Brief Background & Definition of Lean: Due to the economic depression in the late 90’s in Thailand, lots of business methodologies changed. PD Aquarium as a manufacturer was not unaffected. It positioned itself to meet customer needs of both ‘made to order’ and ordinary products applying the lean approach as a cost reduction means in avoiding excess production being stored as inventory in a bid to cut down on cost.
Lean manufacturing or lean production is basically a production practice that targets the identification and elimination of waste. Lean manufacturing changed the world as innovated by Toyota that is against mass production system (Taj Shahram, 2008).Taj believes lean means manufacturing without waste; here waste includes over production, waste in waiting time, transportation waste, inventory waste, processing waste, waste of motion and waste from production defects.
Analyzing Methodology And Effectiveness In Identifying Problems At PD Aquarium: (1) Standard production cycle is five working days. No orders are taken over the weekend and any order received any day outside Monday automatically gets delivered the following Fridays as orders are only shipped for delivery on Fridays. On receipt of these orders from retailers, the administration clerk would check inventory and raw materials only after orders are received. Operating at lower cost to yield greater profits however customers would not be satisfied as serving the customer becomes vital means of differentiation (Christopher M, 2005, pg 11). Though the company claims to have enhanced it’s capability to produce and distribute products while lowering production costs with the lean approach this was not very evident in their meeting customer needs or production processes. (2)On inventory confirmation/Order Placement of Raw Materials, perhaps systems were not readily available to confirm inventory before