Project and team management play a major role in the student teams´ projects performance. This is more evident when the projects last long time and the teams are large. In this work a student team accepted to use SCRUM as their project management methodology during their Project Based Learning (PjBL) experience. This PjBL experience took place on the 7 th semester of the Integrated Master in Industrial Engineering and Management degree. The team had a short period training on the technique and then applied it throughout the entire semester. Although not very enthusiastic in the beginning of the project the team gradually became aware on the advantages of SCRUM features recognizing the feeling of having the project under control and gaining management effectiveness throughout the semester. At the end the team performed well above the average being one of the two teams with the highest score of the class.
The complexity, competition and fast changing of the global market requires the companies to seek excellence, if they crave for good performance and success. To reach this purpose, it is mandatory the existence of a Continuous Improvement (CI) culture within the companies. This concept, also known as Kaizen, mean "change for the better" and it defends that a very large of small improvements applied and sustained over the time, brings more value than a few big improvements. The objective of this paper is to evaluate the effect of lean teamwork after a Continuous Improvement system had been implemented in Lipor, a Public Organization based in Oporto that treats the municipal waste. The CI system implemented a few years ago, was possible to maintain and adapt over the years through the creation of a Kaizen Team, Natural Teams, Project Teams and the cooperation between them, cultivating this Continuous Improvement culture in the company's core. The results of the survey done to the workers regarding the CI system demonstrated that the majority consider that their work process has improved significantly with Kaizen and highlighted the importance for them to be involved in improving team's processes.
The main purpose of this paper is to show that if three specific contextual factors are present in a company, it is possible to achieve great performance improvements with a lean and industry 4.0 implementation. In terms of research methods, a case study was carried out of a project to implement digitalization and Lean practices in a cutlery company, which in fact encompassed a project of master’s degree in engineering and industrial management. Thus, the research question is: “It is possible to achieve major improvements in a lean and industry 4.0 implementation if three specific contextual factors are present in the company, namely (i) commitment of top management, (ii) knowledge on digitalization and lean, and (iii) very low Value-Added Ratio?”. Regarding the company project, action-research was adopted, and the project team began by mapping and diagnosing the production processes of the two product families (knives and spoons/forks). High levels of work in process, long throughput times, poor flow planning and control, and high stocks of finished products, quickly stood out in both families. Improvement proposals were developed and implemented, namely: (i) creation of a production scheduling and control system, (ii) improvement of the warehouse stock management system, and (iii) adoption of new routines, management tools, visual management, and kaizen meetings. The results achieved were excellent (e.g., throughput time reduced by 27.6% and productivity increased by 36.5%) and aligned with Sustainable Development Goals SDG 9 and 12. The findings of this study corroborate that exceptional results in the company performance can be achieved through a lean and industry 4.0 intervention, if the three referred contextual factors occur.
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