Required Reading:
Questions:
1. What processes is Toyota modifying? Are there any potential hazards in implementing this?
2. Why do you suppose Toyota allowed this obscenity to occur for so long? What's your gut tell you?
3. What OM processes are also being modified, that is, what's going on in the background? Also, what other operations would you potentially tie into this system? (e.g. supplier relationships? supplier segmentation?).
4. What important ratios or financial indices are being improved? What overall company strategies does this tactic fit? Are there gross improvements that appear to fit several strategies?
Issues
1. Is it more important to have a robust system? Or an optimal system? What's it like in your company?
2. What's the relation between operations reengineering and IT?
3. What types of IT techniques are (potentially?) being exploited by your company to improve operations?
4. What does the preceding say about the types of folks that are needed to help reengineer operations?
5. How do you discover such process innovations? How do you manage them?