Business Case Essay

Ford Canada Lean Manufacturing Business Case
1.0 Introduction Lean manufacturing, which also refers to as Toyota Production System (TPS), is created at Toyota Corporation. Lean manufacturing is the systematic elimination of waste from their process, in order to achieve superior quality, fastest delivery with an affordable price for the customer. However, after the conclusion on Canada- Korea free trade agreement, which lifted tariff line on Korean vehicles imported to Canada. The industry has been highly competitive, which make Ford Canada to consider a full implementation of lean manufacturing into their system. The Ford Canada president and CEO, Dianne Craig consider this system not just the best strategy to meet and exceed customer expectation, but also to be highly competitive in the industry.

2.0 Business Objective The Ford Production System (FPS) is continuously improving, lean, flexible and disciplined common global production system that encompasses a set of principles and processes to drive a lean manufacturing environment. Key elements of the system include effective work groups, zero waste/zero defects, aligning global capacity with global market demand, optimizing production throughput and using total cost to drive performance.

3.0 Current Situation, And Problem/Opportunity Statement The roots of lean can be found in Ford’s system of line assembly and manufacturing process. In the Ford system, manufacturing of automobiles is done in large quantities of standard designs and highly efficient. Therefore, Lean manufacturing transformation project will employ groups of capable and empowered people, learning and working safely together in the production and delivery of products that consistently exceed customers' expectations in quality, cost and time.

4.0 Critical Assumption and Constraint The full implementation of lean manufacturing transformation will be very useful and productive for Ford Canada. The key stakeholder must be very active and fully engage before, during and after the transformation. However, it is obvious that the system will generate more revenue and maximize profit for the company. As it will reduce waste, cost and estimated time. Thus, the project will be led by the project manager, with cross functional team from various unit in the company. The basis of the transformation will be on the company standard, and an expert from various unit of the company will be in charge of monitoring and control.

4.0 Analysis of Option and Recommendation Considering the key stakeholder opinion based on the options available, and the level of competition in the industry. The full implementation of lean manufacturing using the company standard will be the best practice. 5.0 Preliminary Project Requirement Lean manufacturing main features include:
Employee Involvement and Empowerment –workers will be organized by forming teams and giving them training and responsibility to do many specialized tasks.
Total quality management and control - workers will be assigned not inspectors, and be responsible to discover a defect and to immediately fix it.
Reduced setup cost and time - from months to hours, thus making production economically viable.
Continuous Equipment Maintenance – as lean production reduces inventory, equipment breakdowns must also be reduced.
Supplier Involvement – Ford will treat its supplier as a long-term partner. Will often train them in a ways to

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