011)
The United States Marine Corps is known as one of the worlds most elite fighting groups. Marines are looked highly upon by most people in American society. However, The Marine corps has had a rough journey since their birth date on November 10th, 1775. While the American people felt and still feel that the Marine Corps are vital in our military. Though the Marine Corps was formed originally for amphibious warfare they have proven themselves powerful “in every clime and place”. Some however feel the United States should integrate the Marine Corps into the United States Army believing that both are performing the same tasks and that having another branch is just causing the defense budget to be stretched out amongst all branches. This is one of the reasons the Marine Corps has been disbanded in the past along with peace time movements were the United States Navy was also disbanded. Even with the Marine Corps’ struggle to remain one of Americas elite fighting forces the people have always rallied behind them to keep them afloat.
A LEAN Company is our best description and our business philosophy (creating more value for customers with less resources), which pursues to deliver what the customer wants, when they want it, at maximum value with minimum misuse.Through the application of LEAN, we achieve more fulfillment as it helps to reduce the possibility to constantly be fighting a battle against difficulties. Besides, we promote a Continuous Improvement Culture in our performance.
Intense global competition, rapid technological changes, advances in manufacturing and information technology and discerning customers are forcing manufacturers to optimize manufacturing process, operations, and all the possible nodes of supply chains that enable them to deliver high-quality products in a short period of time (Karim et al. 2013). The origins of lean thinking can be found on the shop-floors of Japanese manufacturers and, in particular, innovations at Toyota Motor Corporation (Shingo, 1981, 1989; Monden, 1994; Ohno, 1988). These innovations, resulting from a scarcity of resources and intense domestic competition in the Japanese market for automobiles, included the just-in-time (JIT) production system, the Kanban method of pull production, respect for employees and high levels of employee problem-solving/automated mistake proofing. This lean operations management design approach focused on the elimination of waste and excess from the tactical product flows at Toyota (the Toyota "seven wastes") and represented an alternative model to that of capital-intense mass production with its large batch
... The success of this lean approach depends on the implementation of physical changes to production processes, increased leadership capabilities and the development of an empowered workforce (nike). Our lean manufacturing process will seek to engage the minds of those closest to the work to solve the problems that prevent them from delivering quality product on time, every time.
The lean principles respond to changing customer desires and also provide high quality, low cost and faster throughput times. Lean principles eliminate waste along entire value streams thus creating processes that require less human investment, time and effort to come up with products and services at far less costs and with much fewer defects compared with conventional business systems.[1]
Lean Six Sigma is a methodology that creates processes within an organization to cut waste and improve the company’s performance. However, studies have shown that over the past decade applying Lean Manufacturing and Six Sigma can create problems for companies financially and potential problems for employees. Companies should take great care before implementing a Lean Six Sigma solution because in some instances, going lean can do more harm than good both financially for the organization as well as destroying employee loyalty and moral.
The Lean method mainly focuses on eliminating wastes in the organization. Wastes such as any activity that does not add to the final product (i.e. patient care). Also, keeping tabs on inventory of supplies to keep the par consistently filled. Along with using technology to improve day to day functions. And finally, another aspect that is crucial in the working environments
Picture yourself walking into your local mechanic’s auto repair shop. As you approach it, you see tires in random places, there’s muffler hanging awkwardly on a shelf next to a car battery and you can’t distinguish between costumers and mechanics besides the fact that the person with oil spots on his clothes make for a clear give away. What’s your general impression? Do you think you feel comfortable leaving your car with this shop? I know I wouldn’t. My name is Art Garcia, today I will be telling you about the Five S step process of Lean manufacturing and how it can be applied to everything from organizations such as this local business or military unit or office.
Lean manufacturing refers to systematic identification and elimination of waste through CI processes in pursuit of perfection (Khan et al. 2013; Yang & Yang 2013). Lean production is now used worldwide in manufacturing plants to eliminate waste from all ar...
Lean production is an approach to production developed in Japan. Toyota, the Japanese car manufacturer was the company that invented lean production. The whole aim of lean production is to reduce the quantity of resources used up in production. By doing this, lean production uses less of - factory space, materials, stocks, suppliers, labour, capital and time. Lean production reduces costs, increases efficiency and output and improves motivation. Lean production involves using a range of practices designed to reduce waste and improve productivity and quality.
Toyota is a pioneer of the LEAN manufacturing principle. Lean, as a process, is a way to add value to customers while minimizing waste (LEI, 2011). It can also be thought of in terms of flow, which is how Toyota likes to think of it. It is simply a process of decision making where the problems tend to be thought of in terms of flow, reducing starts and stops or unnecessary motion increases flow, reducing waste.
In 1950s, Toyota has developed lean thinking. The Toyota Production System aspires to minimize waste and increase efficiency while at the same time enhances its product quality. From this initiative, Toyota managed to widen its competitive edge by employed fewer employees in the car production with a small number of flaw products.
He proved that students can quickly learn basic Lean principles, tools and practices and increase this knowledge by applying it in a joint effort to significantly improve university administrative processes. In essence, many authors in the field of Lean education have dealt with administrative activities, such as the process of changing grades and designing courses, disregarding the core processes such as learning (teaching, assessment), research, etc. Among them are Svenson et al.. (2015) which stand out that auxiliary processes at the university (such as administration, finance, procurement and IT) must be effectively organized to provide students, researchers and faculty with the necessary support to become outstanding. Balzer et al.. (2015) call for the creation of culture that challenges all employees to continuously improve university processes and empower them to find and repair bad processes wherever encounter them. Nevertheless, despite such examples of success, it is important to point out that for the successful implementation of Lean principles in educational processes the challenge is certainly in managing change. This applies to both students and faculty staff because they accept the need and benefits of continuous improvement of processes and respect for people. Sinha and Mishra (2013) have proved that Lean principles used in educational institutions have led to improved teaching and learning, as basic academic processes, but also enabled cost savings, better employee performances, job satisfaction, and overall improvement in the organizational
Even though they are under the Navy, the highest officer in the Marines does not answer to anyone else because he is the head of the Corps (Grabianowski, 2007). The Marines are divided into four groups: the Operating Forces that are in charge of the fighting, the Headquarters Marine Corps which provides the leadership, the supporting establishment provides the logistics, and the Marine Forces Reserves that train one weekend a month and two weeks a year to provide support or replace Marines when needed. Not only is one of the priorities to the Marine Corps to run smoothly, but also to win as soon as possible. One of the mottos of the Marine Corps is that they “are forward deployed to win our nation’s battles swiftly and aggressively in times of crisis. We fight on land, sea and air, as well as provide forces and detachments to naval ships and ground operations” (Battles Through Time, 2013). This means that the Marines are ready whenever they are called upon, and will be there to help their “brothers”, the Navy, at all