Lean Information Systems

ACCA P5考試：Lean Information Systems

The term "lean" is associated with the Toyota manufacturing system, which focused on improving the flow of work through the factory to reduce waste.

Ⅰ. Types of Waste

Toyota identified three types of waste that it aimed to eliminate in lean systems:

1. Mura means unevenness in operations (or variations in a process). An example of this is if the production process starts to speed up as the result of a sudden, unexpected increase in demand.

2. Muri refers to the effect of managers demanding too much from workers and machines because of poor organisation. This leads to mistakes and machine downtime.

3. Muda is an activity that does not add value to the customer, but does consume resources. Toyota originally identified seven muda:

1) Transport of products that are not required for the processing

2) Inventory holding

3) Motion—people moving more than is required to perform the process

4) Waiting

5) Overproduction—producing ahead of demand

6) Over processing—performing processes that are unnecessary

7) Defects.

Ⅱ. Characteristics of Lean Production

Non-value-added activities (muda) are eliminated by continuous improvement.

Continuous product flow.

Single piecework flow (i.e. the system should be capable of producing batch sizes of one). This requires simplification of the set-up process.

Just-in-time processing.

Total quality control. This means defect prevention rather than inspection and re-work.

Ⅲ. The Five Ss of Lean

A concept designed to assist with achieving lean production is the "five Ss", which are often associated with lean and aim to produce a workplace that is more structured. The five Ss are:

1. Structurise (or Sort)—introduce order wherever possible. A simple example would be reorganising the equipment in the factory so that it is easy to find.

2. Systemise (or Straighten)—arrange and identify items for ease of use.

3. Sanitise (or Shine)—be tidy, clean daily.

4. Standardise—identify the best way of doing a process or task and then consistently apply it.

5. Self-discipline (or Sustain)—motivate employees.

One problem with this approach is that many organisations see it as the ultimate goal of lean. It is not—the ultimate goal is to reduce waste by reducing non-value-adding activities.

Ⅳ. Benefits of a Lean Information System

Applying these principles to information systems suggests that a lean information system:

Can provide information to support the whole value chain.

This may also involve the information systems connecting into the information systems of business partners using electronic data interchange (EDI) so that information can be shared.

Reduces the amount of wasted time due to difficulty of assessing information from the system.

Reduces the amount of wasted time due to inaccurate data or information being included in the system.

Provides better presentation of information, avoiding information overload. Information overload is the situation where managers are given too much information, and due to this, they lose sight of the really important areas.

Provides better, quicker flow of information so that users do not have to wait for new information.