Lean Supply chain management is referred to as the removal of the unwanted component waste materials while producing something or any product even from the process. This process can be related to the manufacturing, procurements, and even it involves the transferring or logistics of the goods (Myerson, 2012). But particularly, the process of the Lean Supply chain can be applied to the manufacturing; meanwhile, the suppliers can be ordered whatever they are needed during the manufacturing and Lean Supply chain process.

The suppliers must be or5der for the products when they needed despite saving the materials in inventory. The concepts of the Lean Supply chain is not only for those companies that are engaged in the operation of the manufacturing industries, but it can be utilized for that business who are keen to streamline their processes through reducing their non-value added activities or waste. There are several areas that companies have for their supply chain where the waste can be identified in various forms, such as; inventory, time and cost (Martínez-Jurado, 2014).

There are wide ranges of companies that can be selected to present and explains the process of the supply chain, but for this paper, General Mills is selected as the best-suited firm that can be utilized to perform the entire criteria related to the lean supply chain management. General Mills, Inc. is a well known organization, and it is also considered as an American multinational manufacturer as well as the branded consumer’s marketer. It is engaged in selling foods through various retail stores. The headquarter of General Mills is located in the Golden Valley, Minnesota, a suburb of Minneapolis. James Ford Bell is known as the founders of this company. According to the statics of the 2017 roundabout 38000 employees are working under this organization. The sales statics of the General Mills are represented in the below-given graphs that re-adopted from the website of the General Mills (General Mills, 2019).

Net sales of General Mills

Source: (General Mills, 2019)

Identify a specific opportunity or problem to address for your client

General Mills is interpreting the problem related to the process of the Green procurements. No doubt, General Mills is a well known firm that is producing the foods and then sold it through various retailing stores. But General Mills wants to introduce the concepts of the green procurements in its manufacturing plants or procedures because the company is not running ethically and faced the high public backlash (Carter, 2015). The company situation was extremely deteriorated that the senior executive decided to hire the consultant in order to develop a LEAN Supply Chain Management strategy for green procurements projects. The company will be taking the fresh start in an ethical and socially responsible manner. This paper discusses the LEAN Supply Chain Management strategy to make it successful along with the particular strategies and procedures.

The concepts of the green procurements will be implemented for the production process of General Mills. Because currently, the implementation of green procurements has become one of the most important requirements for General Mills (Bentahar, 2018). In order to introduce the concepts of the green procurement in General Mills, the consultant must develop lean supply chain management in the General Mills, and it is leading towards the elimination of the waste during the entire process of the supply chain, such as; procurements, manufacturing, distribution. In order to eliminate the sources of the wastes, it is necessary to observe that where the wastes exist in General Mills. There are the five stages in processes of the General Mills at where the waste does exist. Their stages are;

Planning

Sourcing

Manufacturing

Delivery

Returns

Key items for the strategy of Lean Supply Chain Management strategy

The lean supply chain management strategy can be developed by focusing on these three major steps, and these steps are one of the most important key steps in order to develop the strategies for the lean supply chain management in the General Mills (Basu, 2015). These three steps are;

Identify waste of Lean Supply Chain Management strategy

This is the first step for the lean supply chain management in which the consultant must have to pay attention to the areas or source where the waste is occurring. It is important to know what kinds of waste is occurring in these particular stages or sources. In order to determine this the VSM (value stream mapping will be used). VSM is usually utilized to focus on the entire process that is utilizing by General Mills. These process includes; to get products for customers, source and plan the raw materials. It includes; returns, sales, and delivery as well. By using this tool, the multiple types of the wastes can be observed in General Mills, and probably it tough to solve all of them.

Analysis of waste to identify the causes of Lean Supply Chain Management strategy

In the secede step of the lean supply chain strategy, the waste will be critically analyzed in order to measure its particular reason. By evaluating these roots cause the strength of the waste resources can be weakened easily. After the identifications of the sources of the waste, these sources must be discourses by analyzing the reason for the occurrence of these wastes. In numerous cases of the General mills, it has been observed that the outdated processes can be one of the most important root causes. The common forms of the wastes are also known as the paper-based processes in the entire process of the supply chain.

Repeat the cycle by solving the root cause

This is the third stage of the lean supply chain strategy, and it is one of the most important stages. In this stage, after the identification of the root cause of the waste, the consultant must have to address this root cause for the project of introducing the concepts of the green procurements in the General Mills. There is numerous problem-solving methodologies that can be adopted or utilized for General Mills in order to identify the solutions to the root causes of the waste. This complete process is simply contained on the identifications of the problems, evaluation of the alternative solutions and evaluation and selection of the alternatives for particular problems.

Set of short- and long-term objectives

It is essential to develop or set the long term and short term goals for the green procurements as well as green manufacturing. It is necessary to integrate these goals into achievable and meaningful plans. It is alluded by the target setting of the organization to develop reasonable smart gaols that are reliable with the basic, advance or intermediate approach. Finally, these gaols are lead towards that the kinds of purchasing performance can be utilized for the improvement measures of General Mills in order to achieve the goals. There are the numerous long term and short term goals of the green procurements project of the General Mills that can be achieved by implementing the appropriate lean supply chain strategy.

These objectives are given below;

To improve and attain the financial savings

To create positive PR

To improve the health of employees

To attain the climate and environmental protection benefits

To reduce the operating cost by saving the amount from taxpayers.

To introduce the concepts of the sustainable organization.

To be a part of the Green economy.

To implement the lean strategy in the entire operations of General Mills.

How will the performance of your client likely improve by developing a Lean Supply Chain Management strategy?

There are seven major factors that are particularly involved in the Lean Supply Chain Management strategy of the General Mills, and all of these factors entirely can be utilized to improve the performance of the Green procurements projects of the General Mills. These factors are the most important while consulting and implementing the concepts of the lean in any industry, and these factors are given below, along with its waste and measures.

FACTOR	WASTE	MEASURE
Transport	It includes the Transportation of materials that are usually utilized in the fiction and operation of the green procurements of General Mills. Such as cost, time and energy (Wibowo & Handayani, 2017).	It is utilized for the prevention of waste and being more sustainable in its particular operations.
Inventory	It alludes the cost of the storage products can be increased due to the Excess Stock.	It can be predicted or measured by Moving goods within the limited time periods towards the outlet of the Customers in order to prevent operational cost such as Storage cost
Motion	It contains the people's movement and traveling excessively and Unnecessarily (Martichenko & Grabe, 2018).	It can be predicted or measured by using the effective planning of the project in the Performance management.
Waiting times	It referred to as the Continuous improvement in the customer's time and cost related to the employees of the waste.	It can be evaluated by proper planning, by considering the work in Milestones ,by creating the Timelines according to the Lead-times that is designed properly and planned ahead
Over-processing	It includes the Repetitions of the various activities as well as cost time that leads towards the time-wasting in numerous operations of the green procurements in General Mills (Fourie & Umeh, 2017).	To reduce the unnecessarily as well as the repetitions of the required operations in the process of work
Overproduction	It includes the Excess of the Stock that has an extra cost which attached with it	The infrastructure and modeling of IT must be utilized in order to manage the inventory in General Mills. It can be utilized to helping to maintain the track of raw materials as well as stock as needed
Defects	It contains on the Reworking wastes materials and time	It is possible by Designing a product along with the utilization of Computer modeling. It includes the Segments results in extra delays and expenses.

Importance of performance metrics

The importance of the performance metrics for this particular lean supply chain strategy can be measured by explaining the few factors related to the supply chain. This performance has measured according to the two various aspects as Cost Elements of General Mills and Customer services.

Cost Elements of General Mills	Performance of the elements
Inventory	This element is similar for dropping the shipping.
Transportation	Dropshipping is the cause of lower transportation somehow.
Information	Dropshipping is the basic reason for the higher investment in some features.
Handling the facilities	The cost of handling is mostly higher than drop shipping at the stage of the carrier due to this. They receive lower costs from the customer.

Customer service Elements of Nestle

Customer service Elements of Nestle	Performance
Time of Response	It can be marginally higher because mostly it's similar to drop shipping
Variety of the Product	It is mostly similar to drop shipping
Availability of the product	It is mostly similar to drop shipping
Experience of customer	This element is better than drop shipping due to receiving the single orders
Time for Market	It is also similar to drop shipping
Visibility of order	It is similar to drop shipping as well

Cross-cultural issues need to be included in the strategy

Yes, the cross-cultural issues need to be included in the strategy because the lean realization contains the changings of the 4Ps as people, products, processes, and philosophies. It also includes the behaviors, attitudes, perspectives, and commitment of the individuals. The local culture is more concerned about the strategies while these are implementing in particular countries. The issues related to the cross-culture that can be raised it must be considered while developing and implementing the lean supply chain strategy in the green procurement project of the General Mills. The importance of the cross-cultural issues for the strategy can be measured by this particular example as; VPS (Volvo Production System) is used by the Vivo Groups for the utilization of the 60 plant world widely. Although their objectives are the same, the local conditions, history, and culture govern the roadmap towards Lean implementation (Promporn Wangwacharakul, 2014)

Key metrics of success for your client

There are several measures that can be utilized to measure success for the customers. The clients are engaged in utilizing the various metrics measures in order to attain success regarding particular projects. These success metrics are included as;

Client Success of Lean Supply Chain Management strategy:

The success of the client can be considered as one of the most important metrics or measures that can be utilized as metrics of the success for any organization or even the clients of this particular project General Mills. The success of General Mills can be measured by its sales and revenue. The rapid growth of General Mills leads towards the increase in the leads and revenue of General Mills that is entirely is one of the biggest cause of the success.

Client Satisfaction of Lean Supply Chain Management strategy:

This is another most important success factor that can be utilized to measuring the success of any organization or even business. If the authorities and management of the General mills will be satisfied with the work or projects of the green procurement, it means the organization is moving towards success.

Client Feedback of Lean Supply Chain Management strategy

The feedback from the clients is the most important metrics while it is required to measure the performance of the client in the entire market. Clients must feel that they have a voice for their rights. By offering the chance to give feedback for the particular projects is a great way in order to build meaning full and long-lasting relationship.

There are numerous other metrics that are particularly utilized by General Mills in order to measure success, but the details of these matrices cannot be explained here due to the shortage of time. These are; Client Churn, Monthly recurring and revenue, Customer retention cost and lifetime value of the Clients.

The client can gain a competitive advantage of Lean Supply Chain Management strategy

As discussed earlier this project of green procurements and green manufacturing is established for General Mills. General mills can attain a competitive advantage by initializing this project in the market. Due to the rapid growth of pollution in the environment, this society and experts of the climates and environmental sciences are strictly seeking for the positive changes in the environment and reducing the effects that are occurring due to the industrial sectors. General Mills can grow in the market of its competitors with the concepts of green manufacturing and green procurements (Mavi, 2017). By giving priority to a sustainable environment and introducing the ideas of sustainability in this climate.

How can change management be used to address potential conflict that arises from your recommended strategy?

Potential sources of conflict

There can be various potential conflicts that are expected during the ideas of the project, and these conflicts must be solved by the management in effective manners. The change management is responsible for solving these conflicts in good ways these conflicts are related to the various source, and it is also known as the disruption among the particular processes (Ambulkar, 2015).

Due to a shortage of raw materials disruption of operations in the manufacturing process

The disturbance that is impacting the infrastructure of IT

Increase the cost of sustainable raw materials

During the operations Risk of waste

Managerial issues/ Conflicts

The accurate and particular recommendation is developed in order to solve these conflicts issues.

Prepare a conflict management strategy for each conflict

Conflicts	RECOMMENDATIONS
Due to a shortage of raw materials disruption of operations in the manufacturing process	It is solved by the constant collaboration with the partner’s contractors and suppliers by staying within the General Mills along with the utilization of regular monitoring, sound policies, controls, and processes in order to ensure the high‑quality of the products. It is also utilized for the prevention of health risks that are arising from the storage, handling, and preparation process throughout the value chain (Ambulkar S. B., 2015). It can be solved by KYS (knowing your suppliers) • Govern the relationship with suppliers to know the information of the market To monitor, improve, and spot the sustainability for the entire operations of the supply chain. Workforce management and training. Implement the social and environmental compliances The entire source of the risk must be mitigated after its identifications within the supply chain.
The disturbance that is impacting the infrastructure of IT	Implement the proper contingency plans by using particular policies. The control must be placed in order to ensure and protect the compliance of data and infrastructure both (Kamalahmadi, 2015).
During the operations Risk of waste	The lean principals must be adopted by General Mills for improving the efficiencies of the operational cost for their entire manufacturing and procurements activities. It is particularly utilized for the just just-in-time supply chain. Yet, the significance of this policy makes the transportation network from the local supply chain time-critical (Mo, 2018). In the entire areas of the operation process of the Re-engineering must be applied to the all lean strategy to be constantly completive

Contingency plan of Lean Supply Chain Management strategy

A realistic timeline for implementing of Lean Supply Chain Management strategy

This strategy can be implemented by General Mills in various time spans. The lean supply chain strategy must be implanted in various time span by indicating the results of the previous steps with the further one. The below-given bar chart is representing that timeline for these projects.

In the first six months for the developments of the strategy these process must be applied;

Timeline for implementation of a lean strategy

References of Lean Supply Chain Management strategy

Ambulkar, S. B. (2015). Firm’s resilience to supply chain disruptions: Scale development and empirical examination. Journal of Operations Management, 33-34, pp, .111-122.

Ambulkar, S. B. (2015). Firm’s resilience to supply chain disruptions: Scale development and empirical examination. Journal of Operations Management, 33-34, pp.111-122.

Basu, R. (2015). ’A strategic approach to improve sustainablilty in transportation service procurement’. . Transport Res. Part E Logistics Transport.Rev. 74(1) pp., 152 -168.

Bentahar, O. a. (2018). Sustainable supply chain management: Trends and challenges. . Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review.

Carter, C. R. (2015). Toward the Theory of the Supply Chain. Journal of Supply Chain Management, 51(2), pp., 89-97.

General Mills. (2019). About Us. Retrieved from https://www.generalmills.com/en/Company/Overview

Kamalahmadi, M. a.-P. (2015). Developing a resilient supply chain through supplier flexibility and reliability assessment. International Journal of Production Research, 54(1), pp, .302-321.

Martínez-Jurado, P. J.-F. (2014). Lean management, supply chain management, and sustainability: a literature review. Journal of Cleaner Production, 85, 134-150.

Mavi, R. G. (2017). Sustainable third-party reverse logistics provider selection with fuzzy SWARA and fuzzy MOORA in the plastic industry. The International Journal of Advanced Manufacturing Technology, 91(5-8), pp., 2401-2418.

Mo, J. a. (2018). Quantitative lifecycle risk analysis of the development of a just-in-time transportation network system. Advanced Engineering Informatics, 36, pp., 76-85.

Myerson, P. (2012). Lean supply chain and logistics management. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.

Promporn Wangwacharakul, M. B. (2014). Cultural aspects when implementing lean production and lean product development – experiences from a Swedish perspective; QUALITY INNOVATION PROSPERITY/KVALITA INOVÁCIA PROSPERITY .