Lean Manufacturing is a systematic approach toward business success and utilizes various Lean Tools for maximizing value and eliminating waste from a process and services to achieve perfection.
The main aim of lean manufacturing is to find better ways to eliminate lean waste and create value.
Lean manufacturing uses various lean manufacturing tools to improve quality, productivity, and efficiency through the effective utilization of resources.
There are various lean tools in manufacturing industries for continual improvement but 5S, Kaizen, Kanban, TPM, PDCA, and VSM are the most useful tools.
Table of Contents
Lean Manufacturing follows the five lean principles defined by James Womack & Daniel Jones.
The five lean manufacturing principles are:
>Explore Lean Manufacturing and Lean Principles for more details.
Lean means the elimination of Waste or NVA (non-value-added activity) and adding value to processes and services.
Value in lean means any useful activities for which the customer is willing to pay.
Lean means in manufacturing is:
The list of lean tools and techniques used in lean manufacturing, problem-solving, and 6 sigma methodologies are:
5S is a basic foundation stone of Lean manufacturing, TQM, and TPM methodologies. 5S is the first towards continuous improvement and an organization cannot succeed without lean 5S.
The 5S methodology is a systematic and continual improvement technique to eliminate the waste or non-value-added activities from the workplace.
It is an important basic tool of Lean manufacturing that improves workplace efficiency, adds value to the process/services, and provides a safe & hygienic environment.
The lean tool 5S includes five Japanese terms that all start with ‘S’
>Explore 6S in lean (5S+Safety) for more details.
Kaizen’s philosophy is based on small but continuous improvements in daily work rather than one large improvement at once.
KAIZEN is the Japanese word made of KAI and ZEN, which means “Change for better” or “Continuous Improvement”
>Explore Kaizen for more details.
Deming’s PDCA approach is based on continuous improvements. You can achieve desired results through effective and systematic planning, implementation, evaluation, and review process.
TPM means Total Productive Maintenance aiming for zero machine trouble and maximizing overall equipment effectiveness.
Total Productive Maintenance is a method for continuously improving the efficiency and effectiveness of the manufacturing processes through effective TPM maintenance, and involving employees within the organization.
TPM manufacturing consists of 5S as a foundation tool and eight supporting pillars or activities.
The Eight Pillars of TPM are:
The concept of Poka-Yoke was developed by Shigeo Shingo of Japan in the 1960s for preventing human errors.
Poka-Yoke is also called Mistake Proofing or Error Proofing.
The main objective of Poka Yoke is to prevent human and process errors in the first place, or at least easily detected and corrected so that mistakes do not turn into defects.
>Explore Poka-Yoke for more details.
Heijunka is a Japanese word for leveling production.
Heijunka reduces inventory (due to smaller batches) and lead times (since each product is produced more frequently).
The main aim of Heijunka is to leveling production by absorbing sudden fluctuations in customer demand.
It is a technique for reducing the 3M waste-Muda, Mura, and Muri.
The term “3M” in Lean Manufacturing refers to three types of waste that decrease productivity, raise expenses, and reduce the quality of products or services. The 3M concept is derived from Japan.
3M or 3MUs are: Muda, Mura, and Muri
>Explore 3M waste for more details.
JIT is based on the Pull Concept.
Just-In-Time in lean production is defined as a “philosophy that focuses attention on eliminating NVA or Waste by purchasing or manufacturing of right items just in time”.
JIT refers to the production and supply of the required quantity of items when needed.
The goal of JIT is to reduce the levels of wasted materials, time, excess inventory, and efforts involved in the production process.
Kanban means a Visual Card or Visual Record.
A Kanban system is a system of production and inventory control.
Kanban Signals,
Jidoka is also called Autonomation and is described as automation with human intelligence.
Jidoka is the ability for equipment/machines to be self-dependent and mistake/error-proof without any human interaction.
OEE stands for Overall Equipment Effectiveness.
The Overall Equipment Effectiveness tool is used to monitor/improve the efficiency of the production process.
Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE) is defined as the product of three different measuring metrics.
OEE = Availability x Performance x Quality
For Example:
Availability = 95 %
Performance efficiency = 85%
Rate of quality = 97%
OEE = (.95 x .85 x .97)
OEE = 78.32%
The six major losses that are most common causes of waste in lean manufacturing are:
All the above 6 big losses must be reduced from the manufacturing process to improve the organization’s OEE.
Single-minute exchange of die is one of the important lean manufacturing techniques developed by Toyota Management for reducing/eliminating wasteful activities present in a manufacturing process.
SMED reduces changeover time to less than ten minutes.
Cellular manufacturing is based on a group of various processes located in close proximity to manufacture a group of similar items/products. The primary purpose of cellular manufacturing is to lower the cycle time and inventories to satisfy customer demand.
5 Why is a systematic problem-solving technique used to find out the real root cause by repeatedly asking “why?” deeper and deeper.
Because it is recommended to repeat at least five times, therefore it is known also as 5 Whys.
Takt time is the ratio of the Net time available for production to the customer’s demand.
It matches the pace of production with customer demands.
Takt time = Available work time per shift/Customer demand per shift
Example = 27000 seconds/600 pieces = 45 seconds
This means that one product is to be produced at a cycle time of 45 seconds to meet customers’ demands.
Standardized work practice means that an organization must follow the documented procedures, SOPs, and WIs for manufacturing the products in order to reduce waste and improve quality, productivity, and enhance customer satisfaction.
Every individual or organization has some targets or goals to achieve.
Goals can be achieved effectively and efficiently if defined in a SMART way and properly communicated.
SMART Goals means:
Key performance indicators (KPIs) of an organization are also known as performance objectives.
KPIs are used to evaluate the quality, productivity, effectiveness, and efficiency of the manufacturing processes. They help in ensuring that targets are met.
The KPIs or objectives are aligned with the company’s mission, policy, and goals.
The various names of visual management are:
Visual management includes – visual indicators, display boards, posters, and documents display throughout the organization to improve communication and provide information to follow or act upon.
Visual Management helps to sustain 5S, preventing accidents and highlighting the abnormalities at the workplace.
Gemba’s philosophy is to get out of the offices and spend your time on the shop floor to understand the actual situation/condition of a manufacturing process in order to identify the real root cause of problems.
It helps to provide a deeper understanding of real manufacturing issues – by self-observation and talking with shop floor workers.
Hoshin Kanri is also called Policy deployment.
Hoshin means Direction/Policy and Kanri means Management.
Hoshin Kanri is the management tool that helps to keep the organization in the right direction
Hoshin planning helps to align the strategic goals of the company with the middle-level management’s plan(Tactics) and ensures that progress toward strategic goals is consistent and thorough.
Hoshin removes the waste that originates from poor communication or inconsistent direction.
Andon is a Japanese term that means “Light” or “Lamp”.
Andon is a visual feedback system that is designed to stop the manufacturing process when a defect arises. The machine or work is stopped until the issue is resolved.
The goal of Andon is to improve the flow of communication when the actual problem occurs.
Types of Andon– typically there are two types of Andon system
Continuous flow means work in process flow smoothly through production with no or minimal buffers b/w steps of the production process.
The continuous flow system help to eliminate waste like inventory, transportation and waiting time, etc.
Bottleneck Analysis helps to identify the weakest link in the production process that limits the total throughput and strengthens the weakest link to improve the performance.
It is a structured approach to looking at the workflows and processes to address and rectify bottlenecks.
Bottleneck analysis saves an organization’s time, money, and energy by streamlining/improving the processes effectively and efficiently.
Digital Academy Fortune’ Takes Your Online Business to A New Level. Launch Your Own Professional Digital… Read More
Nowadays machines need to work right the first time. Teams building them face tough demands… Read More
It is top management's responsibility to establish a effective Quality Management System within the organization.… Read More
For auditing the environmental management system, following key checkpoints or requirement must be addressed in… Read More
For years, industrial and manufacturing productivity was about how much you produce and how fast… Read More
Introduction | CQI-27 The work of preparing CQI-27 Special Process: Casting System Assessment was carried… Read More