Paper Example on Lean Production: Enhancing Performance in Sports

Introduction

Lean philosophies are associated with a then systematic method of production that stemmed from Japan manufacturing industry, and it involves minimisation of waste in the system and at the same time maintaining or increasing the productivity. Lean production instead of emphasising on mass production, it emphasises explicitly on perfection by aiming to decimate the system defects and efficient production of a variety of products (Womack et al. 1991, 5). When it comes to sports, especially football, there is the necessity of the management to develop techniques and tools implemented during a competition to make the team better than their opponents. Managers, however, shouldn't depend on simple practices but instead adopt better systematic approaches used in business (Albernaz 2014, 341). Successful application of such business productivity-boosting systematic methods such as the lean in football would, therefore, create a better environment for both the team managers and players and enhance their chances of winning. According to Suarez Barraza, Smith, and Mi Dahlgaard-Park (2009), lean philosophy has its origins in Japan (Toyota Production Systems) where it is mostly applied in car manufacturing. There is a growing adaptation of lean practices in the public services sector management activities which denotes that lean thinking can also be used in the management of sports clubs to improve their running efficiency. Suarez Barraza et al., (2009) argues that Lean-Kaizen has over the years become transformed from the previous focus on the manufacturing to other organisation areas as a philosophy of management. Where the philosophy is applied, the respective organisations make more considerable savings in both time and resources, which makes them more competitive in the market (Sundar, Balaji, and Kumar 2014, 12). The lean philosophy seeks to add value by eliminating waste in all organisational activities. Similarly, lean philosophy can be adopted by football teams to improve their operational efficiency in terms of supplies by reducing wastages and also increasing the overall value from the total resources available (Asnan, Nordin, and Othman 2015, 313). The objective of this review is to determine whether or not lean philosophies adaptation in the football team's management and structuring puts the team at a better chance of defeating its opponents.

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Lean-Kaizen Guiding Principles

There are fundamental guiding principles that are considered during the implementation and adoption of the lean philosophy (Bhamu and Singh Sangwan 2014, 877). The initial consideration in lean thinking in assessing and identifying the desired value by the customers. This means that the fundamental aspect of transferring lean philosophy in football teams is through the assessment of their expectations and definition of value. As such, the depiction of value will vary from one football team to another and will play a significant role the design and approach of lean philosophy integration (Suarez Barraza et al., 2009, 144). The second most instrumental aspect of lean thinking is the establishment of the value stream of the supply products within an organisation. In a football team, there are different supplies which have different values that should be correctly identified to help streamline the adoption of lean thinking. The value of the supplies should seek to minimise all the wastages and challenge the existing cases of waste, which lead to increased cost for the football teams. The change should be sustainable, and the organisation should always seek to attain perfection by improving the supply quality, cost competitiveness and timely delivery (Suarez Barraza et al., 2009, 145). Streamlining supplies in football teams using lean philosophy can help to free resources which can be used to acquire high profile talents, which in the long term can improve the overall performance. One of the recognised lean technique to help organisations to implement the Kaizen practices is the pull production-Kanban which entails the delivery of the delivery instructions for the supplies in a cascading manner in which the organisation or football team will be required to direct the delivery of supply when there is actual need (Suarez Barraza et al., 2009, 145). This aspect is called Kanban system, and it is instrumental in reducing wastages that occur when the supplies are made in the absence of the actual use or utility. The organisations implementing a Kanban System should ensure that there is reliability in the existing supplies to promote productivity because shortages could negatively affect the overall functioning of the team. Besides, the lean philosophy technique adoption requires organisations to be able to facilitate continuity while reducing extra costs by putting the focus on the cleanliness and safety of the supplies that will be availed. In a football team, lean philosophy adoption should put in focus and also maintain a safety measure of the supplies availed to ensure that the performance is not derailed by the lean adoption (Suarez Barraza et al., 2009, 146). The cell design technique is an instrumental aspect of the Kaizen technique because it allows easy oversight and management of the supplies. This means that the football teams can benefit from the lean philosophy by unifying their supply management which eliminates the need for transportation and at the same time the waiting time (Suarez Barraza et al., 2009, 146). In the case of football teams, it is important to consider the locally manufactured supplies which are within proximity of the team operations to reduce cost attributed to transport and waiting time due to the pull production-Kanban which requires the organisation to make a request for the supplies when there is actual need.

According to assumed facts, lean practice is anticipated to significantly better the operational performance by streamlining the processes and increasing their consistency. Lean bundles contribute to the operating, and overall performance of plants and some scholars even propose that lean when taken together as a system, benefits the whole organisation. Lean production can be reviewed in how it has been initially applied and its generally better performance in comparison to other modes of production. For instance, much of lean production interest in Japan was based on the International Motor Vehicle Program (IMVP) claims that Japanese manufacturers who used lean shown twice as much effectiveness as their western opponents (Lewis 2000, 960). By lean improving operational performance, it improves both financial and market results. To test for the effect of lean practices on operational measures, David Losonci and Krisztina Demeter conducted a comparison between non-lean, beginner lean and advanced lean companies using ANOVA analysis in the statistical test (Losonci & Krisztina 2013, 10). T

Likert's scale is used on a 1-5 scale: 1- Dropping performance, 2-constant performance (No change), 3- 10-25% positive change, 4- 25-50% positive change, and 5-for more than 50% performance improvement in 3 years. A-significant difference from advanced lean companies, B- Significant difference from the beginners, N-Significant difference from Non-lean companies.

Every operational performance variable is increased in value at the advanced lean companies comparing to the non-lean. There is, however, no substantial difference between non-lean and the beginner companies. This might either imply that the non-lean companies pursue lean-related programs due to their stylish design and their accepted perspective or that the initial efforts in adopting and implementing lean bear results after some time (Demeter & Losonci 2013, 11) We can infer from the study that lean productivity besides taking some time to reflect a substantial operational performance improvement, it exhibits exceptionally high betterment of the organisation's performance. According to Alsmadi (2012), lean principles are wastage minimising approaches of production that ensure an organisation creates high-quality products for the exact demand without any wastage. Lean principles are based on just in time supply of goods and services; the producer has to have a clear idea of the right quantity of demand where and when. Lean principles application in production and manufacturing is possible through the existing improvements in communication and transport which have reduced the time taken to get the product or service from the producer to the consumer (Womack et al. 1991, 18).

Major Themes of Lean Production

The lean philosophy concept emerged from the Toyota Production System (TPS) in Japan and evolved into a managerial philosophy that aims at eliminating activities that do not add value from the value chain (Alsmadi 2012, 383). Lean is a multi-faced concept that was invented to explain how the Japanese worked to keep its competitiveness, especially in the automobile industry. Lean mainly comprises of operations such as ensuring zero inventories, use of high-quality processes characterised by total quality management and product maintenance and at the same time it encourages strong employee participation, all of these are aimed at ensuring the prosperity of the organisation (Womack et al. 1991, 3). Unlike the mass production approach that seeks competitive advantages from cost advantages mainly attained through having large economies of scale, lean production focuses on the organisation and the supply chain in the reduction of waste. It foregoes the large economies of scale mass production and targets to attain better customer satisfaction through processes optimisation. In most mass production projects, the number of workers involved is small at the beginning and grows larger as the project approaches launching as numerous people are used to solving problems that would have been easily solved at the projects' outset (Womack et al. 1991, 11). In contrast, Lean projects involve a large number of people in the project's beginning, and the number reduces as the project nears launching. In Lean's case, there is a group to confront all the issues faced in the project's beginning thus smoother running of the rest of the project (Womack et al. 1991, 6)

Kaizen

The word kaizen is derived from Japanese names 'kai' (continuous) and 'zen' (improvement) to mean progressing advancement may it be in business or personal life. When applied in production, for instance, Kaizen means a continuing all-round improvement inclusive of everyone, the workers and the staff (Shettah et al. 2012, 4). Kaizen is a vital element of lean production initially applied in Just-in-time production in Japan that effected well-rounded progressing advancements in their production. Among the main concepts of Kaizen are; Management, whose major function is improvement and maintenance (Shettah et al. 2012, 33). It's the management's objective to maintain the set operating standards that have been put in place and to look for alternative ways to better the prevailing standards. Second, process versus the results; unlike the vulgar management that focuses on the results and pays less attention to the process, Kaizen managers concentrate on perfecting the process to obtain good results (Shettah et al. 2012, 1). Finally, the...