Lego Group Manufacturing Strategy
The Usage of 3D Printing In the Brick Toys Manufacturing
Economically, the implementation of the 3D printing ideologies minimizes both the production costs and the overall costs. The aspect is evident in the duration between the time of production and the time the manufactured products reach the market. The conceptualization and the implementation of 3D printing ideas permit the processes of fast development. LEGO Group’s ability of 3D print shows its creative and innovative concepts. Besides, the design exhibits development processes to the shortest period than in the absence of the 3D printing concepts. As such, the LEGO Group Manufacturing Company would be able to stay ahead of its competitors. Nonetheless, the overall costs of production would be reduced in the ability of the company to exercise 3D printing processes that permit the creation of parts by concepts of additive manufacture (Mueller et al. 2014, p.3831). These entail making production rates lower than circumstances in which the traditional machining is employed. The company would find these cost effective contrary to the prototyping injection tools. Besides, it is better than production runs that are already expensive gestures to the investments.
Consequently, the LEGO Company’s implementation of 3D printing will be an aspect of pervasiveness. The technology shall also enhance the accountability of manufacturing speed and lead-time in a clear communication that will be concise. The 3D printing erases doubts that come with the difficulties of having to describe a product that the company is to deliver in the market. Construction and imagination of the product are always up to the consumers which many at times results into misconceptions. The usage of 3D printing, therefore, will enable the company to present a conceptualized picture of the product, which would be much better as opposed to the situations where only product descriptions are available. Based on these reasons, the production time is fastened to fill the market gap by making the product available in the limited time.
Similarly, the company will be able to evaluate the product quality and the overall the product effectiveness. The 3D printing concepts will make prototypes available. In such a scenario, the company will be able to get feedbacks from potential consumers and use their responses to determine the quality of the product that should be made available in the market. Similarly, the company will determine the overall effectiveness of the product from the customer’s reactions. The zeal and thirst for a product are justified when 3D printing presents something that is tangible for the consumer to hold, get the feel, and at least is able to test.
The Usage of Baxter Robots in the LEGO Factory
In any business or an organization, the most prized opportunity is that of higher returns at lower inputs. The LEGO factory will seize this opportunity by implementing the use of Baxter Robots in the plant. The production costs and overall costs of production are greatly reduced by the Baxter Robot’s ability to multitask. Baxter Robot is special in its capacity to indulge in many operations through its interchangeable hand pieces. The hands are quickly changed to suit another operation deemed necessary within the company. The LEGO factory, therefore, in its implementation of the Baxter Robot will substitute the expensive human capital required in the factory with affordable and readily available cheaper labor. Therefore, there will be higher rates of return in the company imperative to lower production costs (Berman 2007, p.27). Hence, it leads to maximization of the factory profit margins.
Correspondingly, the LEGO Factory will be able to benefit from increased manufacturing speed as well as the reduction in the lead-time. The usage of Baxter Robots will put the company in a position of flexibility, nimble, accommodative, and adaptive. Manufacturing speed is dependent on the availability of labor and products demand. The factory’s implementation of the automated Baxter robots, therefore, will do away with instances of labor shortages resulting from increased productivity and efficiency. Lead- time, on the other hand, is dependent on the ability to produce products as per the measurements. These measurements by implementing Baxter Robots will be achieved in the most precise dimensions repeatedly. Thus, both will be complementary to the realization of increased productivity and efficiency.
Plausible to note is the typical relationship between the product’s quality and the overall effectiveness of the product. The factory, thus, will benefit from Baxter’s ability to produce high-quality products reliant on the applications performed with precisions and higher repeatability rates each time that a similar task is initiated. Likewise, the overall product effectiveness is dependent on the quality of the product. As such, high-quality products as will be produced by Baxter Robots will let the factory enjoy a wide base of consumers in the market. Thus, LEGO company will gain a competitive advantage over the competitors.
Internet of Things (IoT) Deployment in LEGO Factory
Technological advancements have lead to globalization. Thus, the world market economy has come to be a common place for all. Change is inevitable, therefore, it is high time that the manufacturing and processing factories embraced these technologies. Deployment of the Internet in the LECO Factory will not only result into minimization of the costs of production but also the overall costs of production. Applications of the industrial internment of things technologies will enable the factory to monitor valves along the processing channels in the factories and detect possible areas of steam leakages which are always hard to detect via human vision. Moreover, the applications of wireless acoustic transmitters will allow the factory to improve its regulatory compliance to reduce hydrocarbon loss. The results enjoyed by the factory shall comprise cost reduction of inputs and maximized output due to the timely detections of the faulty valves and early corrective measures.
Coherently, the factory’s decision to embrace the internet of things will enable it to benefit from increase manufacturing speed as well as enjoying limited lead-time. The Internet of things fosters increased rates of production, which stem from the varieties of software’s abilities to collect processes’ data from the sensors because they are wireless and battery powered. Thus, unlimited access to every part of the factory deemed necessary. Further, the availability of a variety of interchangeable software’s reduces the lead –time for production.The software’s incorporated are specific to their purposes, hence, once installed, no time would be wasted.
In addition, the interconnectedness of things will ensure a creation of the common market all over the world. The factory, therefore, will make sure that it produces quality products that meet the consumers’ expectations as well meet the standard in the global market to remain competitive. Plausible to note is that the overall effectiveness of the products will be generated from the feedbacks from the consumers on the internet of things platform.
Green Supply Chain
The LEGO manufacturing industry’s implementation of the green supply chain will result in many advantages. First and far most will be reduced costs of production and overall costs of production. Currently, the consumers of a given variety of products have enhanced information of the products they consume and the companies producing them. As such, the companies that have gone green have developed both reactive and proactive contingency plans that enable them to reap bigger profit margins emanating from costs of savings. The factory, therefore, in implementing the green supply chain will enjoy operational costs savings due to reduced wastes as well as reduced health and safety costs. Hence, the strategy results in minimized production costs, overall production costs and increased rate of returns.
Subsequently, the factory ‘s incorporation of the green supply chain will significantly ensure increased production speed as well as reduced lead-time. This benefit will originate from production speeds and lead –time dependency to lower labor costs, reduced water, fuel, and transportation energy costs, and regulatory compliance respectively. As such, the factory will get to enjoy reduced dependency based on the fluctuating prices of the input resources as well as penalty reductions on compliance. These are direct benefits channeled to the factory bottom line.
The benefits are all encompassing, thus, further take into account, the quality of the products and the overall effectiveness of the product. Going green will enable the company to enjoy the benefits that come with enhancing reputation, which emanate from customers’ satisfaction of expectation, dependent on the product quality. The company will engage in environmentally proper behavior and practices, which will make it more attractive to its suppliers, potential investors and the consumers at large. Similarly, the overall effectiveness of the product resulting from go green supply chain will lead to increased revenue as quality products build perfect and positive customer to business relationships hence, greater and sustainable sales of the products.
Outsourcing Workforce for Manufacturing LEGO Brick
Implementation of the outsourced workforce in manufacturing LEGO bricks will lead to immediate benefits that will stem from such deployed workforces. These workforces will be regarding human capital and machinery. As such, the outsourced workforces are subject to their government incentives, which include taxation policies, the intellectual property protection, talent training, and knowledge sharing, as well as financial support. Together, the benefits above will ensure that the LEGO manufacturing brick enjoys a greater reduction in the costs of productions as well as significant decrease in the overall costs of production. These are due to the manufacturing company being able to save directly from such operations as well as make profits immediately.
Conversely, the company can achieve manufacturing speed and activities within limited lead-time by incorporating outsourced workforce. Outsourcing workforce either human capital or machinery provide advanced skills, easy scalability, and low wages. The labor force as the company will realize often comprise people with varied expertise and talents. When these are combined, they lead to the production of the best quality products within the shortest production time possible. Likewise, the outsourced workforce would be relevant in increasing the production base within the limited period when the market for the product expands (Prahalad and Ramaswamy 2003, p.14). The most important for the company would be to enjoy cheaper labor offered by the outsourced workforce of mixed skills and talents. All these will be effective at ensuring that the corporation delivers quality services and products to the market in time before other competitors hence, profit maximization.
The outsourcing workforce will give the factory an opportunity to remain vibrant regarding being able to participate in the international economy. All the workforce efforts will be geared towards achieving the best. Nonetheless, the competition among the workforce will ensure the seamless production of high-quality products that enable the manufacturing factory to remain independent, sustainable, hence, chances of growth in the world economy. The remarkable effect of such an outsourced workforce is that they already represent the variety of personalities, which relate to identity and culture. Product overall effectiveness, thus, will be a representation of their feelings before it gets to the market.
Shifting LEGO Operations to One or More of the Developing Countries
The transfer of the LEGO operations to one or more developing countries would be beneficial in that the company will be able to utilize labor that is cost effect. This would originate from realizing that the majority of the developing countries have fewer production industries, hence, the demand for job opportunities are very high. Availability of such cost-effective labor, therefore, will ensure that costs of production, as well as the overall costs, are reduced to the bare minimum possible. In addition, manufacturing speed and lead-time will be dependent on the readily cost effective labor derived from the workforce in the developing countries. The company as such will be able to supply the global market with the much-demanded products of the same quality and prizes like in the developed countries.
Finally, the quality of the goods, as well as the overall effectiveness of the products, will be achieved through the availability of many unexploited raw materials accessible and available at relatively lower costs. The manufacturing factory, therefore, will be able to enjoy much-increased profits, as the expenses of the inputs will be lower, whereas, the output will be very high.
Risks That May Occur Due To the Implementation of the Above
Certain risks that might be associated with the 3D printing usage are imminent on the likelihood of being faced out by the digital content. This is a conclusion drawn from contrasting the printing and recording industries, which are already affected by the digital media, currently dominant over the physical media. Likewise, the use of Baxter robots does not guarantee the expected results. The attribute is evident in the initial cost of installations that may be very high with the low demand for the products. Moreover, the costs of maintenance, as well as the need to train the staff on how to interact with such automation, are expensive and deleterious to the company’s growth.
Nonetheless, the green supply chain faces the danger of expensive compliance terms and conditions for the company’s operations. Some of the regulations could be senseless and impractical to adhere to and uphold. Deployment outsourced workforce, on the other hand, faces the challenge of a language barrier, and would waste time that is taken by such persons to adapt and formulate communication paths. Finally, shifting the operations of the LEGO to other countries faces the danger of political influence, instability and unfavorable government taxes and regulations.
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