Engineering Project Preparation For Global Manufacturing Market – A Case Study

Literature Review

Discuss about the Engineering Project Preparation for Global Manufacturing Market.

This project is developed in order to improve the production process of the photocopy machine manufacturing company Xerox. The purpose of this project is to reduce the inventory defects that the company is facing presently. In addition, in this project, it has been discussed how the company can use different tools and techniques such as Six Sigma and lean management to reduce various types of wastes such as time over production. As Zaman and Lehmann (2013) stated that, there are mainly eight types of wastes can be found in the manufacturing industry, overproduction, delay of production, inefficient utilization of skills, inefficient transportation, ineffective inventory, unnecessary movement of products and excess processing. Depending on the type of wastes that the company Xerox is facing appropriate process design plan has been developed. All theoretical models have been discussed which are needed to implement in a different stage of the process.  Finally, a Gantt chart has been given to conduct the project plan within specified period.

Literature Review

There are various research works developed by researchers previously. Kidde et al. (2013) had developed a study to provide an overview of electronic waste management approaches. It has been found from this study that, electronic waste is one of the fastest growing pollution related issues globally. There are various types of toxic substances are present in e-waste which can threaten the human health. There is table given below in order to find out the quantity of e-waste produced by manufacturing industries of different countries such as Japan, China, and the USA. 

Years Save Time On Research and Writing Hire a Pro to Write You a 100% Plagiarism-Free Paper. Get My Paper	Name of the country	Type of products	Quantity of Waste (million)	Classification of wastes
2010	Japan	Computers	610	e-waste
Since 2003	China	Computers and TV	500	New products
1997-2007	The United States of America	Computers	15	e-waste

Figure 1: Comparison between the amount of e-waste produced by three countries

(Source: Kiddee et al. 2013)

It has been found from this research work that there are mainly two methods used to dispose of e-waste. They are such as incineration and landfill. As Kiddee Naidu and Wong (2013) mentioned that, landfill can potentially transport toxic substances into groundwater.  On the other hand combustion in an incinerator emits toxic gasses in the air. Recycling of e-waste can distribute hazardous substances in the environment. There are various tools can be used by manufacturing industries such as Multi-Criteria Analysis, Material flow analysis and Life Cycle Assessment can be used to control e-waste.

In another research work developed by Agus et al. (2012), it has been found that approaches such as lean production supply chain can help to improve product quality and business performance of an organization. This study has been developed in Malaysian manufacturing industries. It has been found that implementing efficient lean production SCM can help the companies in Malaysia to improve their business performance. Production managers of different organizations can gain adequate knowledge about lean management as this study suggests some factors that needed to be emphasized in lean production.

Research questions aim and sub-goals

Conger (2015) had developed a study to indicate the importance of Six Sigma model in business process management. As Conger (2015) stated that, six-sigma process can help to eliminate all unnecessary steps from a business process. It has been found that the mobile manufacturing company Motorola has implemented six sigma models effectively. It has reduced the production of faulty product from 9.3 defects per million to 3.4 defects per million (Seuring 2013). Effective implementation of Six Sigma model helps the company to increase efficiency of Motorola from 99.95% to 99.9997% (Conger 2015).  After analyzing all these previously done research works, it has been found that the first step of process management is to understand the process.  It includes points such as stages of the process, product measures and errors related with the process. Depending on these factors, waste management efficient business operation procedure needs to be developed. It includes tool such as six sigma and lean management.

Research questions

• What is the business process used by the organization Xerox?
• What are the major faults that the organization is facing in its business process?
• How different business management tools canbe implemented to improve the business process of the organization?

Research aim

The principal aim of this research work is to find out how an organization can apply various tools such as six sigma and lean management in order to improve faults of the business process. The subgoal of this research work is to find out the issues that the organization Xerox is facing in its business operation.

Research Hypothesis

H0: Implementation of various operation management tools has little impact on the business operation of an organization

H1:  Implementation of various operation management tools has high impact on the business operation of an organization

The business operation of an organization can be divided into two different types. They are such as designing of the product or service development process and design of the production process. As Yeheyis et al. (2013) mentioned that there are some mandatory criteria that the product or service development process of an organization needs to follow. They are such as attractiveness, reliability, user-friendliness and environmental friendliness.

The company Xerox was founded in the year of 1960 (Seuring 2013). However, during the 1970s, the total productivity of the company was reduced by 20% due to increase competition in the market (Agus et al. 2012). Most of the Japanese companies concentrate on the high quality of production and low volume copiers. It has been found that due to unnecessary business process the production cycle time of the company is 2 times more than its competitors such as Kodak (Hajmohammad et al. 2013).  Moreover, the company has ten times more rejection rate and 7 times manufacturing defects than its competitors (Kreimeier et al. 2014). For this reason, the market share of the organization had fallen more than 50%.  Hence, it has become necessary to implement change in the product and service development procedure of the organization. The company should implement changes in various areas such as product planning, distribution, development of unit objectives and focus on customers.There are five major steps can be applied to improve the product and service development process of the organization. They are such as idea generation, idea screening, preliminary design, review of the design and final review (Fullerton et al. 2013). There are various techniques can be implemented by the organization for effective idea generation. They are such as Brainstorming, min mapping, lateral thinking and Delphi Method.

Theoretical Content

Experimental Set-up

In this section,an experimental set-up has been developed to implement Six Sigma model so that operation management of the organization can be improved. As Yeheyis et al. (2013) mentioned that Six-Sigma is a customer based, top-down managed, strategically aligned and fact drove analysis. It requires a trained workforce in order to solve the predominantly complex problem in the business process.

Figure 2: Six-Sigma Framework (Source: Yeheyis et al. 2013)

In order to implement six sigma models, Xerox Company needs to develop dedicated infrastructure. The company needs to concentrate on critical customer opportunity. The company needs to provide significant training to the employees so that they become capable of using six-sigma framework. The company needs to implement black belt improvement specialists. It is required to link the customer focus with the strategies and objectives of the organization. In order to implement Six Sigma model effectively in the organization, a streamlined value chain process in order to consistently supply high quality products and service to the.

Figure 3: Effective implementation of DMAIC in the project framework of Xerox (Source: Solano et al. 2012)

As Becker et al. (2013) stated that it will also help to improve speed and efficiency of the production.In order to eliminate process defects and reduce variation lean management system can be used. As Hajmohammad et al. (2013) stated that lean process helps to reduce waste and increase the speed of the manufacturing process of the organization.  In order to analysis, the flow of materials and information from the customer to supplier and vice versa Value stream map can be used. There are five stages, in which company Xerox can apply Value Stream Map in the business process of the organization. These scenes are mentioned below:

Stages	Activities
Stage 1	Step one is related to the identification of the target product and product family. In the case of company Xerox, the target product is the photocopy machines.
Stage 2	Development of the current state value streams map, which will indicate immediate steps, delays that the company is facing to produce the target product or service.
Stage 3	Assessing the current value stream map in order to create flow by eliminating waste
Stage 4	Development of a future state of value streams map
Stage 5	In the last stage, the company needs to develop the future state condition for the organization.

Figure 4: Steps to implement value stream map (Source: Seuring 2013)

Figure 5: Value stream map implementation in the company Xerox (Source: Agus et al. 2012)

Effective implementation of lean six sigma model will help the organization Xerox to understand the actual needs and values of customers. It is expected that effective implementation of Lean Six Sigma process can help to transform the organizational culture of Xerox positively. It is also expected that this lean Six Sigma process will also help to improve overall operating procedure of the with the help of fact-based, disciplined decision making and measurable outcomes.  

The combination of these powerful approaches will be implemented in the organization Xerox.  It is expected that the lean procedure will increase the speed of production and lower the cost of production. It is expected that lean process will identify the non-value steps and other causes of delay for the organization Xerox. With the help of Value Stream Map analysis, the company will be able to cut down the causes of delay.  On the other hand, effective implementation of Six-Sigma process can improve the organizational culture. The practical implication of DMAIC process can help to eliminate variation from the production process and enhance performance on consumer CTQs.  Effective implementation of this hybrid approach will contribute to reducing the production cost of the company by 30%.  It is expected that the company will save approximately $1.2 million per annum by implementing lean six sigma model.

Experimental Set-up

Figure 6: Expected positive outcome Lean Six Sigma model

(Source: Conger 2015)

Project planning and Gantt chart

In order to develop effective project plan, a workflow diagram has been given below:

Figure 7: Workflow diagram for the project plan (Source: Author)

Three major review points for this research work are such as gathering information about the key issues of the organization, analyzing previous research work to find out different approaches to solving operational issues of the company. The third one is the development of a hybrid model (combination of 2 or more than two models) to solve the issues faced by the organization. All these tasks are planned to be conducted within 16 weeks (1 semester). There is a Gantt chart given below to demonstrate a proper plan to carry out this research.

Figure 8: Gantt chart for the project plan (Source: Author)

Conclusion

In this report, it has been discussed how a manufacturing company such as Xerox can improve its production process. It has been found that the company has not given required focus on the quality of production and waste management procedure. For this reason, the company is not able to cope up with its competitors such as Kodak. From various previous research works, it has been found that tools such as lean management and Six-Sigma model can be used effectively to improve the business operation of an organization. Hence, a hybrid model will be used (lean six sigma) in the business operation of the company Xerox. It is estimated that this hybrid approach will help the company to reduce its production cost by 30%.

Reference list

Agus, A. and Shukri Hajinoor, M., 2012. Lean production supply chain management as driver towards enhancing product quality and business performance: Case study of manufacturing companies in Malaysia. International Journal of Quality & Reliability Management, 29(1), pp.92-121.

Becker, J., Kugeler, M. and Rosemann, M.., 2013. Process management: a guide for the design of business processes. Springer Science & Business Media.

Conger, S., 2015. Six sigma and business process management. In Handbook on Business Process Management. Springer Berlin Heidelberg.

Fullerton, R.R., Kennedy, F.A. and Widener, S.K., 2013. Management accounting and control practices in a lean manufacturing environment. Accounting, Organizations and Society, 38(1), pp.50-71.

Hajmohammad, S., Vachon, S., Klassen, R.D. and Gavronski, I., 2013. Reprint of Lean management and supply management: their role in green practices and performance. Journal of Cleaner Production, 56, pp.86-93.

Kiddee, P., Naidu, R. and Wong, M.H., 2013. Electronic waste management approaches: An overview. Waste Management, 33(5), pp.1237-1250.

Kreimeier, D., Morlock, F., Prinz, C., Krückhans, B., Bakir, D.C. and Meier, H., 2014. Holistic learning factories–A concept to train lean management, resource efficiency as well as management and organization improvement skills. Procedia CIRP, 17, pp.184-188.

Seuring, S., 2013. A review of modeling approaches for sustainable supply chain management. Decision support systems, 54(4), pp.1513-1520.

Solano, E., Ranjithan, S.R., Barlaz, M.A. and Brill, E.D., 2012. Life-cycle-based solid waste management. I: Model development. Journal of Environmental Engineering, 128(10), pp.981-992.

Yeheyis, M., Hewage, K., Alam, M.S., Eskicioglu, C. and Sadiq, R., 2013. An overview of construction and demolition waste management in Canada: a lifecycle analysis approach to sustainability. Clean Technologies and Environmental Policy, 15(1), pp.81-91.

Yeheyis, M., Hewage, K., Alam, M.S., Eskicioglu, C. and Sadiq, R., 2013. An overview of construction and demolition waste management in Canada: a lifecycle analysis approach to sustainability. Clean Technologies and Environmental Policy, 15(1), pp.81-91.

Zaman, A.U. and Lehmann, S., 2013. The zero waste index: a performance measurement tool for waste management systems. Journal of Cleaner Production, 50, pp.123-132.