What is Lean Manufacturing?
• Different View This site provides a slightly different view of Lean Manufacturing and defines it as an “Amalgamation of Just in Time, Kaizen, Kanban and Total Quality ideas leading towards zero paper, zero inventory, zero downtime, zero defects, and zero delays. • Lean Manufacturing This site offers various article that pertain to Lean Manufacturing. It offers ideas to implement Lean Manufacturing into your business. • Other Resources A comprehensive glossary of terms used to describe principles of Lean Manufacturing, this site also provides helpful links and other resources to even further define and discuss the terms most commonly used by those discussing Lean Manufacturing.
People who don’t know about lean manufacturing, also called “lean production” and “lean enterprise,” often jump to the conclusion it simply means doing more with less, and that this is accomplished simply by having everyone work harder. Nothing could be farther from the truth. More is done with less by having everyone work smarter. According to published data, people who work in true lean enterprises (which means the whole organization is lean, not just the manufacturing) are significantly happier with their jobs on average than those who work in traditional businesses. Why? A fundamental reason is they are empowered to make decisions and to get things done. Those closest to a problem are considered to be in the best position to deal with it rather than some boss in an ivory tower who may not know what is really going on. So, people who work in a lean enterprise have more control over their jobs and their destinies. Lean manufacturing is distinguished by six key attributes: The workpla
Most all business managers agree that achieving low cost and high quality no longer guarantees a business its success. In the face of fierce global competition, companies are concentrating more than ever on reducing lead-times as a way of achieving operational flexibility. This is because as lead-times decrease, production times fall, quality improves and costs shrink. The methodology that an increasing number of companies are using to accomplish such a business strategy is the implementation of the Toyota Production System (TPS), also called lean manufacturing. Lean Manufacturing is best defined as a management philosophy that focuses on reducing waste in all business processes. Although it originates from a time when the Toyota of today was a manufacturer of power looms, in its modern form, lean was pioneered by Toyota Motor Co. in the 1950’s, when it dared compete with U.S. automakers who at the time dominated a seemingly impenetrable U.S. automobile market. Looking back: Like many
A philosophy of production that emphasizes the minimization of the amount of all the resources (including time) used in the various activities of the enterprise. It involves identifying and eliminating non-value-adding activities in design, production, supply chain management, and dealing with the customers. Lean producers employ teams of multiskilled workers at all levels of the organization and use highly flexible, increasingly automated machines to produce volumes of products in potentially enormous variety. It contains a set of principles and practices to reduce cost through the relentless removal of waste and through the simplification of all manufacturing and support processes. Source http://www.apics.org/ See our partner’s website Mfg.
Ever since Henry Ford invented the assembly line, industrial innovators have constantly focused on improvement through a variety of different manufacturing strategies. Lean manufacturing is a manufacturing strategy that seeks to produce a high level of throughput with a minimum of inventory. Originally a Japanese methodology known as the Toyota Production System designed by Sakichi Toyoda, lean manufacturing centers around placing small stockpiles of inventory in strategic locations around the assembly line, instead of in centralized warehouses. These small stockpiles are known as kanban, and the use of the kanban significantly lowers waste and enhances productivity on the factory floor. In addition to eliminating waste, lean manufacturing seeks to provide optimum quality by building in a method whereby each part is examined immediately after manufacture, and if there is a defect, the production line stops so that the problem can be detected at the earliest possible time. The lean manu
