Lean manufacturing is an operational strategy oriented towards achieving the shortest possible cycle time by eliminating wastes. It is derived from the Toyota production system and its key thrust is to increase the value added work by eliminating waste and reducing incidental work. The term lean manufacturing is coined to represent half the human effort in the company, half the manufacturing space, half the investment in tools and half the engineering hours to develop a new product in half the time. These benefits can be achieved only if the concept is religiously followed in the organization. In simple lean is manufacturing without waste.

Objective of Lean

The basic objective of lean is to minimize the waste, and continuous improvement in every stage of product by utilizing minimum time and cost. Lean manufacturing focuses on reduction of all kind of waste to make continuous flow of the work, reduce the cycle time, reduce the transportation, eliminate the non value added process, reduce the motion of workers by providing proper location of tools and parts, minimize the transportation, maximize the utilization of machines and reduce the inventory in the production space.

Lean Manufacturing Concept

Lean manufacturing is the total business approach designed to identify and eliminate forms of waste in the process of producing goods, services, or combinations of both. It is a team based approach to identify and eliminate waste through continuous improvement.

Any activity that adds cost or time without value to the service we offer to our customers is called waste. Waste is any resource which does not add value to the product being manufactured

 

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The author is a lecturer at Angel College of engineering