Tag: Toyota production system

OM Podcast #17: An Interview with Pfizer’s Global Supply Chain VP

In our latest podcast, Barry welcomes Tom Cheslock, VP of Global Supply Chains at Pfizer.  Tom and Barry discuss the massive network of supply chains that support Pfizer’s pharmaceutical business, including their recent success delivering the COVID vaccine to 180 countries around the world during the height of the pandemic.  Additionally Tom describes his recent trip to Tokyo to experience the Toyota Production System first-hand and bring new tactics back to Pfizer.

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Transcript

A Word document of this podcast will download by clicking the word Transcript above.

Instructors, assignable auto-graded exercises using this podcast are available in MyLab OM.  See our  earlier blog post with a recording of author and user Chuck Munson to learn how to find these, or contact your Pearson rep to learn more!  https://www.pearson.com/en-us/help-and-support/contact-us/find-a-rep.html

 

OM in the News: Lean Production and the New York Times

 

Many of the instructors following our OM blog are looking for interesting articles in the press that they can share with their students. I like this particular piece in the New York Times (Oct. 11, 2018) that provides several interesting examples of lean operations (the topic of Chapter 16). The article traces back to the roots of lean in the vaunted Toyota Production System developed in Japan in the late 1940s, which was aimed at streamlining processes to eliminate waste, improve productivity and, ultimately, grow profits.

Roughly 40 years later the term lean production was coined by John Krafcik, CEO of Waymo, the autonomous driving car company. Krafcik was part of a team led by the research scientist James Womack, who became founder of the Lean Enterprise Institute. The Institute’s approach, which differs in some ways, focuses on eliminating waste, rethinking work flow and improving productivity, from entry-level employees to high-level executives. “When we came up with the name lean production, what we meant was the complete system,” Dr. Womack said. “What the world heard was factories. But the frontier has been outside of the factory world for the last 20 years.”

Sometimes, seemingly tiny changes exemplify the lean approach. The president of Cambridge Engineering, a manufacturer of industrial heating and ventilation technologies said a new entry-level line employee, Justin Meade, realized he was wasting time each hour just to discard trash. Meade, who had little technical training, came up with the idea of attaching a trash can to a chair to cut 15 steps. Over the next 6 months he continued to make more revisions to devise an even better version. The result: shaving an estimated 70 minutes from a 90-minute job.

About 20 years ago, Toyota set up the T.P.S Support Center, a nonprofit that aims to help businesses and nonprofits, like the New York Food Bank. The beneficiaries need not be in Toyota’s supply chain. Instead, the company hopes to help smaller North American companies streamline their operations.

Classroom discussion questions:

  1. Provide examples of lean from the NYT article.
  2. What is the history of lean?

 

OM in the News: Sweden’s Lean Hospital

st goran hospitalSt. Goran’s Hospital is one of the glories of the Swedish welfare state, writes The Economist. Doctors talk enthusiastically about “the Toyota model of production” and “harnessing innovation” to cut costs. Yet, from the patient’s point of view, St. Goran’s is no different from any other public hospital. Treatment is free, after a nominal charge which is universal in Sweden. St. Goran’s gets nearly all its money from the state.

A temple to “lean management,” the hospital today is organized on the twin lean principles of “flow” and “quality.” Doctors and nurses used to keep a professional distance from each other. Now they work (and sit) together in teams.

One innovation involved buying a roll of yellow tape. Staff used to waste precious time looking for defibrillator machines. Then someone suggested marking a spot on the floor with yellow tape and insisting that the machines were always kept there. Other ideas are equally low-tech. Teams use a series of magnetic dots to keep track of each patient’s progress and which beds are free. They discharge patients throughout the day rather than in one batch, so that they can easily find a taxi.

The medical equivalent of a budget airline, there are 4-6 patients to a room (unlike our American system of private and semi-private rooms). The decor is institutional. Everything is done to “maximize throughput.” The aim is to give taxpayers value for money and not pretend that hospitals are hotels. St. Goran’s has reduced waiting times by increasing throughput. It has also reduced each patient’s likelihood of picking up an infection. Scrimping on hotel services means the hospital could instead invest in preparing patients for admission and providing support after they are released.

The average length of a hospital stay in Sweden is 4.5 days, compared with 5.2 days in France and 7.5 days in Germany. Sweden has 2.8 hospital beds per 1,000 citizens. France has 6.6; Germany, 8.2. Yet Swedes live slightly longer.

Discussion questions:

1. How does lean help St. Goran’s improve its performance?

2. Why don’t all hospitals use lean approaches?