Lean Manufacturing SuccessLean Manufacturing techniques are possibly the simplest of all quality management techniques which could be deployed on a manufacturing process. The reason for this is that Lean Manufacturing advocates the simple use of waste reduction and maintaining an orderly workplace amongst others. And to implement these, you do not need any statistical controls. How can one make a manufacturing process a Lean Manufacturing success? If a company who decides to implement lean techniques on its manufacturing techniques, it must understand clearly that the objective is to reduce wastes in the processes and minimize the production lag times. Meeting these objectives would lead up to the company meeting its business objectives of lower production costs and higher customer satisfaction levels. Implementing Kaizen techniques of the Lean Manufacturing model would mean that you do not proceed ahead with the production till the time the variation found in the process is fixed. The method of continuous process improvement advocates the continuous evolvement of the quality processes based on the end-customer experience. The 5S Methodology ensures that an orderly workplace is maintained at all times which would be a great factor in reducing wastes. The Cell Production method involves setting up of small units which do dedicated parts of the production. With the information flow achieved to its optimum due to these smaller cells, a lot of inventory and transportation wastes are minimized. Lean Manufacturing Success Stories… Virtually any company who has deployed Lean Manufacturing techniques on their production processes has had a success story to tell. On an average, these companies would indicate cost savings of about 60%-90% in their production costs. Apart from production costs, some companies have also measured production times and delivery times as their success metrics. Most of the customer service focused companies have also measured customer satisfaction as the end objective of implementing Lean Manufacturing Techniques. A Lean Manufacturing case study would involve more details on how these companies achieved success with the Lean techniques. As Toyota and many other companies who have implemented these techniques on their production processes have proved - one does not need to have the best knowledge of statistics or mathematics to implement these techniques. Simple things like eye for detail , eye to reduce wastes will ensure that Lean Manufacturing success could be a part of your production processes too. Last but not the least, Lean Manufacturing Technique does not only depend on how good the lean professional identifies waste or strategize the plan. The key is continual improvement in the processes to ensure that Lean Manufacturing techniques can generate successful results for the manufacturing companies in a sustained manner. |