TUPAL, CINDY SHANE C.

BSHM 401

Case Study: Automotive Company

You are a newly hired manager of Automotive Company. Since it is part of a manufacturing industry,
the company operates day and night. During your first few weeks with the company, you have noticed
a problem area in the shifting schedule of the employees. You have observed that changing from one
shift to another creates long periods of low or stopped production which became a costly and
destructive routine. Also, you have noticed that the manufacturing process of Automotive Company is
longer compared to your previous car manufacturing company since the placement of the inputs for
car production is relatively far from the actual production units.

Answer the following (2 items x 10 points):

QUESTION 1: What type/s of waste that Lean Approach targets to eliminate is/are present in the
case?

Ans.

I have noticed on what type of wastes needs to be eliminated are the “Motion waste”, “Waiting
waste” and “Underutilization waste”. For the motion waste of the automotive company, it is
stated in the case study that there’s a problem with the shifting schedules of the employees, for
one shift from another really is a ti me- consuming, it aff ects the eff ecti veness and
productivity of the company. Due to the shifting schedule problem, it will now disrupt the whole-
day routi ne of the producti on that has a domino e ff e c t w i t h w a i ti n g w a s t e . T h a t i s
w h e r e m y c o m p a r i s o n o f t h e c u r r e n t company has a slower producti on process than
my former companies, for maybe the employees of the company that I am currently
working were idling their time or maybe it is the machines or technologies that their aro using
are malfuncti oning that’s why their employees are idling ti me that l e a d s t o a n o t h e r w a s t e
c a l l e d u n d e r u ti l i z a ti o n . S i n c e t h e m a c h i n e s a r e

QUESTION 2: What is the most effective Lean approach tool/technique that should be employed to
resolve the problem areas in the Automotive Company?