Raja Chairmapandi

Supermarkets: Independently on the type of production (custom job shops or repetitive manufacture) the work flow can benefit from using a supermarket. In fact, the secret for an effective manufacturing operation is to align production capacity to customers’ demand. A zero inventory strategy would be ideal but the concept is utopic since the supplier’s deliveries are not always regular, quality control is inevitable and batch size is variable in each production line. A right size inventory strategy is crucial. It employs the use of supermarkets located at specific points of the production process. Supermarkets are incredibly helpful in businesses with wide variations in customers demand and when the production lead time is longer than the takt time. There are two questions to answer when establishing supermarkets where should it be located and how large should it be? To answer the first one the following should be considered: If there are shared resources that can cause bottlenecks, a supermarket should be placed immediately before the processes that can cause such bottlenecks. Another supermarket right after each of these processes should also be considered in order to provide a small number of parts that can be used until the machine is once again available to run that item. The last supermarket should be placed in a location where its downstream lead time is smaller than the established delivery time to the next client. For example, if the established delivery time is 5 days, the last supermarket has to be somewhere in the production line where it’s possible to make its products arrive to the customer in 5 days. It should also be as upstream as possible in the production line. This will allow a lower product differentiation and therefore least references to stock, which contributes to the reduction of supermarkets dimensions and costs of stocking due to lower transformation of the product. For the second question the reorder point, average stock and maximum stock should be measured.

Obeya Room: The word Obeya in Japanese word & simply means “big room”. Obeya as a product development supporting tool was introduced by Uchiyamada the project chief of Hybrid car development project in late 90’s. This tool was a used by Toyota’s and achieved greatest success in a shorter time with reduced cost. Obeya also called as “war room”, “program room”, “control room” and “the pulse room”. By any name, Obeya is an advanced visual control innovation room that activities and deliverables are outlined and depicted in a visualize format to be discussed in frequent meetings. Obeya as an program room which Value Stream Mapping (VSM), all integrated activities and events, program notes, takt times and lean product development flow should be demonstrated on the walls and even other separated meetings ought to be linked to program room. Likewise, smaller rooms are required nearby for breakaway discussions whereas the main room should consist of some facilities such as 19 networked computers, printers, projectors, ample writing materials along with a big conference table with enough chairs to accommodate the team members. Furthermore, Andersson Schaeffer (2011) mentions that interior design and even size of such room can influence the communication and efficiency of the room. Obeya can be used to indicate different ongoing projects in the company in order to control the progress and support any further effort(Söderberg and Alfredson, 2009). Andersson and Bellgran (2009) describe that some companies are using a room similar to Obeya in order to check various similar development projects. The aims of such rooms are to integrate product development and production to have better and more production-friendly products. Those companies named following benefits for such room  Effective communication, cross functional work and accurate decision-making  Empowering the project identity  Facilitating the project manager’s responsibilities  Time reduction in information flow by visualizing VSM.  Shorter lead times for development projects  Positive inspiration for organization and its employees  Achieving and absorbing knowledge  Reinforce the impression of professionalism

Champions Monitoring and Analyzing the external and internal factors affecting the business Defining business strategy Communicating the project plan for business success Champions Lean Six Sigma vision Establishing improvement priorities and targets for the organization. Provides and arrange resources (Sponsors, Black Belts / Green Belts), ensures cross functional collaboration Establishing accountability for results Role modeling appropriate behaviors and change leader in the organization. Integrates Lean Six Sigma into business strategy & plan. Project Sponsors Providing and Aligning resources (Black Belts / Green Belts, Team Members), ensures cross functional collaboration Establishing improvement priorities, targets and accountability for results Ensuring that the project is aligned with department and strategic objectives Approving all phases of Lean Six Sigma projects Ensures project deliverables are being maintained and project is on time and on budget in the organization. Approves changes in scope of the Lean Six Sigma project and removing barriers / road blocks.

Quality Circle is a group of workers doing the same or similar work, meeting periodically to identify, analyze and solve work-related problems. The meeting participation is voluntary and happening in the work hours, and this group consists of three to twelve members. The Quality circle team members submit and explain their improvement solutions to management. This concept is relevant to Organizations those who practicing Lean Six Sigma in company wide, due to this concept organization gets following advantages, Promotion of teamwork Develops employee positive attitudes Positive working environment Increased quality and productivity If the organization is not fully committed for doing proper training on Lean six sigma and lagging in implementation, the organization may feel following disadvantages, Employees not sure of the purpose Not enough relevant training Participation not voluntary Little or no management support Quality Circles are not empowered to make decisions

Decision Balance Sheet is a simple but effective decision-making technique that allows the team to make more promised and balanced decisions. It uses a tabular record to signifies the advantages and disadvantages of an idea or situation for the purpose of reaching to a decision quickly. This situation might be a problem that needs to be resolved or a condition that needs to be changed. The decision balance sheet helps identify whether to go for or against a given problem or a proposed change, improves the understanding of the idea or situation, supports avoid decision-making problems and speeds up the decision-making process. It is particularly useful in a team working environment when you need to encourage teams to consider multiple perspectives to reach a consensus. However, when you have to compare different options or explore some options in more details, other decision-making tool may be more appropriate. A decision balance sheet is basically a table of two columns labelled as Pros and Cons. This tabular format is used to record all the pros and cons for the given solution or situation. You may use a scoring scheme by giving numerical weights to the different pros and cons. The result will help you decide whether to go ahead with the solution or not. A simple extension of this technique is the PMI which stands for Plus, Minus and Interesting. The Interesting column is used when the basics of the idea are not particularly of positive or negative effect. Also you can make the decision balance sheet in a 2X2 consisting of the pros and cons in the short and long term. This tool is especially useful when the decision is of strategic nature. As an example, let’s say that the team wants to decide whether to go for a new website for the company or keep the old one Based on the final score here suggests that should go for a new website.

North Star Metric In Business, the North Star Metric was developed to give businesses an outstanding focus on a particular assigned objective. Enterprises using North Star Metric (NMS) as a focus for their growth. The North Star Metric originally started from Silicon Valley companies with rapid growth. It supports the teams to explore beyond the surface-level growth and focus on long-term customer and product growth. A North Star metric is broken down into smaller metrics that drive responsibility and ownership at the individual level. Most of these sub divided metrics are team-specific and actionable, so individual contributors can identify the connection between their daily duties and the North Star Three factors of North Star Metric is Customer Value Addition Progress Measurement Drive Revenue to the business North Star Metric Benefits: The following will indicate that how is the North Star Metrics is helping the business growth, Focused on Single Objective: The entire company is focused on one Objective. The numbers and tasks can be changed from department to department, but the north star metric is the single aspect to focus. Simplified Strategy: It streamlines and make easy the overall company strategy into actions that everyone can understand, remember, Focus, and execute. Enhanced Customer Value: Adding value to the customer is one of the important factors in North Star Metrics. As a result, it improves customer engagement, customer experience and customer satisfaction. Steps for North Star Metric Selection: The future success must be indicated by good north star metric and every product should have a north star metric. While the other KPI like monthly revenue indicates what happened in the past rather than predicting future revenue. Close to the customer’s success moments: A good North Star Metric is always close to the moment when the customer gets the planned result from your product. Adds value to your customers: The North Star Metrics not only gives the profit for the company; it should be adding value to your customers. Measurable: North Star Metrics should be measurable one and it relevant the objective. Time-bound: North Star Metrics should be measured in a specified period, which can be an hour, day, week, or month. Not influenced by external factors: North Star Metrics should be influenced by the customers and it should not influence by any other external factors. Reflect your growth: North Star Metrics and business growth should be directly proportional i.e. if the North Star Metrics is increases, business growth also increases.

Product portfolio matrix, is a business strategic planning tool used to find the strategic position of a company brand portfolio. It denotes the product and/or services into a two-by-two matrix. Each quadrant of the matrix is arranged as low or high performance, depending on the relative market share and market growth rate. The horizontal axis of the Matrix denotes the amount of market share of a product and its strength in the particular market. The vertical axis of the Matrix denotes the growth rate of a product and its potential to grow in a particular market. The four quadrants in the Matrix is: Question marks: Products or services with high market growth but a low market share in the business environment. Stars: Products or services with high market growth and a high market share in the business environment.. Dogs: Products or services with low market growth and a low market share in the business environment.. Cash cows: Products or services with low market growth but a high market share in the business environment.. Question Marks: Products/services in the question marks quadrant are in a market that is become improving fast but where the product(s) have a low market share. Question marks are the most control of intensive products and require extensive investment and resources to increase their market share. Investments in question marks are usually funded by cash flows from the cash cow quadrant. Dogs Products/services in the dogs quadrant are in a market that is slowly improving and where the product(s) have a low market share. Products/services in the dogs quadrant are able to sustain themselves and provide cash flows, but the products/services will never reach the stars quadrant. Company usually phase out products in the dogs quadrant. Star Products/services in the star quadrant are in a market that is fastest growing and one where the product(s) have a high market share. Products/services in the stars quadrant are market-leading products/services and it require most priority investment to retain their market position, boost growth, and maintain a competitive advantage. Cash Cows Products/services in the cash cows quadrant are in a market that is growing slowly and where the product(s) or services have a high market share. The products/services already prioritized and have a significant amount of investments in them and do not require significant further investments to maintain their position.

Standardized work is a systematic approach to document working processes giving Workers (Process Doers) more control in the day-to-day running of their operations. A written document identifying each step in the work process is in place, allowing adherence to the agreed standard and a baseline for improvement. The objective for this written document is to communicate the standard work procedures or activities to the operators. It encompasses all the safety and quality aspects required to support employees and customers while identifying waste which can be eliminated to reduce cost and improve productivity. The three elements of standardized work are, 1. Takt Time 2. Work Sequence 3. Standard Inventory: Takt Time: Takt time is used to determine how much products need to be produced in a given time period to meet customer demand. It is also mentioned the time required to produce a unit. It can be calculated as below, Takt Time = Available Production Time/Customer demand Example: Customer demand is 100 pcs of coffee packets and available production time is 200 minutes Takt Time = 200/100 = 2 Minutes/Pcs Work Sequence: The operators need to complete the process steps or sequence of activities to produce the products or service within Takt time. Example: For Food Delivery the work sequence, Order Receiving -->Address Verification -->Order Acceptance --> Food Preparation -->Food Packaging -->Food Collection by Delivery Boy -->Contact address Mapping --> Food delivery to the Customer, ---In this whole sequence need to be completed within takt time. Standard inventory (or in-process stock): It is referred to work in progress materials/stock. It is a minimum quantity of parts and raw materials required to run production operations. Example: In continuous Polymer process industries, the raw materials, and specified quantities of Work in process material stock is always needed to run the operations and achieve the quality. If work in progress material stock is less than the stipulated level, then quality of the polymer product will not be the customer specifications and also the raw material safety stock plus buffer stock should be maintained, if not even one time shutdown will bring a huge loss of money and process plant startup will take more days than expected.

Service Recovery Paradox; Customer loyalty and customer retentions is very important factor in the day-to-day businesses and many companies are having the customer satisfaction is the primary goal of their business. To sustaining the business and improving the customer satisfaction, service after the sales is one of the important criteria. The research shows that many of the customers are delighted or satisfied after buying the product while the company is doing the good service facility and resolve their problems as and when required. Service recovery paradox is explained as, the customer gets satisfied whey they are experienced in the service failure and it was resolved as per their expectations, then the customers more likely to buy a product in future. There are two different cases are explained below for the suitable and not suitable situations of the service recovery paradox. Case 1: Service recovery paradox cannot be suitable for all types of services or products. In this case, the customers are buying or using the service only once. So that if these services are not provided properly that is right at first time and the customers are not getting satisfied. Also, they will not recommend for others and the customer loyalty on the product or services will become poor. For example, the studio that they are making wedding photograph service. If these services are not provided right at first time or there are any defects are found in the wedding photograph, the customer gets annoyed and dissatisfied about the studio service. This factor will reduce the customer loyalty and retentions since there is no service recovery paradox exist. Case 2: This service recovery paradox can be suitable for the some of the products or services, the company buying the manufacturing equipment’s from the good service facilitated supplier. Later the company found that there are some problems are identified after the equipment’s installation and manufacturing started. If these equipment’s supplier resolves the issues or problems which was identified by the manufacturing company at specified time frame. The company may get highly satisfied about their equipment’s supply and service facility because the manufacturing equipment’s are the capital expenditure for the company. The company cannot change or replace the equipment’s in a shorter period, and it require more money. So, these types of companies are expecting the service facility after sales and it is much required for their consistent operations and satisfy their own customers. (Continuous process Industries). Here the customer loyalty is increases with the service recovery exist. Service Recovery Paradox is not only the factor for achieving the customer satisfaction. So that, based on the business, a company should focus on defect free production and after sales service.

Noise factor: Noise factors are the functional characteristics that can be changed naturally, and it can be varies uncontrollably in the process. It is needed much effect to control while doing manufacturing process, but these noise factors can be controlled by the effective designs of experiments and these noise factors can be a measurable parameters/element. Schematic Diagram for a Process is, Firstly, the source of the noise factor can be identified by the detailed study of the system and it can be eliminated or minimized. These noise factors affect the system performance adversely and the control variable have the capability to minimize the noise factors in the system. To defeat the effects of these noise factors, need to be analyzed and optimize the control factor which can reduce the noise effects. During the experiment blocking and randomizations are used to control the noise factors and also the noise vs control factor interaction effects can be used to reduce the noise effects.