Lean Production Systems Basic Principle Introduction and Review Grundlagen

Lean manufacturing is a methodology that focuses on minimizing waste matter within manufacturing systems while simultaneously maximizing productivity. Waste is seen as anything that customers do not believe adds value and are not willing to pay for. Some of the benefits of lean manufacturing can include reduced lead times, reduced operating costs and improved product quality.

Lean manufacturing, also known as lean production, or lean, is a practice that organizations from numerous fields tin can enable. Some well-known companies that use lean include Toyota, Intel, John Deere and Nike. The arroyo is based on the Toyota Production System and is still used by that company, also as myriad others. Companies that employ enterprise resources planning (ERP) tin besides benefit from using a lean product system.

Lean manufacturing is based on a number of specific principles, such as Kaizen, or continuous improvement.

Lean manufacturing was introduced to the Western world via the 1990 publication ofThe Machine That Changed the Globe, which was based on an MIT study into the futurity of the automobile detailed past Toyota's lean production arrangement. Since that fourth dimension, lean principles have profoundly influenced manufacturing concepts throughout the world, as well equally industries outside of manufacturing, including healthcare, software evolution and service industries.

Five principles of lean manufacturing

A widely referenced book,Lean Thinking: Blackball Waste product and Create Wealth in Your Corporation, which was published in 1996, laid out five principles of lean, which many in the field reference as core principles. They are value, the value stream, flow, pull and perfection. These are now used as the basis for lean implementation.

1. Identify value from the client'due south perspective.Value is created by the producer, but it is defined past the customer. Companies need to understand the value the customer places on their products and services, which, in turn, can help them make up one's mind how much money the customer is willing to pay.

The visitor must strive to eliminate waste material and price from its business processes and then that the client's optimal cost tin be achieved -- at the highest profit to the company.

two. Map the value stream.This principle involves recording and analyzing the flow of information or materials required to produce a specific product or service with the intent of identifying waste material and methods of improvement. Value stream mapping encompasses the production's entire lifecycle, from raw materials through to disposal.

Companies must examine each stage of the cycle for waste matter. Annihilation that does not add value must exist eliminated. Lean thinking recommends supply chain alignment as part of this effort.

3. Create period.Eliminate functional barriers and place ways to improve lead time. This aids in ensuring the processes are polish from the fourth dimension an social club is received through to commitment. Flow is critical to the emptying of waste. Lean manufacturing relies on preventing interruptions in the production process and enabling a harmonized and integrated fix of processes in which activities move in a abiding stream.

4. Plant a pull system.This ways you only start new piece of work when there is demand for it. Lean manufacturing uses a pull organisation instead of a push button system.

Push systems are used in manufacturing resource planning (MRP) systems. With a push organization, inventory needs are determined in advance, and the production is manufactured to meet that forecast. Withal, forecasts are typically inaccurate, which tin can result in swings between too much inventory and not enough, equally well as subsequent disrupted schedules and poor customer service.

In contrast to MRP, lean manufacturing is based on a pull system in which nothing is bought or fabricated until at that place is demand. Pull relies on flexibility and communication.

five. Pursue perfection with continual process comeback, or Kaizen.Lean manufacturing rests on the concept of continually striving for perfection, which entails targeting the root causes of quality issues and ferreting out and eliminating waste product across the value stream.

The 8 wastes of lean production

The Toyota Product Organization laid out seven wastes, or processes and resources, that don't add value for the customer. These seven wastes are:

unnecessary transportation;
excess inventory;
unnecessary movement of people, equipment or machinery;
waiting, whether information technology is people waiting or idle equipment;
over-production of a production;
over-processing or putting more time into a production than a customer needs, such as designs that crave high-tech mechanism for unnecessary features; and
defects, which crave effort and price for corrections.

Although not originally included in the Toyota Product System, many lean practitioners betoken to an eighth waste material: waste of unused talent and ingenuity.

Seven lean manufacturing tools and concepts

Lean manufacturing requires a relentless pursuit of reducing annihilation that does not add value to a product, meaning waste. This makes continuous improvement, which lies at the heart of lean manufacturing, a must.

Other important concepts and processes lean relies on include:

Heijunka: production leveling or smoothing that seeks to produce a continuous flow of product, releasing work to the plant at the required rate and avoiding interruptions.
5S: A set of practices for organizing workspaces to create efficient, effective and safe areas for workers and which foreclose wasted endeavor and time. 5S emphasizes organization and cleanliness.
Kanban: a signal used to streamline processes and create but-in-time delivery. Signals can either be physical, such every bit a tag or empty bin, or electronically sent through a system.
Jidoka: A method that defines an outline for detecting an aberration, stopping work until it tin be corrected, solving the problem, and so investigating the root cause.
Andon: A visual aid, such as a flashing calorie-free, that alerts workers to a problem.
Poka-yoke: A mechanism that safeguards against homo error, such as an indicator calorie-free that turns on if a necessary footstep was missed, a sign given when a bolt was tightened the correct number of times or a organisation that blocks a next step until all the previous steps are completed.
Wheel time: How long it takes to produce a part or complete a procedure.

Lean vs. Six Sigma

Six Sigma is an approach to data-driven management, similar in nature to lean, which seeks to improve quality by measuring how many defects there are in a process and eliminating them until there are every bit little defects as possible.

Both lean and 6 Sigma seek to eliminate waste. However, the ii utilise different approaches since they address the root cause of waste differently.

In the simplest terms, where lean holds that waste product is caused by additional steps, processes and features that a client doesn't believe adds value and won't pay for, Half-dozen Sigma holds that waste results from process variation. Still, the two approaches are complementary and have been combined into a data-driven approach, called Lean Six Sigma.

This was last updated in April 2020