Lean Production

Description of Lean Production. Explanation.

Definition Lean Production. Description.

Lean Production is a manufacturing performance improvement approach and philosophy that emphasizes the minimization of the amount of all the resources (including time) used in the various activities of the enterprise. It involves identifying and eliminating non-value-adding activities in design, production, supply chain management, and dealing with the customers.

Lean producers employ teams of multi-skilled workers at all levels of the organization and use highly flexible, increasingly automated machines to produce volumes of products in potentially enormous variety. It contains a set of principles and practices to reduce cost through the relentless removal of Waste and through the simplification of all manufacturing and support processes.

Lean Production Forum (9)

What is Lean Transformation?
"What about lean transformation, members of the management team want to focus more on lean transformation rather than on lean manufacturing. What are your views on this?"

Lean Thinking Begins with the End Customer and His Needs
"The basics of Lean Thinking are still to find in the Womack - Jones book 'Lean Thinking':
1. Value
2. Value stream
3. Flow
4. Pull
5. Continuous Improvement.

Items 2 until 5 are extensively treated and discussed. A lot of tools are used here.

However, the first one: Value is the real foundation. But tools, related to this item, are not very well known or used. It always begins with the end customer and his needs, expectations and value-perception.
In the SME-organizations (small and medium enterprises), which I am focusing on, know how of the customer and his value perception is not analyzed well and understood poorly.
Mostly the technology, the historical behaviour of the company, or other internal issues are leading. Not checking on the gemba = the market.
The Kano model, House of Quality, Hoshin Kanri and Catchball are the most hidden tools of Lean. Is this also your experience and how do you tackle this with your customers?"

Organizations Must Go on a DIET to Become Lean
"Lean is focused on the elimination or reduction of waste and the continuous improvement of the overall performance of a company. Acquiring the proficiency to accomplish more with less is the path toward removing insignificant activities from organizational practices. Creating more value and applying a different way of thinking during processes is at the heart of lean concepts. A diet to become lean consists of principles that organizations integrate through Discipline, Improvement, Efficiency, and Training (DIET):

- discipline. When incorporating a diet in your organizational practices, discipline is vital before your system becomes fit. The leader needs to be a dedicated champion for change, open-minded, and without skepticism. It is important to have a methodical understanding of the issues facing the organization and the environment for which it operate as one of its biggest challenges toward the plan to become lean. The most significant aspect for the successful implementation of lean mythologies is to ensure that it becomes a part of the everyday mindset within the organization. Setting the stage for a structured process for managing and maintaining the diet of an organization will require a consistent serving of discipline.

- Continuous Improvement is a nutritional requirement that provides healthy solutions to an organizational diet. In today's economy, a company has to supplement improvement at all levels of the organization as part of the strategic goal. Understanding the need for growth and learning while standardizing processes are the foundation of the ongoing effort to improve product, services, and processes. Customizing a culture that drives change with constant improvement will motivate and enable the organization to recognize and detoxify waste along with enhancing its dedication toward the objective.

- Efficiency is another fundamental component of the DIET to becoming lean, which encompasses various practices to enhance quality, competence, and responsiveness to customers. In an effort to focus on escalating efficiency, an organization needs to burn off non-value added practices and processes while concentrating on issues caused by its most important challenges. Practicing perfection and maintaining persistence toward a lean environment will encourage efficiency and motivate the need for continuous improvement, despite the organizational challenges.

- Training. Creating a culture of continuous learning is essential. Successful implementation requires all employees be trained to identify and remove waste from processes. It is imperative while implementing lean to be aware of the strictness of your organization's DIET. The pivot of lean initiative involves the training of personnel, which is instrumental in it successful implementation. Lean is a tool and technique, but most importantly, a way of thinking, which begins with exercising the muscle of the organization from top-down. The philosophy, values, and practices of lean are more effective when applied across the entire organization.

Lean concepts encompass various practices of applying philosophies and techniques of eliminating waste. Integrating the principles of discipline, improvement, efficiency, and training (DIET) into a lean initiative creates a culture that embraces change. Learning to eliminate non-value added practices and processes through a DIET plan assures the organization is on the strict path to becoming lean. "

Lean Time and Lead Time
"What is lean time? Are lead time and lean time the same or different?"

Trends in Lean: What's Hot?
"Hello. My name is Christoffer and I am working with a paper about Lean. I am looking for interesting / hot topics to take up in the paper and was wondering if somone could inform me about the hottetst topis. Best, Christoffer."

Lean Implementation in SAP Projects
"We want to implement lean in SAP projects, especially in the SAP testing domain. If any one has experience in this space, we can discuss..."

Origin of the Word 'Lean'
"The word 'lean' for all these concepts was first used by John Krafcik, a MIT-USA professor and researcher. He worked with James Womack and Daniel Jones who wrote the famous book: "The machine that changed the world"."

Ownership of Complex Lean Projects
"Who should take ownership of lean projects that impact different areas of the value chain?"

Relation Between Value Chain and Lean?
"What is the interrelationship of the Value Chain and Lean?"

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