Lean Manufacturing Basics
Lean Manufacturing is a technique which enables production or product development companies to cut down on their production costs. Lean Manufacturing techniques has basics which if followed can not only cut down production costs of a product, it can also develop a very cost-effective supply chain strategy.
What are the basics of Lean Manufacturing?
Lean Manufacturing derives most of its knowledge from Kaizen model of Quality Management. Some basic principles which form the crux of a Lean Manufacturing program are:
- Pull Processing - One way of production is to develop the products and sell it to the customer. The basic of lean manufacturing tells the producer to pull the product from the consumer, develop the product as per the product specifications and then send it to the customer. In this case, the customer would be satisfied as he gets a product which is very close to his expectations.
- Waste Minimization - This is said to be at the heart of Lean Manufacturing. Ensuring that all the activities which do not add value to the entire production process are discarded off the process, waste reduction is one of the basics which is termed as the pillars of the Lean Manufacturing techniques.
- Continuous Process Improvement - Product Developers are encouraged to refine and reengineer their processes to ensure that customer satisfaction levels are not sacrificed. This at all times is maintained by the developer asking 5 Why questions at every stage or step of the production cycle.
- Following the 5S - The 5S indicates 5 words which start with the alphabet S in Japanese. The 5S outlines steps which are extremely critical to waste reduction and in a sense, the 5S embodies waste reduction techniques.
- Autonomation - Cases where variations to the product is reported, the production stops immediately to ensure that the product is fixed. This is accomplished by fixing the process flow to ensure that the customer gets 0 error products at all times.
These are some of the many basics of Lean Manufacturing. One brief look at these basics would indicate that these are incoherent and loosely connected. But the key of lean manufacturing technique is that it is a conglomeration of loosely connected techniques, which gel well when brought together. The basics of Lean Manufacturing also allow the JIT(Just in Time) production technique to be in existence. Apart from Toyota, a lot of other manufacturing companies use the JIT methodology to ensure that production costs are cut down and customer satisfaction levels are increased always.
The basics of Lean Manufacturing may make a lot of sense stand-alone, but when brought together as a comprehensive set of practices, it can do wonders for the production process overall.