Assess the importance of managers, both as the drivers of change and the obstacles to change, in the implementation of lean at Pratt.
Introduction
Leadership has been often listed as the most important driver of change within an organization. Just as leadership has been regularly identified as the driver of an organization that changes successfully, it is also often cited as the reason for failure. One of the most important things a leader can do is to actively participate in the change, or "walk the talk". However a leader who thinks that merely communicating the changes without action could be setting the company up for failure (Whelan-Berry, 2010). The strategic importance of management influence to the success of any Lean implementation can be deduced from all the case studies reviewed from the inception of this course. The case of Pratt (Womack & Jones, 2003) is no different; instead we are better made aware of the gravity of management influence to any successful attempt on adopting Lean as a standard for operations. Principles 9 and 10 of the Toyota Way (Liker 2004). As explained by Liker (2004) ‘the leader’s real challenge is having the long-term vision of knowing what to do, the knowledge of how to do it, and the ability to develop people so they can understand and do their job excellently.
Lean Operations are used in the manufacturing industry and especially in automotive manufacturing units. Two of the manufacturing units that use this strategy of lean operations are Toyota Motor Company and Pratt and Whitney Aircraft. Taiichi Ohno of Toyota Motor Company developed the standardization of work and also the assembly line (Liker, 2004). Pratt and Whitney Aircrafts also implemented the lean manufacturing to their process and saw the difference in the outcome of the production, which in turn brought huge profits. Both the companies have successfully implemented the lean operation into their manufacturing processes Schonberger (1996) and both of come across seen success as well as the challenges. One of the biggest successes that were seen in Toyota Motor Company was that the people were
Leadership has been often listed as the most important driver of change within an organization. Just as leadership has been regularly identified as the driver of an organization that changes successfully, it is also often cited as the reason for failure. One of the most important things a leader can do is to actively participate in the change, or "walk the talk". However a leader who thinks that merely communicating the changes without action could be setting the company up for failure (Whelan-Berry, 2010). The strategic importance of management influence to the success of any Lean implementation can be deduced from all the case studies reviewed from the inception of this course. The case of Pratt (Womack & Jones, 2003) is no different; instead we are better made aware of the gravity of management influence to any successful attempt on adopting Lean as a standard for operations. Principles 9 and 10 of the Toyota Way (Liker 2004). As explained by Liker (2004) ‘the leader’s real challenge is having the long-term vision of knowing what to do, the knowledge of how to do it, and the ability to develop people so they can understand and do their job excellently.
Lean Operations are used in the manufacturing industry and especially in automotive manufacturing units. Two of the manufacturing units that use this strategy of lean operations are Toyota Motor Company and Pratt and Whitney Aircraft. Taiichi Ohno of Toyota Motor Company developed the standardization of work and also the assembly line (Liker, 2004). Pratt and Whitney Aircrafts also implemented the lean manufacturing to their process and saw the difference in the outcome of the production, which in turn brought huge profits. Both the companies have successfully implemented the lean operation into their manufacturing processes Schonberger (1996) and both of come across seen success as well as the challenges. One of the biggest successes that were seen in Toyota Motor Company was that the people were
References: Whelan-Berry, K.S. (2010) Linking Change Drivers and the Organizational Change Process: A Review and Synthesis, Journal of Change Management, 10(2), pp. 175193 Womack, James P., & Jones, Daniel T., (2003) Lean thinking, New York: Free Press. Liker, J.K., (2004) The Toyota way: 14 management principles from the world 's greatest manufacturer, New York: McGraw-Hill. Schonberger, R. J., (1996) World Class Manufacturing: The Next Decade, New York: Free Press. Monden, Y., (1998) Toyota Production System: An Integrated Approach to Just-in-Time, Third Edition, Norcross, GA: Engineering & Management Press. Feld, W., (2000) Lean manufacturing: Tools, techniques, and how to use them, Boca Raton, FL: St. Lucie Press. Corner, G., (2001) Lean manufacturing for the small shop, Dearborn, MI: Society of Manufacturing Engineers.