Lean Production Manufacturing | Mass Vs Lean Production

Lean production manufacturing is a management philosophy and operational strategy that was developed in Japan following World War II.

Lean Production Manufacturing is a standardized approach for the identification and elimination of waste (non-value-added process/activities) for achieving perfection.

A systematic approach for maximization of value and elimination of waste.

“A systematic/standardized approach that reduces the time-frame between the customer’s order and delivery of product through waste elimination.

Mass Production Vs Lean Production

	Mass Production	Lean Production
Customer Satisfaction	Makes what engineers want in large quantities at statistically accepted quality levels. Dispose of inventory at fire-sale prices	Makes what customers want with zero defects, when they want it and only the quantities they order
Leadership	By Executive command and coercion	By vision and broad participation
Organization	Individualism and military-style bureaucracy	Team-based operations and flat hierarchies
External Relations	Based on price	Based on long-term relations
Information Management	Poor management based on abstract reports generated by and for managers	Rich management based on visual control systems maintained by all employees
Culture	Of Loyalty & obedience; sub-culture of alienation and labor strife	Harmonious culture of involvement based on human resources & long term relations
Production	Large-scale machines, functional layout, minimal skills, long production runs, massive inventories	Human scale machines, cell-type layout, multi-skill, one-piece flow, zero inventories
Design & Engineering	Isolated genius model with little input from customers and little respect for production realities	Team-based model, with input from customers & concurrent development of product and process design
Maintenance & Quality	By Specialists	Equipment management by production & engineering

Principles of Lean Production Manufacturing

The core principles of lean production manufacturing are to eliminate waste and optimize efficiency. These principles include:

1. VSM – Value Stream Mapping: Identifying the value-added and non-value-added activities in a manufacturing process.
2. JIT – Just-in-Time: Producing and delivering products when needed by customers.
3. Continuous Improvement through Kaizen: Promoting an improvement-oriented culture at all levels.
4. Autonomation (Jidoka): Building self-monitoring and self-regulating processes to eliminate quality defects.
5. Workforce Empowerment: Total Employee Involvement-TEI in decision-making and quality problem-solving.

The primary objective of lean manufacturing is the elimination of the supply chain. The eight recognized types of waste in lean production manufacturing are:

1. Overproduction
2. Inventory
3. Transportation
4. Waiting
5. Motion
6. Defects
7. Overprocessing
8. Underutilized Talent

Lean Production Manufacturing Tools and Techniques

Lean production manufacturing utilizes various quality and productivity improvement tools and techniques to achieve its desired objectives, such as:

1. Lean 5S: To organize the workplace.
2. Kanban: A visual signaling system for inventory control.
3. Poka-Yoke: Error-proofing system to prevent quality defects.
4. Value Stream Mapping: VSM visualizes processes to identify values and inefficiencies.
5. Total Productive Maintenance: Ensuring zero machine breakdowns.
6. Andon: Visual management to alert production problems.
7. Six Sigma-DMAIC
8. Single Minute Exchange of Die-SMED
9. Just In Time-JIT
10. Continuous Improvement/PDCA
11. Cellular Manufacturing
12. And many more Lean Manufacturing Tools…