Introduction to Materials Management 8th Edition by Steve Chapman ,Tony Arnold ,Ann Gatewood ,Lloyd Clive

Exercise 1

Murphy Manufacturing
When Joe Vollbrach, vice president of operations for Murphy Manufacturing, was given the CEO's directive to investigate the lean production concepts and to implement them if appropriate, he was slightly apprehensive. Everyone knew, he thought, that ERP was the best way to run a manufacturing operation, and they had been pretty successful with their ERP system. Once he read a couple of books and a magazine article or two about lean production, however, he thought maybe there was something to it and it sure seemed simple enough. Dozens of companies had reported great reductions in inventory cost and other forms of waste, and with Murphy Manufacturing having only five to six inventory turns per year, the prospect of significant inventory reductions was very appealing. Encouraged with the success stories and very mindful of the CEO directive, Joe wasted no time. He put out the directive to all his people to implement lean production the way it was working in the book examples he had read. A few months later, however, he was beginning to wonder about the truth of the success stories in those books. The following are some of the examples of the complaints he was getting and the problems he was facing.