You work has a junior engineer within a local small to medium sized enterprise (SME) manufacturing company. The company with a great portfolio of products has recently been taken over by an entrepreneur with limited knowledge of engineering manufacture. However, its abundantly clear (even to a non-engineer) the manufacturing processes are somewhat archaic.

You have been tasked by your line manager to investigate the methodology of Lean Manufacturing with a directive to gain understanding and knowledge of the principles. You are then to continue your research and to investigate the methodology of Toyota Production System (TPS) and how this fits with more widely adopted generic approaches to lean manufacturing with a directive to gain understanding and knowledge of common principles that are critical to success.

C) In all new methods there are key challenges, analyse the key challenges that can be encountered when implementing lean manufacturing. Consider:

.Cost

.Quality

.Delivery

.Customer satisfaction

.Management complexity and cost to serve.