Table of Contents

Lean Manufacturing Definition-Lean Manufacturing Principles

Lean Manufacturing Definition:

Lean manufacturing is defined as a systematic approach to identifying and eliminating waste through continuous improvement, flowing the product at the pull of the customer in pursuit of perfection.

So what is waste? Waste is defined as any activity that does not add value from the customer’s perspective. According to research conducted by the Lean Enterprise Research Centre (LERC), fully 60% of production activities in a typical manufacturing operation are waste – they add no value at all for the customer.

These types of waste are categorized as:

Muda: Additional activity during manufacturing that’s not needed
Muri: Waste created from overburden in manufacturing processes
Mura: Waste created from unevenness in the manufacturing process

Lean manufacturing is a performance-based process used in manufacturing organizations to increase competitive advantage. The basics of lean manufacturing employ continuous improvement processes to focus on the elimination of waste or non value added steps within an organization. The challenge to organizations utilizing lean manufacturing is to create a culture that will create and sustain long-term commitment from top management through the entire workforce.

GOAL OF LEAN MANUFACTURING:
1.Cost Reduction by Elimination of Waste
2.Creating Conditions to Guarantee Product Quality
3.Quality First
4.Ensuring Quality of all Products
5.Building In Quality at Each Process
6.Inspection Work
7.The Added Value of Repairs
8.Awareness of Waste
9. Customer Satisfaction.

Lean Manufacturing Principles

Lean manufacturing techniques are based on the application of five principles to guide management’s actions toward success:

1. Value: The foundation for the value stream that defines what the customer is willing to pay for. The first step is to recognize what does and does not create value from the customer’s perspective. Any material, process or feature which is not required for creating value from the customer’s perspective is waste and should be eliminated. For example, transporting materials between workstations is waste because it can potentially be eliminated.

2. The Value Stream : The mapping and identifying of all the specific actions required to eliminate the non-value activities from design concept to customer usage.Lean requires an the implementation of very detailed production guidelines, called Standard Work, which clearly state the content, sequence, timing and outcome of all actions by workers. This eliminates variation in the way that workers perform their tasks.

3. Continuous Flow: The elimination of all process stoppages to make the value stream “flow” without interruptions. Lean usually aims for the implementation of a continuous production flow free of bottlenecks, interruption, detours, backflows or waiting. When this is successfully implemented, the production cycle time can be reduced by as much as 90%.

4. Pull Production: The ability to streamline products and processes from concept through customer usage.Also called Just-in-Time (JIT), Pull-production aims to produce only what is needed, when it is needed. Production is pulled by the downstream workstation so that each workstation should only produce what is requested by the next workstation.

5.Perfection : The ability to advocate doing things right the first time through the application of continuous improvement efforts.Lean aims for defects to be eliminated at the source and for quality inspection to be done by the workers as part of the in-line production process.