How lean manufacturing can improve business performance?
This website requires certain cookies to work and uses other cookies to help you have the best experience. By visiting this website, certain cookies have already been set, which you may delete and block. By closing this message or continuing to use our site, you agree to the use of cookies. Visit our updated privacy and cookie policy to learn more. Show By closing this message or continuing to use our site, you agree to our cookie policy. Learn More This website requires certain cookies to work and uses other cookies to help you have the best experience. By visiting this website, certain cookies have already been set, which you may delete and block. By closing this message or continuing to use our site, you agree to the use of cookies. Visit our updated privacy and cookie policy to learn more. Industry NewsMore than an automation and engineering provider, CIMTEC is a partner in your company's long-term success. The expertise of our staff has created a knowledge base and a level of service unmatched in the industrial automation market. See how we can help you select and apply the products that reduce risk and increase productivity. View All News > Maximizing Value, Minimizing Cost - How Lean Manufacturing Improves Production Efficiency Lean manufacturing is a concept that has been embraced by production facilities around the world to improve production efficiencies and therefore reduce customer costs. Many of the lean manufacturing processes look at how manufacturing operations are performed and determine how they can be optimized. As lean manufacturing can lead to reduced production costs and improved quality, many large and small manufacturing facilities have embraced the concept. What is Lean Manufacturing? At its simplest, lean manufacturing is a way of thinking and developing manufacturing processes to minimize inefficiencies in production and waste in resources. The four goals of lean manufacturing are: 1. Improve Product and Process Quality By improving quality, fewer defective products are produced, minimizing waste, and therefore reducing costs. By reducing production times, labor and facility costs per part are reduced. Large manufacturers, such as Toyota's automobile manufacturing facilities, as well as smaller manufacturers, such as refrigeration equipment manufacturer Hussmann Corporation, rely on lean manufacturing to improve their quality and reduce costs. Pioneers of Lean Manufacturing The premises of personal and production efficiency have been practiced for centuries. Henry Ford was one of the first to apply these principles to manufacturing lines. However, the true forerunner to lean manufacturing was the Toyota Production System (TPS), pioneered by Taiichi Ohno, Shigeo Shingo and Eiji Toyoda. TPS, also known as "just-in-time production", was conceived after a trip to America to view the Ford assembly lines. The Japanese were not impressed with the inefficiencies of the Ford lines, particularly the uneven workloads, large amount of stored inventories, and large amounts of rework that were often required. However, after visiting a local supermarket, and learning how the supermarket maintains its inventory by only replacing items that are purchased, the Toyota team adapted this concept to automobile manufacturing and their relationships with suppliers. The term "lean manufacturing" was first used by John Krafcik in the 1988 article, "Triumph of the Lean Production System," in the Sloan Management Review. Krafcik had been employed in a California Toyota production facility prior to attending graduate school at MIT, and based his thesis on the processes implemented at that plant. Lean manufacturing is often most closely associated with automobile manufacturing. However, just about every large volume production facility in every industry uses lean manufacturing concepts, and even smaller volume production facilities implement many lean manufacturing processes to help reduce production costs. Lean Manufacturing Tools A variety of tools and evaluation processes have been developed to help organizations identify areas of inefficiencies and improve their manufacturing processes. Some of these tools include:
Benefits of Lean Manufacturing to Today's Companies One of the premises of lean manufacturing is continuous improvement. This means that companies continue to examine their processes and strive for improvements in efficiency. By refusing to stagnate, companies continue to innovate and move forward while providing improved value and reduced costs for their customers. Over the last few years, the concepts of lean manufacturing have been embraced by environmental and conservation proponents, because of the goal of minimizing waste. Facilities are now examining how their business impacts the environment, and are finding in many cases that reducing waste actually benefits the environment. Reduction in water usage and electric power not only save the company money, but reduce the impact on public resources. Download PDF (115K) How lean manufacturing principles can improve business performance?Lean manufacturing improves efficiency, reduces waste, and increases productivity. The benefits, therefore, are manifold: Increased product quality: Improved efficiency frees up employees and resources for innovation and quality control that would have previously been wasted.
How lean management can improve business?Increased Productivity: Lean manufacturing frees up the workers from performing wasteful processes. Now they can focus on the processes that matter. Decreased Inventory Costs: Lean processes focus on keeping inventory only to those levels that are needed and not overstocking the inventory.
How does lean production improve productivity?How does lean production improve efficiency? Lean production focuses on stripping waste out of business processes and flowing product or information through faster with less waiting and holds ups. By removing this waste, you can get more done with no or little extra people and resource, thus improving efficiency.
What is Lean methodology for performance improvement?Essentially, lean is a continuous improvement and employee engagement program, combined into one. The goal is to maximize customer value while minimizing waste for the products and services that an organization provides to their customers and stakeholders.
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