Discuss Theories and Types of Operations Management

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Discuss theories and types of Operations Management Lean production Lean production is a theory that can help you to simplify and organize your working environment so that you can reduce waste and keep your people, equipment and workspace responsive to what is need at the time. Over the past 40 years, the lean production approach has developed into an essential part of the manufacturing practice in the US, since it proved to enable exceptional performance and lead to competitive advantage. Critics claim no other production system will reach the efficiency level of lean production. It developed out of Toyota’s Production System (TPS), which used just-in-time (JIT) manufacturing methods to increase efficiency. Its common adaption in the S started in the 1980s when Toyota and General Motors established a joint venture, NUMMI. The lean production approach was known to be complicated and quite multifaceted as it had underlying elements, which needed to be understood. It could be described as a newly developed culture of learning, where a successful result emerges from small steps. Some of those steps would be eliminated and other embraced and transformed for future use. The approach focuses on creating new and improved work habits, which are continually enhanced, rather than focusing on the same routines. Lean production believes in giving workers the opportunity to learn how to develop efficient habits and work through arising problems themselves, rather than following a top-down management system like was common in the US (Denning, 2011). The main focus of lean production lies in the reduction of waste through over production or malfunction. When a problem arises machines will turn off and the defect is supposed to be eliminated immediately, and solved/fixed before the machine turns back on. The name of this production approach results out of the aim to remove

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