Abstract

Lean manufacturing is an operational strategy orientedtowards achieving the shortest possible cycle time by eliminating wastes. It isderived from the Toyota production system and its key thrust is to increase thevalue added work by eliminating waste and reducing incidental work. The termlean manufacturing is coined to represent half the human effort in the company,half the manufacturing space, half the investment in tools and half theengineering hours to develop a new product in half the time. These benefits canbe achieved only if the concept is religiously followed in the organization. Insimple lean is manufacturing without waste.


This article highlights the Lean manufacturing;which is a variation on the theme of efficiency based on optimizing flow; it isa present-day instance of the recurring theme in human history towardsincreasing efficiency, decreasing waste, and using empirical methods to decidewhat matters, rather than uncritically accepting pre-existing ideas. It is anarticle deals with the Lean manufacturing tools and techniques. Theimplementing lean manufacturing in India and its benefits are discussed.

What Is Lean Manufacturing?

Lean manufacturing is a philosophy pioneered by ToyotaMotors (and codified by James P. Womaks The Machine that Changed the World:The Story of Lean Production), based on the planned elimination of all waste,the continuous improvement of productivity, and an ongoing focus on customervalue. It covers a wide variety of operations for reducing waste, increasingproductivity and cutting cost. The emphasis in lean manufacturing isutilization of lesser resources to produce the same goods. Lean systembasically aims at half the hours of engineering effort, half the productdevelopment time, half the investment in machinery, half the hours of humaneffort in the factory, half the factory space for the same output, half the defects in the finished product,increased capacity or throughput.


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About the authors:


Ashutosh Tiwari is studying M.F.Tech. (First Year) from NIFT Bangalore and Shilpa G.Wanjari is a Textile Engg. (Fourth Year) student at College Of Engg. & Tech. Akola, Maharastra.