Managerial Perspective to Operational Excellence

Tripathi, Atul; Deb, Jaymalya; Kumar, Vikas

Abstract

In the current age of manufacturing revival in the United States and other developed countries, companies are looking for a differentiating factor to be able to compete with competitors in low-cost countries. There are several different approaches a company could take to become more competitive depending on the life cycle of a product, product features, market, customer preferences, and industry structure. Using lean methodologies is one such operations-focused approach that has effectively helped numerous companies over the past few decades excel in what they do. However, the path to achieving a leaner organization is not always easy. There are several challenges associated in this journey including identification of project scope, use of system or tools that could help identify areas of improvement, and then implementation of new ideas to realize the benefits. Several new ideas related to Robotic Process Automation and machine learning are also gradually finding their way in a traditional manufacturing environment. Cost-based competition is the most prevalent form of competition in mature industries/products, but the need to keep costs lower is needed even more in developed countries due to high labor and fixed costs. This book presents a case-based approach that could help leaders and middle managers at manufacturing companies structure their turnaround or improvement projects. Although the companies discussed in these case studies are based in the United States, challenges faced by these companies are the same among most companies based in Europe or the United Kingdom. The book walks the readers through first-hand experience of steps taken in actual projects with three different companies in Oil & Gas, Telecommunication, and Furniture production industries. The details of each industry project are broken down into two chapters with the first chapter describing the problem and subsequent chapter providing details of steps taken to identify root causes and develop recommendations. The book also covers a few examples of savings resulting from the implementation of Robotic Process Automation in a manufacturing setting. We encourage readers to not only read all the cases in this book but also formulate their own strategies after reading about a company and its challenges in the first chapter of each case.

• Book Type: Authored Book
• Online Publication Date: Jun 6, 2021
• Publication Date: Jun 7, 2021
• Deposit Date: Aug 14, 2021
• Publisher: Taylor & Francis (Routledge)
• ISBN: 9780367688424
• Keywords: Lean,
• Public URL: https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/7625890
• Publisher URL: https://www.routledge.com/Managerial-Perspective-to-Operational-Excellence-Using-Lean-Ideas-to-Compete/Tripathi-Deb-Kumar/p/book/9780367688424
• Contract Date: May 14, 2021