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Introduction to Lean

Lean is a methodology to reduce waste in a manufacturing system without sacrificing productivity. The customer defines what is of value in terms of what they would pay for the product or service. Through lean management, what adds value becomes clear by removing or reducing everything that does not add value.

History of Lean Manufacturing

The idea of lean manufacturing was first championed by the Toyota Production System and called lean in the 1990s, after a book called ‘The Machine that changed the World’ was published This coincided with the growth of Toyota from a small company to one of the world’s most successful seller of motor vehicles.

But lean as an idea that encompasses reduction of waste goes back to Benjamin Franklin, who wrote about it in his Poor Richard’s Almanack. He noted that avoiding unnecessary costs could be more profitable than increasing sales. This idea, and other relevant concepts appear in his essay “The Way to Wealth.”

How to Practice Lean Manufacturing

The general meaning of lean is that it consists of a set of tools that help to identify and eliminate waste. That waste can be created through an overburden and unevenness in workloads. The removal of waste from any system improves quality and production time, while reducing cost.

Some of those tools include:

• QCO (Quick Changeover)
• Value stream mapping
• 5S (Workplace organisation)
• Kanban boards (visualising workflow)
• Poka-yoke (Error-proofing)
• Standardised Work (We all follow the same process)
• TPM (Total productive maintenance improves integrity and quality of manufacturing process)
• Single-point scheduling
• Redesigning working area’s
• Multi-process handing
• Control charts (for checking workloads)

Principles of Lean

Some principles that are core part of lean include:

• Pull processing
• Right first-time quality
• Waste Elimination
• Continuous improvement
• Flexibility
• Building and maintaining a long-term relationship with suppliers
• Automation
• Load leveling
• Production flow and visual control

Lean’s main thrust is not the tools, but the reduction of three types of waste: 

• Overburden, muri 
• Unevenness, mura
• and non-value-adding work, muda (The 7 Wastes)

It is through these means that lean helps productivity. It simplifies operational structure to understand, perform and manage the work environment. 

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