Topic 5.3: Lean Production and Quality Management Questions

What does the term just-in-time stock management mean?

Define the term just-in-time (JIT).

Quarrow Tiles, a ceramic tile maker, is introducing lean production in its factory. State two features of lean production.

What does kaizen mean?

Define the term continuous improvement (kaizen).

Quayside Print prints 3 000 leaflets an hour for shops and restaurants in its town. Its manager wants every print run to have fewer misprints than the last, and has started to use kaizen. State two features of continuous improvement.

Define the term cradle-to-cradle design and manufacturing.

Fenwick Motors repairs about 60 cars a week with nine mechanics. After a run of cars returned with the same faults, its owner is looking at the way Japanese car makers manage their workshops. State two features of the kaizen approach to improving a business.

At Quarrow Tiles, a manager lists four problems: 1. A forklift carries clay from one end of the factory to the other for every batch. 2. The kiln stays hot but empty for 40 minutes while each batch of tiles is glazed. 3. Three months of glaze is stored in a rented warehouse. 4. About 6 tiles in every 100 crack in the kiln and are thrown away. Identify the kind of waste in each problem.

Seabright Hotel has 120 rooms and 65 employees. Its new general manager has read how Japanese hotels are run and plans to bring continuous improvement (kaizen) to Seabright. State two features of continuous improvement (kaizen).

Larchbrook Homes builds houses from timber and steel parts that are bolted, not glued, so that when a house is knocked down its parts can be used in new houses. State two features of cradle-to-cradle design and manufacturing.

Define the term lean production.

Pacefield makes running shoes. Worn soles are ground up and moulded into new soles, and the uppers are made of a plant fibre that can be composted. State two features of cradle-to-cradle design and manufacturing.

What is cradle-to-cradle design and manufacturing?

Loomway makes carpet tiles for offices. It collects old tiles from its customers and turns their yarn and backing into new tiles, in a factory powered by its own wind turbines. State two features of cradle-to-cradle design and manufacturing.

Fennick Foods bakes pies. Before lean production it made 5,000 pies a day: 150 were faulty, 250 were not sold, and 4,600 were sold. Now it makes 4,750 a day: 50 are faulty, 100 are not sold, and it still sells 4,600. Each pie uses $1.20 of ingredients. Calculate the daily saving in the cost of ingredients for pies that are not sold to customers (show all your working).

Brightside Juice presses fresh orange juice that is sold within three days. Its oranges come from growers 300 km away by a mountain road that is sometimes closed by landslides. Brightside is thinking of taking deliveries of oranges daily rather than weekly. Explain one advantage and one disadvantage for Brightside Juice of using just-in-time (JIT) production.

Distinguish between just-in-time and just-in-case stock management.

Solano Cosmetics makes face creams from rare plant oils costing $400 a litre. It pays for each delivery of oil in cash and keeps three months of oil in stock. Explain one way just-in-time (JIT) could improve Solano Cosmetics’ cash flow.

Oakline Furniture makes sofas in a factory on an island. Its fabric and foam arrive by ferry, and storms cancel the ferry several times each winter. The directors want to cut the stock it holds and are considering just-in-time (JIT). Explain one disadvantage for Oakline Furniture of implementing just-in-time (JIT) production.