Abstract

Manufacturers are now a days facing intensive global competition. They are becoming increasingly aware of the importance of modern management philosophy in providing them with a competitive advantage in a free market system. Now the key to competing in the international market place is to simultaneously improve both quality and productivity on continual basis. The major purposes of the use of lean production are to increase productivity, improve product quality and manufacturing cycle time, reduce inventory, reduce lead time and eliminate manufacturing waste. To achieve these, the lean production philosophy uses several concepts like Kaizen, Kanban, 5s, OEE, JIT etc. This paper clearly explains the lean concepts, its principle, importance and benefits. A clear study of different lean tools has been depicted. This paper also addresses the approaches to implement lean practices in apparel industry.


Lean Manufacturing


Lean Manufacturing is a systematic approach for achieving the shortest possible cycle time by eliminating the process waste through continuous improvement. Thus making the operation very efficient and only consisting of value adding steps from start to finish. In simple words lean is manufacturing without waste.



Read Full Article



The authors are associated with the Department of Fashion Technology, Kumaraguru College of Technology, Coimbatore.