Toward a Web-based Application to Resolve Physical Pulse Board Issues

Abstract: A decade ago, Toyota, an automobile manufacturer from Japan, came up with a new production system which started the automobile industry called “Lean manufacturing”. Over time, the popularity of the system became apparent and it became the Toyota Production System (TPS). Following this technological development, “Len enterprise” a new concept was produced with the sole purpose of eliminating wastes in every function of the entire organization. As of present, as far as product developing companies are concerned, the development process has become more complex. For instance, in Scrum software development as well as in Lean product development, tools for planning a project using walls and boards have been developed. These methods have so far proved to be very efficient, in so far as the visualization of the work performed, as well as the prioritization of new tasks is concerned. However, there are notable challenges in synchronization, version control and traceability among a company’s different projects. This thesis, investigates how Physical Pulse Board is used and how it can be improved through the introduction of a web-based application for eliminating of difficulties of using Pulse board especially in global environment where different people from various locations might need to join the meeting. The paper consists of three parts. In the first part one set of interviews were conducted along with an observation to figure out related difficulties with the use of Physical Pulse Board especially in global environment. Following this, another set of interviews were conducted to help find out how these issues can be eliminated or resolved. Considering that good principles can never be useful, unless they are applied and used in reality, in the second part of this report, a web-based application was developed to help bring improvements using Pulse Board in global environment based on the finding from the first part. It was then that evaluation of implemented software was done through a workshop with Hellström, and Dr. Amer Ćatić. It is worth noting that the two persons are the Lean Product Development Specialist chosen for market analysis given that the two had implemented the Physical Pulse Board in their organization.