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XYZ Ltd is a highly profitable leading industrial distributor with over 60,000 products and an enviable record for customer service. After undertaking preliminary discussions it was decided to analyse the value-adding activities that contribute to XYZ's flagship products. The company is conducting which of the following activities?
According to Hines and Rich, value stream refers to specific parts of the firms that actually add value to the specific product or service under consideration. XYZ Ltd is mapping the value stream by analysing the value-adding activities that contribute to their most important product.
Postponement is a business strategy which maximizes possible benefit and minimizes risk by delaying further investment into a product or service until the last possible moment. An example of this strategy is Dell Computers' build-to-order online store. One of the earliest references to the concept was in a paper by Zinn and Bowersox in the Journal of Business Logistics. They highlighted five types: Labelling, Packaging, Assembly, Manufacturing and Time postponements.
Kanban () (signboard or billboard in Japanese) is a scheduling system for lean manufacturing and just-in-time manufacturing (JIT). Taiichi Ohno, an industrial engineer at Toyota, developed kanban to improve manufacturing efficiency. Kanban is one method to achieve JIT. The system takes its name from the cards that track production within a factory. For many in the automotive sector, kanban is known as the 'Toyota nameplate system'.
Put simply, silo working occurs when several departments or groups within that organisation do not want to share information or knowledge with other individuals they work with.
LO 2, AC 2.3