UFMEE8-15-M - Continuous Improvement using Lean Thinking: Principles of Lean Engineering, Assessment Brief

Completing your assessment

The Senior Management team of the organisation you are working for manufactures gaskets for one major customer is planning to diversify its operations and expand its product range. At part of this expansion plan the Senior Management team is conducting a lean readiness review on a key product. The product is a metallised fabric gasket which is assembled in a dedicated manufacturing cell. The gasket consists of a foam core encapsulated by an outer metal fabric together with a pressure tape along its edges. As part of the lean readiness review the current (as-is) Value Stream Map shown in Figure 1 is the main source of information.

Having recently returned from a 2-week training course on Lean Manufacturing, you have been tasked to evaluate this Value Stream Map and identify potential areas of improvement. The assignment requires you to write a report arguing a case for these improvements based on your knowledge on the subject of Lean such as the Lean principles, Lean thinking and techniques etc. and be fully aligned with the organisation’s intent becoming “lean ready”.

As many of the Senior Management team have a strong academic background in production and operations management, it is vitally important that you support your proposals with appropriately referenced practitioner and academic literature.

1. In line with UWE Bristol’s Assessment Content Limit Policy (formerly the Word Count Policy), word count includes all text, including (but not limited to): the main body of text (including headings), all citations (both in and out of brackets), text boxes, tables and graphs, figures and diagrams, quotes, lists.

2. UWE Bristol’s UWE’s Assessment Offences Policy requires that you submit work that is entirely your own and reflects your own learning, so it is important to:

 Ensure you reference all sources used, using the UWE Harvard system and the guidance available on UWE’s Study Skills referencing pages.
 Avoid copying and pasting any work into this assessment, including your own previous assessments, work from other students or internet sources
 Develop your own style, arguments and wording, so avoid copying sources and changing individual words but keeping, essentially, the same sentences and/or structures from other sources
 Never give your work to others who may copy it 
 If an individual assessment, develop your own work and preparation, and do not allow anyone to make amends on your work.

Module learning outcomes assessed by this task:

1. Evaluate and synthesise relevant information regarding Lean philosophies, principles, systems and tools to enhance the effectiveness of manufacturing and service operations;
2. Critically reflect upon the need for leading with Lean principles, engaging peoplethrough systems and applying tools to solve business problems and eliminate waste;
3. Demonstrate through evaluation the need for a coordinated, structured and scientific approach in adopting and implementing Lean engineering into an organisation.