Lean approach adoption

Experience shows that adopting the principles of lean manufacturing from assembly industries can be a powerful operational improvement lever. Lean management, first introduced by Toyota, appeals because it holds out a promise no other approach can make not only does it cut costs and improve quality, but it also stabilizes operations and matches supply with demand. A companywide lean transformation program structured around the improvement of Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE) may unearth a hidden capacity that is equivalent to adding another plant to the manufacturing network. Lean, however, should not only be applied in production, but across the entire value chain. 

The paper presents data on development of Mn oxide catalysts for selective oxidation of lean methane mixtures with air to produce CO2 and generate heat. To obtain catalysts, new approaches to the synthesis of polyoxide materials based on Mn were adopted. Catalysts were modified by doping with La, Ce, Ba and Sr nitrates which were deposited from solutions onto the stabilized 2%Ce/0-Al2O3 support (of surface area 100 m /g and pellet diameter 4-5 mm). By varying the components of the impregnation mixture, it was possible to optimize the chemical composition and ratio of elements in the multi-component catalysts (at Ba Sr La Ce Mn = 1 1 1 7 10 ratio). The catalyst composition conformed to the oxide stoichiometry in the perovskite structure. 

Table 9.1 shows that only 42 individual tools and techniques were discovered to be in use in the 122 surveyed companies (see Appendix E), but there were 456 incidences in which tools and techniques were in use. This indicates that the procurement and supply function appears to use tools and techniques relatively less than most other functions and that companies appear to be using many of the same tools. Table 9.1 below shows that 63% of all usage were accounted for by the top ten tools and techniques, and that almost 87% of all tool and technique use is accounted for by just twenty applications. What also stands out is that, despite the considerable debate within the profession - especially amongst academics and consultants - about what constitutes best practice, the tools and techniques that are actually used by managers are fairly traditional. There is only limited evidence of the adoption of the more recently advanced best practice tools associated with lean (0.22% of total recorded uses), power (0.44%) and balanced sourcing (no uses) approaches. 

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