| Abstract: | Lean is a system that deals with all about the reduction of wastes which are
significantly contributing to the ineffectiveness and inefficiency of the business
entities. Companies that have not previously been exposed to lean manufacturing
tend to have a lot of wastes in their manufacturing processes. The case company,
which this research focuses on, is a bottled water manufacturing firm which was not
an exception. This research was conducted to identify the significance of the eight
manufacturing wastes (such as, quality, delivery time, and costs) and their impact on
the operational performances of the case company. To validate data through cross
verifications, triangulated measurement systems including survey questionnaire,
archival data collection, and focus group discussions, were employed. To investigate
the magnitude of wastes in the processes, the research was conducted in two
categories. Category 1 represented the manufacturing and those processes
intensively interact with it, and category 2, the support process. A total of ninety five
(95) responses were collected and the analysis of the data demonstrated that wastes
were significantly present both in category 1 and category 2. Analysis made on the
archival data collected in a period of twelve months has also revealed that significant
amount of wastes existed in the case company in different forms. The third
instrument used was focus group discussion. It was designed to identify the root
causes of manufacturing wastes and determine their significance to be risks to the
case company. The data analysis and conclusions made on these triangulated
methods showed consistency in that wastes were significantly present in both
manufacturing and support processes and these wastes were also significantly
impacting negatively the operational performances of the case company. |
