IELTSwithJurabek

PASSAGE 2

Read the text and answer questions 14-26

Lean Production innovation - in manufacturing systems

14After the First World War, car makers Henry Ford and Arthur Sloan of General Motors moved world manufacturing from centuries of craft production into the age of mass production. Largely as a result of this, the United States soon dominated the world economy. After the Second World War, and approximately a hundred years after Japan opened up to the modern world, Eiji Toyoda and Taiichi Ohno pioneered the concept of lean production at the Toyota car company. And now, although superimposing the method on existing mass production systems causes pain and upheaval, manufacturers around the world are trying to embrace this innovative system.

15Perhaps the best way to describe lean production is to compare it with the two other major manufacturing systems: craft production and mass production. The craft producer uses highly skilled workers and simple but flexible tools to make exactly what the customer asks for - one item at a time. A present day example of this method is the customised production of a few exotic sports cars. The concept of craft production remains very popular, but the problem with it is obvious. Goods produced by the craft method cost too much for most of us to afford. So at the beginning of the twentieth century, mass production was developed as an alternative method. The mass producer uses narrowly skilled professionals to design products which are then made by unskilled or semi-skilled workers, using expensive, single-purpose machines. These churn out standardised products in very high volumes. Because the machinery costs so much, and is so intolerant of disruption, the mass producer keeps standard designs in production for as long as possible. The result is that the customer gets lower costs, but at the expense of variety, and by means of work methods which most employees find boring and dispiriting. By contrast, the lean production system combines the advantages of craft and mass production, while avoiding the high cost of the former and the rigidity of the latter. Towards this end, companies appoint teams of multi-skilled workers to all levels of the organisation, and use highly flexible and increasingly automated machines to produce goods in enormous volume and variety.

16Lean production is so called because, compared with mass production, it uses less of everything - half the human effort in the factory, half the manufacturing space, half the investment in tools, and half the engineering hours to develop the new product. It also results in far fewer defects.

17Perhaps the most striking contrast between mass and lean production systems lies in their production standards. Mass producers set a limited goal for themselves: 'good enough', which translates into an acceptable number of defects, a maximum acceptable number of inventories, and a narrow range of standardised products. Lean producers, on the other hand, are unwilling to compromise standards in any of these areas.

18Although cost reduction is the primary objective of the lean production system, it must meet three other intermediate objectives in order to achieve this: quantity control, quality assurance and respect for humanity. Firstly, the system must be able to adapt to daily and monthly fluctuations in demand. Secondly, each separate process must supply only good units to the subsequent process. Thirdly, in as far as the system uses human resources to attain its cost objectives, respect for human needs must be cultivated. It should be emphasised that none of these three objectives can be achieved separately.

19The continuous flow of lean manufacturing production relies on two practical mechanisms: just-in-time and autonamation. Just-in-time means, for example, that in the process of assembling the parts to build a car, components from the preceding process should arrive at the next part of the line at exactly the right time and in the correct quantities. If just-in-time is fully realised throughout the company, then superfluous inventories are completely eliminated from the factory, making stores or warehouses unnecessary. However, relying solely on a central planning approach to control schedules for all stages of the production process simultaneously is very difficult in the case of cars, which consist of thousands of parts. So the lean system looks at the production flow in reverse; in other words, employees go to the preceding process to withdraw the necessary quantity of units at the appropriate time. The preceding process must produce only sufficient quantities of units to replace those that have been withdrawn, and in turn withdraws the requisite number of components from the process that precedes it.

20Autonamation is the automatic checking for abnormalities in the production process. In order to realise just-in-time perfectly, only units which are in perfect condition must be allowed to flow to the next process, and this flow must be regular and uninterrupted. In other words, quality control must coexist with just-in-time procedures throughout the system. Autonamation involves building in a mechanism to prevent the multiplication of defects in machines or product lines. For example, in Toyota factories almost all the machines have been fitted with stopping devices, and the concept of autonamation has been extended to manual production lines. If something abnormal happens there, the worker pushes a button to stop the whole line, and lights, which are hung so high in the factory that they are visible to everyone, indicate the position of the problem.

PASSAGE 3

Read the text and answer questions 27-40

How Does Watching Sport Influence the Brain?

A During the epoch when the poet Homer unveiled his grand epic, the ancient Greeks initiated a festival where men contended in a race of roughly 200 metres. The victor would be rewarded with a symbolic olive branch. This event, known as the Olympics, has transcended its humble origins to embody the human quest for progress. The captivating nature of these games raises an intriguing question: what exactly draws us in as spectators? Is it the thrill of competition, the beauty of human movement, or something happening within our brains?

B In 1996, three Italian neuroscientists-Giacomo Rizzolatti, Leonardo Fogassi, and Vittorio Gallese conducted research on the premotor cortex of monkeys and made a groundbreaking discovery. They revealed a cluster of cells that act as a repository for motor actions, similar to 'grammar of movement'. These cellular networks represent the 'sentences' of full-body motions that our brains meticulously retain and refine. Take the art of swinging a golf club as an example. For those who only watch the Masters Tournament on television, playing golf may appear deceptively effortless. However, for novices, smoothly manoeuvring the asymmetrical metal club presents a nearly impossible challenge. This is because novices rely on conscious effort, utilising brain regions adjacent to the premotor cortex. Experts, by contrast, instinctively execute perfectly balanced movements, as their actions are deeply ingrained and intertwined with neurons in the premotor cortex. Their swing occurs with the serenity of a refined autopilot, requiring no conscious control. This neural distinction between novices and experts provides insight into how long-term training can physically reshape the brain.

C These neurons in the premotor cortex not only help explain why some athletes seem to have exceptional skills, but they also exhibit a wondrous characteristic that prompted Rizzolatti, Fogassi, and Gallese to bestow upon them the exalted label of mirror neuron. They point out that mirror neurons are activated when a primate performs a particular action, such as grasping or holding an object, or when it witnesses another individual performing a comparable action. Humans possess an even more intricate mirror neuron system that reflects the external world in our brains, enabling us to internalise the behaviours of others. Nonetheless, these cells necessitate what scientists refer to as 'goal-orientated movements' to activate. If we stare at a photograph, a static image of a runner striding ahead, our mirror neurons remain utterly silent. It is solely when the runner is in action, be it in running, moving, or sprinting, that they are ignited. Movement, not stillness, is what speaks to our brains.

D Electrophysiological studies have shown that when we observe a golfer or a runner in action, our own premotor cortex mirror neurons respond as if we were participating in the activity. This neural mirroring was initially identified in 1954 by French physiologists Gastaut and Bert, who noticed specific alpha and mu brain wave patterns in humans. The mu signal plays a role in neural mirroring, remaining active during periods of bodily stillness but dissipating when we undertake active pursuits like playing a sport or changing TV channels. Notably, the mu signal also remains subdued while we observe someone else in action, such as on television, which alludes to the influence of mirror neurons. This suggests that our brains do not simply passively register what we see, but actively simulate it, engaging systems normally reserved for action.

E Rizzolatti, Fogassi, and Gallese have coined the term 'direct matching hypothesis' to delineate the concept of mirror neurons. They asserted that to comprehend the movements of sports stars, we need to align the visual representation of the observed action with our own motor representation of the same action. According to this theory, watching an Olympic athlete can evoke a resonance in the observer's motor system. The observer's 'motor knowledge' is harnessed to decipher the observed action. However, mirror neurons extend beyond being merely neural foundations for our sporting inclinations. They also enable observers to enhance their athletic abilities through the process of observation. It turns out that watching a remarkable golfer improves our own golfing skills, and witnessing a skilled sprinter actually bolsters our running speed. This ability to learn through observation is a vital skill. From language acquisition in infancy to understanding facial expressions, mimicking plays a fundamental role in our consciousness. The most accomplished athletes possess a premotor cortex capable of envisioning victorious movements, supplemented by the physical attributes required to translate those movements into reality. In this way, action and imagination coalesce to drive performance.

F However, how many among us watch sport in order to enhance our athletic abilities? Most spectators tune in for the emotional roller coaster, the human drama it encompasses. This emotional connection finds its roots in mirror neurons, which allow spectators to perceive athletes' victorious movements and to share in the emotion of their triumphs. This is because they are directly associated with the amygdala, a key area of the brain responsible for emotional processing. During the Olympics, mirror neurons in individuals around the world resonate in unison, and watching sport unifies people. The majority of us may never run a mile in under four minutes or hit a home run. Yet, as we gather around our televisions, we all briefly get a taste of the feeling of executing something flawlessly. In those fleeting moments, sport becomes more than entertainment-it becomes a shared human experience.