This is the same question, question 4 include (4a and 4b), answer all please, thanks.

Question 4 (21 marks) Medical Equipment is a large manufacturing facility producing electro-mechanical medical devices. The plant was vertically integrated, producing their own circuit board assemblies, cable assemblies, and the box-build final assembly and test. The process was driven by an ERP system with multi-level bills of material, shop order travelers, pick lists, lot sizes, and stock room transactions. However, the company is experiencing high cost in their production process, long lead times, and they had too much money tied up in inventory Inventory reduction goals were set with the management team and pushed down through the organization. The initial efforts focused on the ERP planning process. Bills of material were challenged and compressed. Lead times and lot sizes were cut. Parallel efforts were begun within the various production departments. Cellular manufacturing techniques were introduced to the cable assembly, wire harness departments, and final assembly. Natural work teams planned and participated in their area re-layouts. The concept of Lean supply chain and flexibility was built-in so that all future layout modifications were essentially free. This eliminated many non-value-adding reporting steps and stock room transactions. Shifts were balanced allowing products to continue to flow across the entire process, and not just the "bottleneck operations. Sequential inspection was initiated, followed by failsafe steps. (a) (13 marks) From the perspective of the management team, explain why it is important to pay close attention to the three flows in the organization so that an appropriate outcome under the lean operation can be secure. (b) (8 marks) Suggest some methods or practices that help accelerating the leaning of the supply chain