Lean Manufacturing Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3500 words

Lean Manufacturing - Research Paper Example In the past decade, rigorous approaches have been employed to eliminate insignificant expenditures in manufacturing. This trend has become global in scale evidenced by its adoption in British manufacturing from Japan’s car industry. The principles of lean focuses on minimizing costs induced from redundant tasks while directing the business to practices that adds value to the firm. However, it would not be good to expect maximum and lasting benefit from temporary implementation. These protocols are more on bringing about discipline, setting standards, improving cohesion across the business, providing everyone with a core ethos. It is of course significant that the system is well understood by the senior management who as expected must have a clear goal. Lean manufacturing practices are preferred in numerous manufacturing operations over traditional mass production techniques (Doolen and Hacker 2005). Contentions on lean practices arose as researchers argued that these practices are not as competitive and applicable to other operational environments, like those that prioritize considerations such as flexibility of volume, leadership in technology, speed in market and development of new products.. These researchers also identified alternative practices on operation (i.e. strategies that sustain supplemental capacity in the overall supply chain and has been observed to be advantageous). This, however, is in direct contradiction with the waste reduction philosophy of lean practices.