Lean Manufacturing

Lean Manufacturing Explained

Are you not curious to learn more about a set of practices which have reduced production costs in manufacturing companies by over 60%? Lean Manufacturing Explained could easily have been the title of one of the books written on Lean Manufacturing (it probably is, but I am not sure). But in this context, I would be referring to some basics which I will try to explain them to you. Having a knowledge of these techniques would simply not make you an expert in deploying lean techniques on manufacturing processes. You would possibly need couple of implementation exercises to make you an expert as yet.

So, what are the basics anyways?

Lean Manufacturing techniques evolve around the concept of waste reduction to decrease production costs. Any activity is identified as waste if it does not change the form, fit or functionality of the product. This means all the activities which are critical to the product development function stay in the production process and all the wastes of the production process are identified and discarded off the process. The wastes are further defined as Non-value adding steps for which the customer is unwilling to pay.

As an example, let us consider the production of a refrigerator. In a process followed by company A, it has 15 steps in the production process and the company charges the customer $2,000 for the refrigerator. Company B which employs lean manufacturing techniques in its production process, charges the customer $1,000 for 8 steps in its production process. What company B has done very efficiently is to discard wastes off its production process, which gives it and its customers a great leverage on costs.

Lean Lead time which is again a critical metric in Lean Manufacturing is applied to all value-added steps.

What are the objectives of Lean Manufacturing Techniques?

By deploying Lean techniques on the production processes the company can aim at - reduction of manufacturing lead time, optimizing WIP(Work in progress Levels) and apply a new set of operating tools which enhances continuous process improvement.

It is essential that companies realize the importance of identifying the value-added and the non-value added steps. Without this step, proceeding any ahead on deploying Lean techniques on a manufacturing process will be considered as an absolute waste.

The end goal of a company implementing techniques is to ensure that the manufacturing facility churns low-cost and high quality products. This would ensure that the company profits are sustained and the customer satisfaction levels never dip. And aiding in this function are the concepts from Lean Manufacturing Explained.