MGT536 Week 3 - Lean Operations and Competitive Advantage

Week 3 MGT536

Lean Operations and Competitive Advantage Analysis

Your Furniture Store’s chief operating officer (COO) and operations management team update their chief executive officer (CEO) that their new competitive advantage and quality management strategies implemented 6 months previously are improving the operation’s competitive advantage as they have moved back up to #1 in their market with improvements to their production line and customer service.

The COO instructs her cross-functional operations management team to assess lean systems strategies (processes and tools) and recommend a strategy that will reduce waste in the production process and lower the cost of production while enabling the operation to continue to produce quality products. For this assignment, address the following:

• Introduce the reader to lean operations (processes and tools). 
• Assess 5 lean processes and 5 lean tools for their ability to eliminate waste and lower production costs while maintaining quality. 
  • Lean processes 
    • Small lot sizes 
    • Set-up time reduction 
    • Manufacturing cells 
    • Quality improvement 
    • Production flexibility 
    • Balanced system 
    • Little inventory storage 
    • Fail-safe methods 
  • Lean tools 
    • Value stream mapping 
    • Process improvement using 5W2H 
    • Lean and Six Sigma 
    • JIT deliveries and supply chain 
    • Lean and ERP
• Propose a lean operations strategy (a combination of 2 processes and 3 tools) that will enable the operation to eliminate waste, lower production cost, and maintain quality products, including the role of each operations management function (marketing and sales, finance, and operations) has in implementing the strategy. 
• Justify the implementation of the proposed lean operations strategy to achieve the company’s goal of improving its competitive advantage. 
• The conclusion should summarize key points from the research methods and sampling analysis discussed above.

Deliverable Requirements: The Lean Operations and Competitive Advantage Analysis should be 5 pages in length. Be sure to cite sources using APA properly; include references and in-text citations.

Submitting your assignment in APA format means, at a minimum, you will need the following:

• Title page: Remember the running head. The title should be in all capitals. 
• Length: 5 pages minimum 
• Body: This begins on the page following the title page and must be double-spaced (be careful not to triple- or quadruple-space between paragraphs). The typeface should be 12-pt. Times Roman or 12-pt. Courier in regular black type. Do not use color, bold type, or italics, except as required for APA-level headings and references. The deliverable length of the body of your paper for this assignment is 5 pages. In-body academic citations to support your decisions and analysis are required. A variety of academic sources is encouraged. 
• Reference page: References that align with your in-body academic sources are listed on the final page of your paper. The references must be in APA format using appropriate spacing, hanging indent, italics, and uppercase and lowercase usage as appropriate for the type of resource used. Remember, the Reference page is not a bibliography but a further listing of the abbreviated in-body citations used in the paper. Every referenced item must have a corresponding in-body citation.