Lean Manufacturing and Lean Manufacture
Lean manufacturing is a japanese-originating management philosophy focusing on reducing of the seven wastes of:
- Over-production
- Waiting time
- Transportation
- Processing
- Inventory
- Motion
- Scrap in manufactured products
By eliminating waste (muda), quality is improved, production time and costs are reduced. To solve the problem of waste, Lean Manufacturing has several tools at its disposal. These include constant process analysis (kaizen), 'pull' production (using kanban) and mistake-proofing (poka-yoke). Key lean manufacturing principles include:
- Pull processing: products are pulled from the consumer end, not pushed from the production end (i.e. JIT vs MRP)
- Perfect first-time quality - quest for zero defects, revealing and solving problems at their source
- Waste minimisation – eliminating all activities that do not add value to the product (from the customer's point of view)
- Continuous improvement – reducing costs, improving quality, increasing productivity and information sharing
- Flexibility – producing different mixes or greater diversity of products quickly, without sacrificing efficiency at lower volumes of production (taking lessons from Agile Manufacturing here, 'Leagile'!)
- Building and maintaining a long term relationship with suppliers through collaborative risk sharing, cost sharing and information sharing arrangements.
