Efficiency

Factors influencing Efficiency:

Introducing standardisation
Outsourcing
Relocating – Lower rents and better transport links
Downsizing – Reducing capacity which allows for a leaner more competitive production system – – profitable business no longer subsiding unprofitable ones
Delayering
Investing in new technology

Lean Production: Introduced by Toyota and aims to reduce the resources used in all aspects of production aka space used, materials, stock, suppliers, labour, capital and time.

Raises Productivity
Reduces costs and cuts lead times
Reduces the number of defective products
Improves reliability and speeds up product design

Kaizen: Continuous improvement. Small changes add up to long term impact which benefits the business.

Just in Time Production (JIT): Involves minimising or eliminating the amount of stock held by a business. It reduces all the costs associated with stock holding