Materials Resource Planning and

Homework Week 7

BSOP 334 Materials Resource Planning and

Capacity Resource Planning with Lab

Paul Mahajan

DeVry University Online

Chapter 14:

Discussion and Review Questions

2) What is the ultimate goal of a lean system? What are the supporting goals? What are the building blocks?

Answer: The ultimate goal of lean is a balanced system, that is, one that achieves a smooth, rapid flow of materials and/or work through the system. The idea is to make the process time as short as possible by using resources in the best possible way.

Supporting goals are:

1. Eliminate disruptions.

2. Make the system flexible.

3. Eliminate waste, especially excess inventory.

Building blocks are:

1. Product design.

2. Process design.

3. Personnel/organizational elements.

4. Manufacturing planning and control

3) Describe the philosophy that underlies JIT (i.e., what is JIT intended to accomplish?).

Answer: “`Just-in-time' is a management philosophy and not a technique.

It originally referred to the production of goods to meet customer demand exactly, in time, quality and quantity, whether the `customer' is the final purchaser of the product or another process further along the production line.

It has now come to mean producing with minimum waste. "Waste" is taken in its most general sense and includes time and resources as well as materials.”

4) What are some of the main obstacles that must be overcome in converting from a traditional system to lean?

Answer: Some of the obstacles that may arise are “1) Top management lacks strategic understanding of lean. 2) Lack of specific skills or knowledge regarding lean enterprise. 3) Culture, ego, organizational inertia. 4) Management reluctance to empower employees. 5) Fear of change of loss of organizational power. 6) Internal system causing hurdles. 7) Old engineering concepts. 8) Inflexible accounting methods.”

5) Briefly discuss vendor relations in lean systems in terms of the following issues:

a. Why are...