Business
Lean Production
Lean production is a manufacturing philosophy focused on minimizing waste and maximizing efficiency. It emphasizes continuous improvement, just-in-time production, and a pull-based system to meet customer demand. Lean production aims to streamline processes, reduce inventory, and enhance quality, ultimately leading to cost savings and improved productivity.
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11 Key excerpts on "Lean Production"
eBook - PDFLean Manufacturing
Business Bottom-Line Based
- John X. Wang(Author)
- 2010(Publication Date)
- CRC Press(Publisher)
1 1 Introduction: Five Stages of Lean Manufacturing This chapter enables you to Understand the concept of Lean manufacturing in the context of • industrial dynamics and the bullwhip effect Recognize that, facing the challenges of global climate and changes • in the economy, risk engineering and management is the primary target of today’s manufacturing businesses Know the three toolboxes and five stages for implementing Lean • manufacturing 1.1 Lean Manufacturing Lean manufacturing is the production of goods using less of everything compared to mass production: less waste, less human effort, less manufac-turing space, less investment in tools, and less engineering time to develop a new product. Lean manufacturing is a generic process management phi-losophy derived mostly from the Toyota Production System (TPS) as well as other industrial best practices. Lean manufacturing is renowned for its focus on reduction of Toyota’s original “seven wastes” in order to improve overall customer satisfaction. According to TPS, waste in a process is any activity that does not result in moving the process closer to the final out-put or adding value to the final output. The seven wastes are: 1. Overproduction—Overproduction is to manufacture an item before it is actually required. Overproduction is highly costly to a manu-facturing plant because it prohibits the smooth flow of materials and actually degrades quality and productivity. 2. Excess inventory—Excess inventory tends to hide problems on the plant floor, which must be identified and resolved to improve oper-ating performance. Excess inventory increases lead times, consumes productive floor space, delays the identification of problems, and inhibits communication. 2 Lean Manufacturing: Business Bottom-Line Based 3. Waiting—Whenever goods are not moving or being processed, the waste of waiting occurs. Much of a product’s lead time is tied up in waiting for the next operation.
eBook - PDF- William Bentley, Peter T. Davis(Authors)
- 2009(Publication Date)
- CRC Press(Publisher)
105 5 Chapter Understanding Lean Lean is short for Lean Thinking, which started as Lean Manufacturing and is some-times called Lean Enterprise. If it is flavored with examples and oriented to a par-ticular industry, it might be called Lean for Health Care or Lean for Government, or whatever. What it is called depends on who is selling what. To be efficient and cover all bases, we simply call it Lean in this book. Lean is an adaptation of a system developed by Toyota called the Toyota Production System (TPS). It was developed as a way of thinking and set of tools for making manufacturing processes more efficient. It worked spectacularly well for Toyota and the other Japanese companies who used it, so it spread around the globe, first as TPS, and later as Lean. It has also spread into many areas of business beyond manufacturing, including health care, finance, and supply chain management. So what does it mean in Lean language to make a business process more effi-cient? Lean focuses on waste and strives to eliminate as much of it as possible from the process being improved. Waste is classified somewhat rigorously as falling into several categories that we describe shortly. A Lean team looks for waste in all of these categories and systematically proceeds to reduce it. Rarely, if ever, can all the waste be eliminated, but the more you can remove, the better the process will behave. The Lean philosophy that drives the definition of what waste is is called value. Every process consists of a group of operations, or process steps, that are arranged in some fashion so as to turn process inputs into process outputs. There are many process steps in most business processes, but only some of them add value. Value is defined as changing the input to the process step in such a way that the end customer, if they were paying for what you do in an “a la carte” fashion, would agree to pay for what that step does.
eBook - PDFManufacturing Handbook of Best Practices
An Innovation, Productivity, and Quality Focus
- Jack B. ReVelle(Author)
- 2001(Publication Date)
- CRC Press(Publisher)
169 1-57444-300-3/02/$0.00+$1.50 © 2002 by CRC Press LLC 8 Lean Manufacturing Adi Choudri The term “lean” has been coined relatively recently to summarize Japanese manu-facturing philosophy, especially as exemplified by the Toyota system. Lean practices have appeared in other forms such as “just-in time” manufacturing, and “synchro-nous” or “quick response” manufacturing in the sense that the underlying concepts are the same. The survival of an organization, whether profit or nonprofit, manufac-turing or service oriented, may ultimately depend on its ability to systematically and continuously eliminate waste and add value to its products from its customers’ perspective. Interestingly, lean practices in their simplest form are founded on common sense, and most of them are not even proprietary to any company. The business objective of lean is to make high-quality products at a lower cost with speed and agility (Figure 8.1). This can certainly lead to an expanded customer base, greater business and employment stability, and increased shareholder value. Because we are not talking about a magical approach here, this generally means that the relative success of lean manufacturing in a specific setting depends on how well the cultural, behavioral, and strategic aspects of the corporate entity were addressed during the lean journey. This also means that the vigor and sincerity of people, both hands-on and off-the-floor, will drive and guide the success of the lean approach. Lean practices are designed to eliminate waste and enhance the value of the company’s products to its customers. Lean businesses compete by creating temporary cost, quality, and speed advantages in focused business areas, but they cannot remain stagnant and rest on their laurels because, as mentioned before, these practices can and will be used by competitors probably with lessons learned.
eBook - PDFThe Power of Ideas to Transform Healthcare
Engaging Staff by Building Daily Lean Management Systems
- Steve Hoeft, Robert W. Pryor MD(Authors)
- 2017(Publication Date)
- Productivity Press(Publisher)
Since Jim’s book, Lean has been commonly used to describe the principles and practices of the Toyota Production System. Lean Production . The authors like one of these words for health-care, but it is not what you think. They like the word production for health care. They believe every individual produces something of value for patients or internal customers. A research worker produces valu-able research and information for an internal department. A nurse pro-duces something as small as patient comfort and as large as life-saving interventions. The word they do not like is Lean . If you listen to workers from the auto industry or from any of the rust belt states, Lean somehow equates to lay-offs, downsizing, outsourcing, or at least, working harder. If you ever hear a CEO or a leader say, “We need to get lean around here; need to do a little belt-tightening,” what is that code word for? That’s right, it usually means lay-offs, downsizing, outsourcing, and working harder. However, visit a Toyota facility. Ask them about layoffs. So, what is Lean Production? Lean Production, as used throughout this book, follows the increasing body of knowledge and way of thinking called the Toyota Production System. TPS at its core seeks to eliminate waste to optimize value. Lean thinking then is using TPS principles to rethink your entire business. In this book, TPS, Lean and Lean thinking are used in syn-onymous ways. Philosophy ◾ 67 Philosophy—Inclusiveness Good ideas are borne, not by suppression but by inclusion. —State Rep. Roland Gutierrez, Texas Why do leaders often throw out the baby with the bathwater when it comes to change efforts? The authors think some blame lies with con-sultants, or as they call them, insultants (spelling correct). When consul-tants “sell” services to a leader, they need to make their services seem unique or different. This requires, delicately, challenging prior change efforts at the “prospect” organization.
eBook - PDFValue Stream Management
Eight Steps to Planning, Mapping, and Sustaining Lean Improvements
- Don Tapping(Author)
- 2002(Publication Date)
- Productivity Press(Publisher)
JIT (Continuous Flow Production) The first Toyota Production System pillar represents just-in-time (JIT) production. JIT is synonymous with continuous flow production, the goal of which is to provide every cus-tomer with the highest quality products while meeting highly specific order and delivery requirements: • only those units ordered; • just when they are needed; and • in the exact amount needed. Key Concepts of Lean 43 Figure 3-3. The Toyota Production System Goal: Eliminate waste to achieve the highest quality, lowest cost, and shortest lead time Heijunka Kaizen Standardized work Stability People and Kaizen At Toyota, employees are encouraged to make positive contributions toward improving their own work areas. Through kaizen events, teams meet for a short period to analyze conditions, recommend improvements, and implement them. The word kaizen comes from the Japanese characters “kai,” or take apart, and “zen,” or make good. Toyota is best known for the many informal kaizen ideas gen-erated each day. As people at your site learn about and apply lean tools and concepts, their increased knowledge and awareness will result in increasing returns in the ongoing effort to eliminate waste from your manufacturing and business processes. This encompasses not only finished goods, but all material delivered to the next user or “internal customer” throughout the value stream. The ideal state of continuous flow is characterized by the ability to replenish a single part that has been “pulled” by the cus-tomer. This ideal state is also referred to as one-piece flow . For JIT to function seamlessly, tools such as value stream mapping, takt time, standard-ized work, kanban, and a supermarket pull system must be present. This chapter describes each method, roughly in their order of use.
eBook - PDF- Rich Charron, H. James Harrington, Frank Voehl, Hal Wiggin(Authors)
- 2014(Publication Date)
- Productivity Press(Publisher)
† Ibid. Lean Thinking 101 • 315 major components of a complete just-in-time production system. In pull production, a downstream operation, whether within the same facility or in a separate facility, provides information to the upstream operation, often via a Kanban card, about what part or material is needed, the quantity needed, and when and where it is needed. Nothing is produced by the upstream supplier process until the downstream customer process signals a need. This is the oppo-site of push production.” * Continuous Flow: “Producing and moving one item at a time (or a small and consistent batch of items) through a series of processing steps as continuously as possible, with each step making just what is requested by the next step. Continuous flow can be achieved in a number of ways, ranging from moving assembly lines to manual cells. It also is called one-piece flow, single-piece flow, and make one, move one.” † Perfection: “When a process provides pure value, as defined by the cus-tomer, with no waste of any sort.” ‡ Dreaming about Perfection It is easy to talk about perfection. But what does perfection look like? What common set of activities drive the dreams about how we would operate if we were truly Lean … to make them become a reality? Not just by imple-menting various tools and techniques but by truly revolutionizing them from the perspective of the customer. This will really drive home what breakthrough concepts or paradigm shifts look like. Apple and Perfection Is Apple perfect? Probably not. However, Apple epitomizes a critical aspect of Lean thinking by creating product flexibility to meet customer demand or more importantly the customers rapidly changing idea of value. Apple’s iPhone and iPad, for example, may represent the ultimate in flexibility to customers’ as yet unknown idea of value. Hundreds, perhaps thousands of * Ibid. † Ibid. ‡ Ibid.
eBook - PDF- Roberta S. Russell, Bernard W. Taylor(Authors)
- 2023(Publication Date)
- Wiley(Publisher)
Time, as well as cost, is reduced in a lean supply chain; however, if suppliers are located a long distance from each other (say, across the globe) it can be more difficult to coordinate production and maintain stable predictable supply. Distance and reliability were very real problems during the COVID pandemic, as were high and unpredictable demand patterns. Outsourcing great distances lengthen supply chain time and make it more difficult not only to coordinate suppliers but also to ensure their commitment to lean goals. In response, some companies are nearshoring products that have volatile demand. Nike, for example, outsources the production of shoes to Asia, but locally produces personalized items such as bags. Summary of Learning Objectives Learning Objective 16.1 Explain how eliminating waste and making resources more flexible became the basis for Lean Production. Lean Production changed the face of manufacturing and transformed the global econ- omy. Originally known as just-in-time (JIT), it began at Toyota Motor Company as an effort to eliminate waste (particularly inventories) and make resources more flexible. It has since evolved into a system for the continuous improvement of all aspects of manufacturing operations. Lean Production is both a philosophy and a collection of man- agement methods and techniques. The main advantage of the sys- tem is derived from the integration of the techniques into a focused, smooth-running management system. Learning Objective 16.2 Smooth the flow of production by designing a pull system with kanbans, small lots, quick setups, and mixed model schedul- ing. Smoothing the flow of work is a key element of lean.
eBook - PDF- Mike Elbert(Author)
- 2018(Publication Date)
- Productivity Press(Publisher)
Concerning Elimination of Waste Whenever you are considering eliminating waste, you must also consider improving efficiency: 1. Improving efficiency makes sense only when it is tied to cost reduction. 2. Look at the efficiency of each operator and each line. Then look at the operators as a group, and then at the efficiency of the entire plant (all lines) (Ohno, 1988). When you look at your plant as an entire system, it is very easy to find cost reductions and improve efficiencies. Fundamentals of Lean Manufacturing The fundamental principles of Lean were developed as a way for Toyota to catch up with American automobile manufacturers after World War II. These 12 ◾ Lean Production for the Small Compan fundamentals have proven to be a sound business model, one that is unsur- passed at this time. The fundamentals are very simple and should be easy to follow: ◾ Production leveling: Level load the production line so that everyone is equally busy from workstation to workstation, from the beginning of the production line to the end, with all supporting lines equally bal- anced to support the main line. ◾ Production flow: Rearrange your factory into work cells and then pro- duction lines based on value streams. ◾ Cost reduction: Continuous improvement, rapid continuous improve- ment, and numerous other terms all relate to the same thing: the con- tinuous elimination of waste in a company’s systems. ◾ Just-in-time: Build what you need when you need it. Do not build to store in WIP (work in process) or finished goods inventory. If a com- pany can achieve this ideal level of production, the end result will be zero inventory levels. Although few, if any, companies ever achieve this level, it is the ultimate goal. Think what your company might be like if you achieved this ideal state. You would save significant factory square footage, excellent inventory turns, and, as a result of the inven- tory turns, reduced inventory carrying costs.
eBook - PDF- Jack R. Meredith, Scott M. Shafer(Authors)
- 2014(Publication Date)
- Wiley(Publisher)
With our comparison of traditional and lean organizations complete, we now turn our attention to the five principles of lean and discuss each in more detail. This dis- cussion will include an overview of representative tools and methodologies com- monly used to support each principle. S P E C I F Y V A L U E At the heart of lean is the concept of value. While producers and service providers seek to create value for their customers, it is important to recognize that value is ultimately defined by the customer. Thus, one way to define value is to consider what and how much a customer is willing to pay for a particular product or service. Of course, related to how much a customer is willing to pay for a product or service is the strength of the customer’s desires and needs, and the variety of options available to satisfy these needs. Alternatively, another common definition of value is that it is the opposite of waste, or muda. Waste can be defined as those activities that consume resources but from the customer’s perspective create no value. From this perspective, waste is often classified into one of the following seven categories: 1. Overproduction. Overproduction means creating more of an output than is needed at a particular point in time. Producing more than is needed creates the need for additional space to store the surplus, requires purchas- ing more raw materials than were needed, and often has a detrimental effect on profit margins as the surplus may need to be disposed of at dis- tressed prices. 2. Inventory. Inventory takes a variety of forms, including raw materials, work- in-process, and finished goods. It requires space for its storage, leading to lease and utility expenses. Furthermore, the inventory must be insured, han- dled, financed, and tracked, further increasing the cost of holding it. However, despite all these efforts, some portion of inventory will tend to get damaged, some may become obsolete, and some may even be stolen.
eBook - PDFSelecting the Right Manufacturing Improvement Tools
What Tool? When?
- Ron Moore(Author)
- 2011(Publication Date)
- Butterworth-Heinemann(Publisher)
Processes: Eliminate Waste The next layer in Liker’s 4-P pyramid calls for managers to under-stand all of their processes, not just the ones related directly to pro-duction. Here, the focus is to eliminate all forms of waste. Waste is 144 S e l e c t i n g t h e R i g h t M a n u fac t u r i n g I m p rov e m e n t defined as anything that adds cost, but does not add value. Examples of waste include the following areas: ■ Excess inventory ■ Overproduction: in excess of customer or downstream demand ■ Motion, movement, and transportation of inventory ■ Processing or cycle times ■ Unnecessary waiting, motion, movement, and checking ■ Defects, rework, rejects, and scrap And, as Liker appropriately points out: ■ Unused employee creativity is a huge waste According to Liker, the concepts supporting the elimination of waste are numerous: ■ Create a smooth “flow” of production to surface problems: reduce the variability of your processes ■ Level out the workload ■ Use pull systems to avoid overproduction: make products based on customer demand at your takt time—the pace at which the plant operates to just meet market demand (and no more) ■ Stop when there is a quality problem ■ Standardize tasks for continuous improvement (standard work and innovation are two sides of the same coin—standardize, then improve/innovate; standardize, then improve/innovate in one continuing effort) ■ Use visual controls so no problems are hidden ■ Use only reliable, thoroughly tested technology A key tool for understanding your processes is to do value stream map-ping for each of your product lines. In this process you symbolically “bolt L e a n M a n u fac t u r i n g 145 yourself” to a chunk of raw material and follow it from raw material to finished goods delivered to the customer. Along the way you look for non-value add activities (activities that add cost, but do not add value). You then work to remove non-value adding activities, and add more value adding activities.
eBook - PDF- Kakuro Amasaka(Author)
- 2014(Publication Date)
- Productivity Press(Publisher)
First, the fundamental principle of JIT production is to manufacture only what can be sold, when it can be sold, in the quantity that can be sold. To accomplish this, it is essential to establish a flexible production system that will produce and transport only what is needed, when it is needed, in the quantity that is needed, as a rational production measure. Second, as a production mechanism that will realize the conditions listed above, it is important to incorporate production leveling, shortening of the production lead time, and a pull system into the process planning and design. Third, with a view to reasonably carrying out the above, it is vital to always use signboards, facilitate small batch conveyance to raise precision, promote the flow of the production process, determine the takt time according to the needed volume, and then strictly adhere to these measures. Fourth, it is imperative to reinforce the capabilities of the production site and to advance JIT production by actively developing new production technologies that will solve the bottleneck technological problems in production and substantially improve the quality and productivity of the production site. Having said this, the following is an explanation of a small part of a QCD research activity that was promoted by the white-collar engineering staff (or Basics of JIT: The Toyota Production System ◾ 19 engineers and managers responsible for manufacturing technology, production engineering development, process planning, process designing, and production management) that contributed to innovation of the production process. Figure 3.5 shows an example of a process improvement for a layout that facili-tates the incorporation of quality by implementing a countermeasure for the “outly-ing island” layout (Amasaka and Kamio, 1985).
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