Matthias Holweg

Learning to evolve: A review of contemporary lean thinking

The application of lean thinking has made a significant impact both in academic and industrial circles over the last decade. Fostered by a rapid spread into many other industry sectors beyond the automotive industry, there has been a significant development and “localisation” of the lean concept. Despite successful “lean” applications in a range of settings however, the lean approach has been criticised on many accounts, such as the lack of human integration or its limited applicability outside high‐volume repetitive manufacturing environments. The resulting lack of definition has led to confusion and fuzzy boundaries with other management concepts. Summarising the lean evolution, this paper comments on approaches that have sought to address some of the earlier gaps in lean thinking. Linking the evolution of lean thinking to the contingency and learning organisation schools of thought, the objective of this paper is to provide a framework for understanding the evolution of lean not only as a concept, but also its implementation within an organisation, and point out areas for future research.

The Three Dimensions of Responsiveness

Purpose – The concept of responsiveness has been widely discussed, yet so far most of this discussion has remained qualitative in nature. The purpose of this paper is to develop a conceptual model identifying the key factors that determine the responsiveness of a supply chain system, which – once quantified – provide a unique profile of each supply chain setting towards the appropriate supply chain strategy.Design/methodology/approach – The paper reviews existing contributions and synthesises these into a conceptual model of responsiveness. The model is applied using three case studies from the automotive and electronics industry. The case research is based on value stream mapping, semi‐structured interviews, and site visits.Findings – Three key findings could be established: first, the concept of responsiveness has a simple logic that aligns itself to a wide range of manufacturing strategies. However, underlying this remit is a complex interaction of an array of key variables, and it was found that previ...

Creating the Customer-responsive Supply Chain: A Reconciliation of Concepts

Purpose – While the concept of supply chain responsiveness (SCR) has received considerable attention in the operations management literature, mostly under the auspices of concepts such as build‐to‐order, mass customisation, lean and agility, so far there is a lack of comprehensive definition of SCR, as well as a defined relationship between “responsiveness” and “flexibility”. Also, the frameworks at hand tend to consider only a subset of factors previously identified in the literature, and thus do not comprehensively portray the cause‐and‐effect relationships involved. This paper aims to address these gaps.Design/methodology/approach – The paper synthesises the existing contributions to manufacturing and supply chain flexibility and responsiveness, and draws on various related bodies of literature that affect a supply chains responsiveness such as the discussion of product architecture and modularisation.Findings – Four types of responsiveness are identified: product, volume, mix, and delivery, all of wh...

Supply chain simulation – a tool for education, enhancement and endeavour

This paper describes how a participative simulation model is used to demonstrate supply chain dynamics and to model possible improvements to an entire supply chain. A three-year research project in the automotive steel supply chain found that lack of understanding of the core processes throughout the supply chain caused distortion and amplification of both demand and supply patterns. In consequence, this deficit of information is often replaced with inventory — resulting in increased lead times and pipeline cost. At the start of the project there was relatively little collaboration in the supply network. The ‘Lean Leap Logistics Game’ was developed primarily to foster collaboration. To achieve this, the game had to model reality, and was built on a series of mapping activities. Unexpectedly, it turned out that developing and running the game led to insights into scheduler behaviour, scheduling decision making, prioritising improvement activities and into supply chain dynamics, especially the ‘Forrester’ or ‘Bullwhip’ effect. By presenting the experiences of using supply chain simulations, this paper aims at encouraging both academics and practitioners to use this tool to demonstrate and discuss supply chain improvements by simulating their individual characteristics in order to deploy holistic improvements, rather than partial or ‘island’ solutions.

Linking Product Variety to Order-Fulfillment Strategies

Providing a variety of attributes in products is an important way of attracting customers, but it often increases complexity and managerial cost. We drew on two data sets collected in the automotive sector to explore the link between external variety (the variety offered the customer) and internal variety (the variety involved in creating the product). We found that these two dimensions can be independent of each other. External variety is problematic for firms producing to forecast, and handling internal variety is challenging for firms building products to order. The effectiveness of strategies to mitigate varietys negative effects, such as modularity, mutability, late configuration, and option bundling, depends on the order-fulfillment strategy the firm follows.

LEAN DISTRIBUTION: CONCEPTS, CONTRIBUTIONS, CONFLICTS

Despite the fact that the benefits of lean production have been documented across many industry settings, firms find it difficult to extend lean principles downstream into their distribution systems. In this paper we review and synthesize previous contributions on lean principles towards defining a framework of lean distribution. Furthermore, based on an in-depth case study of a vehicle manufacturers efforts to implement a lean vehicle distribution system, some of its key benefits are discussed and quantified. We further find that the attainment of responsiveness in order to reduce waste from the distribution system requires substantial commitment across the entire organization, yet such efforts may also lead to excess flexibility and the attainment of capabilities that are misaligned with actual market requirements. We use the underlying case to explore the wider conflicts between lean distribution and lean production, and highlight strategies of how these issues can be resolved. We conclude that applying differential strategies by market segment can result in a supply chain that is both responsive and efficient, suggesting that the perceived trade-off between the needs to be lean and able to respond to changes in demand can be reconciled.

Logistics in the “three‐day car” age

It is now becoming apparent that the prevalent “stock‐push” approach in the automotive industry of building vehicles against a long‐term forecast and fulfilling the large majority of orders from existing stock is no longer a viable proposition. Pressure from rising stock levels in the market and the discounts needed to sell these vehicles is forcing the vehicle manufacturers to rethink their sourcing strategy in favour of “build‐to‐order” systems. More responsive order fulfilment at vehicle manufacturer level however will have wide implications on the component supply and logistics subsystems. Based on findings of the 3DayCar research programme, this paper aims at assessing whether current logistics systems are capable of supporting such a “build‐to‐order” approach. Based on empirical evidence of benchmarks covering three million annual vehicle movements in the UK vehicle distribution system, key constraints in current vehicle distribution logistics will be established, and the cost and environmental impact of more responsive logistics will be assessed.

An investigation into supplier responsiveness : empirical evidence from the automotive industry

Purpose – The ability of a manufacturing system to respond to customer demand in a timely fashion is widely accepted as a source of competitive advantage. While quick response concepts at system level have been widely discussed in a range of industry sectors, such as textile, electronics and fast moving consumer goods, few studies so far have specifically investigated the responsiveness of the component supply chain. This exploratory study hence aims to reconcile the considerable ambiguity that exists around the concept of supplier responsiveness, supported by an empirical investigation into the automotive parts industry.Design/methodology/approach – The study analyses the responsiveness of first‐tier automotive suppliers in Europe. The research is based on a multi‐method approach comprising of a survey, coupled with in‐depth processing mapping and complimenting interviews of production control staff at a subset of the surveyed companies.Findings – The findings suggest that supplier responsiveness is cons...

Managing product variety in emerging markets

Purpose – The need for an efficient provision of product variety has been widely established as a means of competing in the marketplace, yet previous studies into the management of product variety have commonly analysed products in isolated developed markets. The purpose of this paper is to investigate how firms manage their product variety in emerging markets. This paper aims to investigate the rationale underlying the restriction of variety in such settings, and define general mechanisms by which firms can adapt their product variety when operating in both emerging and developed markets simultaneously.Design/methodology/approach – The paper uses the case of a global vehicle manufacturer that offers common products across developed and emerging markets to illustrate the difference between them in terms of product variety, and examine the process that underlies its management. The paper utilises a combination of data collection techniques.Findings – The paper shows empirically how product variety (in part...

Delivering the ‘3-day car’—the strategic implications for automotive logistics operations

It is now becoming apparent that the current ‘stock-push’ vehicle supply in the automotive industry by fulfilling the large majority of orders from existing stock is no longer a viable proposition. Cost pressure from rising stock levels in the market and high discounts needed to sell these vehicles have forced vehicle manufacturers to rethink their order fulfilment strategy in favour of stock-less ‘build-to-order’ systems. More responsive order fulfilment at vehicle manufacturer level however will not only require flexible and responsive component supply and vehicle assembly, but will also have wide ramifications for all logistics operations in the auto supply chain. Based on findings of the 3DayCar research programme, this paper compares the implications on inbound, outbound and sea transportation logistics, leading to the development of a strategic framework for future automotive logistics operations