Mandyam Srinivasan - Building Lean Supply Chains with the Theory of Constraints

Building Lean Supply Chains with the Theory of Constraints

Mandyam M. Srinivasan is the Pilot Corporation Chair of Excellence at the University of Tennessee. He is the author of Streamlined: 14 Principles for Building and Managing the Lean Supply Chain (Cengage, 2004), and coauthor of Supply Chain Management for Competitive Advantage (Tata McGraw-Hill, 2009). Dr. Srinivasan has many years of work experience with leading automobile manufacturing organizations, and he has consulted with a large number of industries.

Mandyam M. Srinivasan

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To my mother, Mythili; my wife, Kanchan; and my daughters, Tanu and Madhu

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Throughout my 30-year career in the aerospace industry, I have witnessed unparalleled technological advancements in aeronautical systems and capabilities, as well as ground-breaking changes in our business operations. The defense technology and industrial base is now a global network with global suppliers, and our challenge is to manage the resources, skills, competencies, and tools within the network through all phases of the product life cycle.

As enterprises such as ours strive to create and deliver competitive products in this global marketplace, it is more critical than ever to develop and maintain a lean supply chain. But what is the definition of a lean supply chain, and how can an organization achieve this ideal? Dr. Srinivasans book, Building Lean Supply Chains with the Theory of Constraints, answers this question and more because he provides an in-depth look at todays lean supply chains and offers a detailed plan on how to realize them.

Outlining a seven-step roadmap that enterprises can use on their lean supply chain journey, Dr. Srinivasan applies Theory of Constraints (TOC) concepts to supply chain management in a thought-provoking and pragmatic way. The book intimately explores building and managing a lean supply chain from an operations and logistics perspective, with Lean and TOC principles combined. Not only does Dr. Srinivasan tackle the importance of systems thinking, but he also applies TOC philosophies to throughput, meeting and anticipating customer needs, delivery requirements, collaboration, and improved visibility of the supply chain, among others.

As Dr. Srinivasan expounds on his seven-step roadmap, he lays the groundwork for what a lean supply chain should look like. Weaving in 16 Lean Supply Chain Principles, the result is a framework that enterprises can use to create and manage their lean supply chains.

In this book, lean supply chains are not assayed from one angle but are considered from multiple vantage points. The initial chapters investigate the hurdles and structure of the lean supply chain, introducing the Theory of Constraints to enhance Lean supply chain performance. Throughout the book, Dr. Srinivasan leverages real-world scenarios to drive home the necessity of merging Lean and TOC principles.

While this book looks at an integrated approach to supply chain management and sets the expectation that industries partner with the supply chain, Dr. Srinivasans vision never loses sight of the customer. At Lockheed Martin, our customer is our focus, and we realize that collaborative relationships are the key to our current and future successes, especially when building fifth-generation aircraft such as the F-35 with a supply chain that spans the globe. As we learn more about these relationships in the global market in which we work, we can better understand our customers needs and plan for tomorrow.