Car Assembly Line
Lean manufacturing is a production system that focuses on the customer's needs. It is a systematic approach to managing and improving the quality of products, services and processes within an enterprise. Lean manufacturing was originally developed by Taiichi Ohno for Toyota Motor Corporation in Japan in 1936. It became popular after his death in 1987 when Hirofumi Motegi took over as chairman of Toyota. In 1993, Toyota teamed up with Deming’s institute to promote lean principles worldwide.
What is Lean manufacturing?
Lean manufacturing is a systematic approach to waste reduction in a manufacturing process. It focuses on the elimination of unnecessary steps and operations, which increase costs, lead to errors and result in poor quality.
What does a Lean Manufacturing System look like?
Lean Manufacturing is a system that improves the flow of work through the factory. It reduces waste and makes processes more efficient, which means you can save money, reduce production costs, or both.
Lean Manufacturing Systems improve quality by using just-in-time delivery and monitoring each step in your manufacturing process so that defects are caught before they reach customers' hands or shelves (or worse yet—your company).
Advantages of Lean manufacturing
Increased productivity
Increased quality
Increased customer satisfaction
Reduce overhead by using less space, materials, and labour during operations.
It cuts down the amount of waste you generate in general (either regarding by-products or unused products)
It necessitates a shift in mindset toward continuous quality improvement, ensuring that you are always seeking a "better way to do things."
Decreased employee turnover
Increased employee retention, means that your employees will stay at their jobs longer and be more productive than if they worked in a traditional setting. This also means less training costs, because you don't need to train new hires as frequently or pay them as much money while they're learning the job. More profits! Your company will save money by not having to pay for personnel who may leave after only a few months on the job (or years). Growth: A company can grow by implementing lean manufacturing techniques into its production process. The result is an increase in profit margins over time—and this is not just “if” but “when”!
Disadvantages of Lean Manufacturing
There are several disadvantages of Lean Manufacturing.
It is not easy to implement. The process of implementing this method requires a lot of investment, time and effort. In order to achieve success in implementing Lean Manufacturing, one must have patience as well as discipline and motivation to follow the necessary steps given by its implementation.
It requires a lot of training for employees who will be working under lean manufacturing systems in order to ensure that they understand all aspects related to it so that they can deliver quality products within a stipulated time frame without any mistakes which can cause losses for the company later on if not taken care properly beforehand
Step-by-step process in implementing 6S, 5s +1 in the Lean manufacturing area.
The first step is to determine if your company is ready for lean manufacturing. If you need to implement a new system or change the way your business operates, then it's time to assess where your company stands currently. You will want to identify any areas that could be improved with regard to quality, efficiency and productivity. This could include:
What does our current process look like? Is there anything we can improve? What are our goals for this project?
What do we need from suppliers/customers/employees throughout this process? Are they clear on what they are supposed to do in order for us (the business) and them (the supplier) to benefit from this collaboration together?
Different Lean Tools
Lean technology collects the correct data from the manufacturing or storage processes to improve poorly practices operations. Below are some of the commonly used lean tools.
Value Stream Mapping (VSM)
Value stream mapping (VSM) is a lean manufacturing tool for redesigning a manufacturing system's production methods so that only steps that add value to the end product are used. Each step of the manufacturing process is evaluated. The speed and volume of material or product transferred from one stage to the next are recorded when a factory uses value stream mapping.
Levelized Production
Many companies tend to stock the items and sell them when required by the customers. I believe this is a massive loss as it involves a lot of workforce, time, and resources. Apart from these factors, there is no guarantee that the product which is stocked gets sold. Levelized production aims to address these issues by allowing your company to forecast how many items it will sell on a given day, ensuring that you don't waste resources upfront and that the products you order don't just sit in storage collecting dust.
Poka-Yoke
Poka-yoke aims to reduce waste by establishing a standardized production process that eliminates employee errors. The goal of poka-yoke is to either prevent mistakes from occurring or identify the mistakes that have already happened.
Normal day operation in a factory
Why consider implementing Lean manufacturing at least once?
Lean manufacturing is a systematic approach to reducing waste and improving productivity. It is a set of tools, principles and practices that help companies produce more with less. Lean manufacturing aims to reduce the cost of producing products or providing services while improving quality and customer satisfaction. If implemented correctly, Lean manufacturing can give your company a competitive advantage over its competitors by helping them improve their operations while reducing costs.
Lean manufacturing is a philosophy that can be applied to many industries. It's not a set of tools and techniques, but rather a set of principles.
Lean manufacturing is all about streamlining processes and reducing waste in order to increase efficiency and profitability. The goal is to reduce the time it takes for products or services to reach customers, which will result in lower costs per item produced or completed.
Conclusion
I believe that the implementation of Lean manufacturing can be a great opportunity for your business to implement new processes and achieve better results. You will see how much time you save in order to focus on other important things, such as creating brand awareness, marketing campaigns and customer loyalty programs.