1.

“Lean Thinking defines value as providing benefit to the customer anything else
is waste” Lean thinking is very important in, lean thinking is more than just a
process. Overall, lean thinking is a business philosophy that can be applied to
any and every type of business or organization, pushing better results for more
growth and success.
The elimination of waste is the guiding premise of he lean theory.
Overproducing, waiting, conveyance, processing, inventory, motion, and defect
correction are the seven key wastes identified by Taiichi Ohno, the founder of
lean thinking.
Many of the very big companies even like Tata motors, Nike, Toyota etc. have
adopted the lean manufacturing techniques. And they have found results and
have been able to reduce their waste. Their definition of quality is summed up in
the following equation:
Quantity = appropriateness x (outcome + service)/ waste
The creators of the Lean Enterprise Institute (LEI), James P. Womack and
Daniel T. Jones, put forth the five basic principles for any lean deployment.
Value, Value Stream, Flow, Pull, and Perfection are the terms used. Lets look at
each one of these terms separately and closely.
• Value- This is the first principle of lean thinking. To better understand the
first principle of defining customer value, it is important to understand
what value is. Value is what the customer is willing to pay for. It is
paramount to discover the actual or latent needs of the customer.
Sometimes customers may not know what they want or are unable to
articulate it. This is especially common when it comes to novel products
or technologies. There are many techniques such as interviews, surveys,
demographic information, and web analytics that can help you decipher
and discover what customers find valuable. By using these qualitative and
quantitative techniques you can uncover what customers want, how they
want the product or service to be delivered, and the price that they afford.
Organisations must engage with their consumers, understand their
thought processes, and get to the bottom of their pain issues to get to the
bottom of their customers’ requirements. These will enable businesses to
bring the needs and aspirations of their customers to the surface
• Value Stream: This is the second important principle of lean thinking.
The second Lean principle is identifying and mapping the value stream.
In this step, the goal is to use the customer’s value as a reference point
 and identify all the activities that contribute to these values. Activities that
do not add value to the end customer are considered waste. The waste can
be broken into two categories: non-valued added but necessary and non-
value & unnecessary. The later is pure waste and should be eliminated
while the former should be reduced as much as possible. By reducing and
eliminating unnecessary processes or steps, you can ensure that customers
are getting exactly what they want while at the same time reducing the
cost of producing that product or service.
• Create flow: This the third important principle of lean thinking. After
removing the wastes from the value stream, the following action is to
ensure that the flow of the remaining steps run smoothly without
interruptions or delays. Some strategies for ensuring that value-adding
activities flow smoothly include: breaking down steps, reconfiguring the
production steps, levelling out the workload, creating cross-functional
departments, and training employees to be multi-skilled and adaptive.
• Pull: This is the fourth important principle of Lean thinking. Inventory is
considered one of the biggest wastes in any production system. The goal
of a pull-based system is to limit inventory and work in process (WIP)
items while ensuring that the requisite materials and information are
available for a smooth flow of work. In other words, a pull-based system
allows for Just-in-time delivery and manufacturing where products are
created at the time that they are needed and in just the quantities needed.
Pull-based systems are always created from the needs of the end
customers. By following the value stream and working backwards
through the production system, you can ensure that the products produced
will be able to satisfy the needs of customers.
• Perfection: This is the first and the last principle of lean thinking. Wastes
are prevented through the achievement of the first four steps: 1)
identifying value, 2) mapping value stream, 3) creating flow, and 4)
adopting a pull system. However, the fifth step of pursuing perfection is
the most important among them all. It makes Lean thinking and
continuous process improvement a part of the organizational culture.
Every employee should strive towards perfection while delivering
products based on the customer needs. The company should be a learning
organization and always find ways to get a little better each and every
day.
These were the five important principles of Lean thinking. These five principle
allows most companies to minimize waste production. Lean allows managers to
discover inefficiencies in their organization and deliver better value to
customers. By practicing all 5 principles, an organization can remain
competitive, increase the value delivered to the customers, decrease the cost of
doing business, and increase their profitability.

2.
"Quality is never an accident. It is always the result of intelligent effort." The
importance of quality management in project management cannot be overstated.
Effective project quality management ensures that your team consistently
delivers quality products and services. Your customers will take notice and
continue to rely on you for transparent, efficient, and quality work.
There are a few techniques of quality management, but before that we have to
know about what is quality management. Project quality management is the
process of continually measuring the quality of all activities and taking
corrective action until the team achieves the desired quality.
Measuring quality may seem like something you can’t do until after the project
is complete. However, project quality management should be planned from the
beginning and monitored throughout with these three quality management
processes:
1. Quality planning
2. Quality assurance
3. Quality control
Now let us talk about there three management processed separately and closely.
• Quality Planning - A good quality management plan starts with a clear
definition of the goal of the project. First, be clear on what the product or
deliverable is supposed to accomplish. Then, ask yourself:

What does it look like?, What is it supposed to do? , How do you measure
customer satisfaction?
How do you determine whether the project was successful?
Answering these questions and others will help you identify and define
quality requirements, allowing you to discuss the approach and plans
needed to achieve those goals.

This includes:

Assessing the risks to success, Setting high standards, Documenting

 everything

Also key is defining the methods and tests to achieve, control, predict,
and verify success. Be sure to include quality management tasks in the
project plan and delegate these tasks to workgroups and/or individuals to
report and track quality metrics

• Quality assurance - Quality assurance provides evidence to stakeholders

that all quality-related activities are being done as defined and promised.
It ensures safeguards are in place to guarantee all expectations regarding
quality outputs will be met.

Quality assurance is done to the products and services delivered by a

project, as well as the processes and procedures used to manage the
project. The team can do this through systems such as a process checklist
or a project audit.

Quality assurance tests use a system of metrics to determine whether the

quality management plan is proceeding acceptably. By using both
qualitative and quantitative metrics, you can effectively measure project
quality with customer satisfaction.

These tests or quality audits will help you predict and verify the
achievement of goals and identify the need for corrective actions. Quality
assurance tests will help you map quality metrics to quality goals,
allowing you to report on the status of quality at periodic project review
meetings.
• Quality control- Quality control involves operational techniques meant
to ensure quality standards. This includes identifying, analyzing, and
correcting problems. While quality assurance occurs before a problem is
identified, quality control is reactionary. It occurs after a problem has
been identified and suggests methods of improvement.

It measures specific project outputs and determines compliance with

applicable standards. It also identifies project risk factors, their
mitigation, and ways to prevent and eliminate unsatisfactory
performance.

Quality control can also ensure the project is on budget and on schedule.
You can monitor project outputs through peer reviews and testing. By
 catching any deliverables failing to meet the agreed standards throughout,
you can simply adjust direction rather than having to entirely redo certain
aspects.
There were the three different techniques of quality management. As we can
understand that quality management is very important.
3.
(a)
"The more inventory a company has, the less likely they will have what they
need." When you consider that some businesses might need to keep tabs on
hundreds of thousands of stock items, there’s little wonder inventory
management tools are so integral.

Managing inventory is a big deal for many businesses, particularly in

manufacturing and wholesale. Inventory records are the most likely area of the
business to be computerised and every ERP system and CRM system is built
around an inventory management function.

Basic inventory management maintains what’s called a ‘perpetual inventory

record’. Put simply, the system accepts inventory movement reports
(transactions) and maintains a continuous record of the quantity on-hand.

Of course, inventory management software does a lot more than that. There are
five important tools of inventory.
1. Barcode data collection
2. Cycle counting to improve accuracy
3. ABC analysis for prioritisation
4. Integrated planning and execution
5. Lot tracking and traceability