Lean Manufacturing

What is lean manufacturing?

Lean manufacturing is a business model and collection of methods that help eliminate waste while delivering quality products on time and at least cost.

The techniques and tools of lean manufacturing go against everything that seems natural in manufacturing. But, they have been proven extremely effective in more than 30 years of use.

Lean manufacturing is a generic process management philosophy derived mostly from the Toyota Production System (TPS). It is famous for its focus on reduction of the original Toyota seven wastes in order to improve overall customer value, but there are varying perspectives on how this is best achieved. The steady growth of Toyota, from a small company to the world's largest automaker, has focused attention on how it has achieved this.

The Seven Wastes (Muda)

The original seven muda are:

• Transportation (moving products that is not actually required to perform the processing) 
• Inventory (all components, work-in-progress and finished product not being processed) 
• Motion (people or equipment moving or walking more than is required to perform the processing) 
• Waiting (waiting for the next production step) 
• Overproduction (production ahead of demand) 
• Over Processing (due to poor tool or product design creating activity) 
• Defects (the effort involved in inspecting for and fixing defects)^[11] 

Some of these definitions may seem idealistic, but this tough definition is seen as important. The clear identification of non-value-adding work, as distinct from wasted work, is critical to identifying the assumptions behind the current work process and to challenging them.

In recent years an eighth muda has been added. The waste of human potential and knowledge. The idea being the people that perform the work are the best ones to improve it.

Lean Manufacturing Implementation

Lean manufacturing relies a concept commonly called System Engineering.

Lean is about more than just cutting costs in the factory. One crucial insight is that most costs are assigned when a product is designed. Often an engineer will specify familiar, safe materials and processes rather than inexpensive, efficient ones. This reduces project risk, that is, the cost to the engineer, while increasing financial risks, and decreasing profits. Good organizations develop and review checklists to review product designs.

Companies must often look beyond the shop-floor to find opportunities for improving overall company cost and performance. At the system engineering level, requirements are reviewed with marketing and customer representatives to eliminate those requirements which are costly. Shared modules may be developed, such as multipurpose power supplies or shared mechanical components or fasteners. Requirements are assigned to the cheapest discipline.

For example, adjustments may be moved into software, and measurements away from a mechanical solution to an electronic solution. Another approach is to choose connection or power-transport methods that are cheap or that used standardized components that become available in a competitive market.

Do You Want To Learn More About Lean?

We will bring the class to your facility.

Some of the topics we cover are: Defects, Overproduction, Inventory levels,
Unnecessary processing, Unnecessary movement, Waiting to process, Bad designs and Unwanted products.

You learn how to judge timing and speed requirements for process change and much, much more.

This dynamic course includes interactive workshops to help students understand
the implementation, use and benefits of the lean techniques and tools.

You can have this class presented at your business for as little a $54.00 per person.

Class is one day.

The course includes:

1. What is lean manufacturing? 
2. How to think lean. 
3. The eight great wastes. 
4. Aligning lean with business objectives. 
5. The lean tool kit. 
6. Preparing to transform to lean. 
7. Transforming into a lean machine. 
8. Overcoming resistance to change. 
9. Timeline for total transformation. 
10. Workshops  
11. CEU and RU credits awarded. 

Call or contact us for more information. Read the Lean Manufacturing By The Numbers article in the Article Library.

Additional Resources