Scenario
You are the chief supply chain officer at NationaliTeas, a large international corporation that manufactures and sells tea worldwide. Its mission is to “Make the world more awake through rejuvenating and refreshing beverages and sustainable practices that uplift workers, communities, and souls.” You have recently hired the company’s first project manager and assigned their first project: Revise workflows in use related to packaging at one of your tea factories to be more sustainable and leaner. As this is their first project, you will be helping them complete the task.
Directions
Read the Project Charter for Workflow Improvement, then review the Process Workflow for Tea Production graphic. These documents are linked below under Supporting Materials. A text-only version is available: Process Workflow for Tea Production Text-Only Version. Based on these documents, recommend removing a total of four steps from the process flowchart that can help make the process more efficient and sustainable. Explain the implications of the proposed changes and then help the NationaliTeas team address existing items in the Issue Log located in the project charter.
Specifically, you must address the following rubric criteria:
Lean Manufacturing: Evaluate the process flowchart to identify steps that do not add value based on the principles of lean manufacturing. Explain why you selected each step.
Sustainability: Evaluate the process flowchart and identify steps that should be removed or changed to improve environmental sustainability. Explain why you selected each step.
Process Changes: Explain the implications, both positive and negative, of removing or changing the steps from the process flowchart you identified in the previous two bullet points. Also, explain how those changes would help alignment to the triple bottom line (TBL).
Issue Log: Analyze all entries in the Issue Log from a project manager's perspective. Explain the recommended course of action based on the project charter, noting the impact of the issue on scope, planning communications, and resourcing.
Operations Management Techniques: Discuss how operations management techniques, including project management and lean manufacturing, can add value to the organization, NationaliTeas.
These changes align with the TBL as follows:
Profit (Economic): Removing the "waiting" and "inventory" steps directly drives efficiency and lowers costs, increasing the bottom line.
Planet (Environmental): Removing the "repackaging" step and reducing defects significantly cuts waste, energy use, and the consumption of packaging materials, improving sustainable practices.
People (Social): Shifting from tedious manual checks to automated systems (by removing Manual Visual Inspection) aligns with the mission to "uplift workers" by giving them more meaningful, skilled work.
Issue Log Analysis
As the Chief Supply Chain Officer and mentor to the new Project Manager, here is the analysis and recommended course of action for each entry in the Issue Log:
| Issue Log Entry | Recommended Course of Action | Impact on Project (Scope, Planning, Comms, Resourcing) |
| 1. The facility manager is concerned about the impact of changes on production output. | Action: Schedule a one-on-one meeting with the facility manager. Use a Swimlane Diagram to illustrate the proposed future state process. Provide hard data showing the increased throughput and reduced cycle time achieved by eliminating the "waiting" and "inventory" steps. | Scope: No change (Issue is about managing internal resistance). Planning: Adjust communications plan to include regular one-on-one updates. Comms: High-priority internal communication required to build confidence. Resourcing: Minor time/resource allocation for data modeling and visualization. |
| 2. The local government has proposed a tax on packaging materials that are not biodegradable. | Action: This is an external risk that has now become a hard constraint. The Project Manager must formally add a sub-project: "Evaluate and Source Biodegradable Packaging Options." This new requirement is non-negotiable and aligns perfectly with the project's sustainability goal. | Scope: EXPANDS. The project scope must now explicitly include selecting new, sustainable packaging material suppliers. Planning: Requires a new procurement schedule, budget revision, and time for testing the new material with existing |
Sample Answer
This analysis, based on the provided Project Charter and Process Workflow for Tea Production, identifies opportunities to implement lean and sustainable practices by removing four non-value-adding steps and addresses the project's Issue Log.
Lean and Sustainable Process Changes
I recommend removing a total of four steps from the Process Workflow for Tea Production to improve efficiency (Lean Manufacturing) and environmental sustainability.
| Lean Manufacturing: Steps to Remove (Non-Value Add) | Justification |
| 1. Waiting for Packaging Materials and Equipment | This step is pure "waiting" waste (a form of non-value-add activity). It indicates a breakdown in the scheduling and synchronization between the production and procurement/logistics teams. The goal of lean is to achieve a continuous flow. |
| 2. Inventory of Packaged Products | This step represents "inventory" waste (another form of non-value-add). Holding large inventories ties up capital, requires storage space, and increases the risk of product damage or obsolescence. It suggests a "push" system rather than a lean, demand-driven "pull" system. |