Lean Manufacturing

Lean Manufacturing often called Lean Production is one and the same thing. Lean Manufacturing is often associated with streamlining the processes by eliminating the waste. This waste can be in any form in the organisation, it can be the complexity in designing the process, over production, under production which leads to machines sitting idle, and that result to poor utilisation of capital employed, unnecessary flow of the people and materials, uncleanness which leads to confusion. Lean is more focused to the more visible causes of variation. Lean Manufacturing utilises some statistical tools and techniques to identify the waste at different levels in the organisation and to remove it. However, understanding these tools requires involvement of the management team. Implementation of Lean largely encourages the involvement of the people in the organisation. It tries to incorporate changes into the culture of the organisation because it understands that when the lean champions are away or when the pressure of change is removed, it doesn’t dies a slow death. Lean is centered on creating more value with less work. Lean Manufacturing is a generic process management philosophy derived mostly from the Toyota Production System. It is renowned for its focus on reduction of the original Toyota seven wastes to improve overall customer value. Implementing lean manufacturing can sometimes be a challenge as it provides so many tools and techniques that often it gets difficult to identify the best mapping tool which is often prone to judgemental inconsistency. No single technique is able to simultaneously solve overall problems associated because each has its own advantages and drawbacks. It requires careful planning, adequate knowledge and strong leadership in order to apply lean manufacturing techniques.

: 25 Jan 2010 00:28 |  Comments (0) |  Report a problem