“Conscious change” does not merely mean development, transitional and transformational …show more content…
The first one is the principle of the elimination of waste. Ariens’ culture encourages the reduction of waste. Arien manages to achieve it through training all its workers to see waste and convey their thoughts about what they see. With everyone being aware of the responsibility of reducing waste by avoid waiting and over production, Ariens is on its way to realizing lean values. The second is the principle of pursuit of quality. The Handbook points out that it is the dream of any enterprise in the field of manufacturing to produce products of high quality. Ariens follows the principle of quality rigorously. By providing its customers with products of better qualities while taking a perfect control of cost, being it financially or environmentally, Ariens stands out from its competitors and wins the reputation of high quality among both suppliers and consumers. The third is the principle of maintaining productivity. From the perspective of the TPS Handbook, the necessary production quantity is the crucial and determinant factor in the evaluation of an enterprise’s efficiency, which guarantees productivity in turn. We can see from the Ariens case that this principle is implemented well within the enterprise. The Ariens makes full use of temporary employee in response to its peak demand periods in order to live up to consumers’ expectation for its products. Also, by launching intern programs and …show more content…
However, as with the learning experiences from this class and especially after reading the case of the Ariens, I come to understand that elimination of the waste not only means the reduction of pollution and overproduction, but also indicate the cutting of invisible cost such as waiting time. And when it comes to Dan’s leadership style, the most striking thing that impressed me most is its respect for people. It is true that manufacturing involves mainly the operation of machines, the familiarity with SOPs as well as the TPS in SCM, which are not alive; however, it is also true that to a leader implementing transformational changes, the respect for human also deserves attention. Just as Dan Ariens have done in his family-owned enterprise, respect and care should be given to employees and a positive culture and close-knit feeling can be found within the Ariens. Those who are eager to initiate changes may easily ignore this, but it is what I have found crucial in the leadership of an