Afnan Alqahtani Manufacturing

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Afnan Alqahtani?

Manufacturing

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The goal of any manufacturing system is to provide products to customers with the lowest manufacturing price, using minimum resources, at the shortest lead time, and with the highest quality.?According to?Mostafa, Dumrak, & Soltan, (2013. P. 44), ?lean manufacturing is a systematic technique that is used by firms to achieve goals. On the overview of the customers, lean manufacturing helps the forms to attain value across all the operations being undertaken by the company. Reduction of activities as a result of lean manufacturing leads to adding value to the company as it also creates flow. Functional barriers are eliminated as the management identifies ways to improve lead time. One of the manufacturing companies in Saudi Arabia that has implemented the lead manufacturing approach is the Saudi Aramco?Riyadh refinery

What it does

Riyadh refinery is located in Saudi Arabia. Over the years the company has grown up to 120.000 barrels per day (BPD) and has a vacuum column, which permits the processing of the heavier crude fractions.?The company produces high-quality, ultra-low Sulphur-refined products that satisfy existing and future US and European product specifications. As well as expanding Saudi Arabia's refining capacity, the project provides refined products to domestic and international markets. On the other hand, the?refinery contains a 30.000 BPD hydrocracker, for the upgrading of heavy fraction and also has a 30.000 BPD catalytic reformer for upgrading naphtha to gasoline blending product.

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Value-adding and non-value-adding activities

Shipping

The company has employed some tankers that facilitate the transportation of crude oil and natural gas from Saudi Arabia to other global markets.? To facilitate effective shipping the company shares secrets with all its contractors?on how to best meet Saudi manpower goals. The company can offer services to international markets such as Asia, Europe, and America, etc.

Refining and chemical

As of today's fastest-growing crude oil demand sector, chemicals present considerable opportunities for future growth and long-term value creation. To add value to the crude oils available in the country, the company refined and made basic chemicals e.g. aromatics, olefins, and polyolefin, and also other complex products such as polyols and advanced synthetic rubber. The chemicals are simple or complex are used in everyday activity in the industry.

Change that the company would use

Although the company has efficiently operated over the years, it is important that the company makes some structural changes in how its government receives revenue from the company and converts it to tax payments and dividends. It is still not clear which structure is being used by the company for IPO.? The change will allow the company and the stakeholders to have a clear overview of how various activities are undertaken in the company. Transparency will also be enhanced.

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Employees' empowerment

The company encourages employees to engage in a volunteering program to ensure that they have skills beyond the classroom. This will ensure that employees can undertake activities and also respond effectively to the changes that are coming with the changing market (Abualoush, et al. 2018 ).

The company has also worked hard to empower and engage its employees by launching several development?programs over the years targeting niche groups' e.g. young researchers and women employees to expand their skill sets. On the other, women have been given opportunities to be part of the decision-making in organizations.

References

Abualoush, S. H., Obeidat, A. M., Tarhini, A., & Al-Badi, A. (2018). The role of employees' empowerment as an intermediary variable between knowledge management and information systems on employees' performance.?VINE Journal of Information and Knowledge Management Systems.

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Mostafa, S., Dumrak, J., & Soltan, H. (2013). A framework for lean manufacturing implementation.?Production & Manufacturing Research,?1(1), 44-64.

Response

Empowering employees in any manufacturing company even as they adopt lean manufacturing is very crucial given that it is the employees who are responsible to making sure that the measures in place are effective. As noted in the discussion, the company has empowered its employees through various developmental programs, which have targeted young researchers to expand their skill sets. This I believe is a very good approach, which shows that the organization is future-oriented (Ghobadian et al. 2020)

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Saudi Aramco is a multinational firm, working in Saudi Arabia with its global identification as a leader or producing natural gas liquids and crude oil, as an exporter at the world level. Additionally, the company is also responsible for producing hydrocarbon explorations, refining, production, distribution, and marketing of crude-oil-based goods and services. In other words, it would not be wrong to say that Saudi Aramco is the world’s leading crude oil production company, in the domain of power and energy. In addition, Saudi Aramco is practising various value-adding activities, within the functional nature of the company. For instance, the company has long established an In-Kingdom Total Value Add (IKTVA) program to increase its value-adding activities. Under IKTVA, Saudi Aramco aimed to double the level of production at the local level by up to 70% to increase the export of energy-related goods and services. Also, under the IKTVA program, the company is adding value to its overall production, especially by developing the Saudi-workforce as one of the value-adding activities under the IKTVA program?(Aramco, 2016). While, on the other hand, non-value-adding activities of the company involve billing customers, moving work from one place to another, and scheduling as well. The company also uses value-stream mapping, as one of the lean Six Sigma tools to add value to its overall production. Through value-stream mapping the company is more likely to identify value-enabling activities, value-adding activities, and non-value-adding activities as well, while eliminating non-value-adding activities?(Albliwi, 2017). The company has its national and international identity, as a leading business partner in the field of energy and power and, therefore, there will be multiple employee empowerment opportunities present in Saudi Aramco.

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Reference

Albliwi, S. (2017). Implementation of Lean Six Sigma in Saudi Arabian organisations: Findings from a survey.?International Journal of Quality & Reliability Management 34(4).

Aramco. (2016).?Doing Business with Saudi Aramco.?Saudi Aramco. https://www.aramco.com/-/media/downloads/working-with-us/doing-business-with-saudi-aramco.pdf?la=en&hash=05336E45C44D2432015A6CFADF1CB29D9D003BAC

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Response

You have identified the Saudi workforce as one of the value-adding activities at the organization which I believe also goes a long way in empowering the employees to work towards the goals of the company (Cherrafi et al. 2016).. What role has this strategy played in realizing the lean manufacturing goals at the organizations?

Reference

Cherrafi, A., Elfezazi, S., Chiarini, A., Mokhlis, A., & Benhida, K. (2016). The integration of lean manufacturing, Six Sigma and sustainability: A literature review and future research directions for developing a specific model. Journal of Cleaner Production, 139, 828-846