A Case Study Based On Lean Thinking Principles And Techniques

Lean method produces the little goods that are definitely will sell off and these constraints production of more goods than necessary. LM working on the core principle ‘work smarter, not harder’. Lean production is aimed toward the elimination of waste in each space of production together with client relations, product style, provider networks and manufacturing plant management. Its goal is to include less human effort, less inventory, less time to develop

Countess firms have taken up lean production in their manufacturing process. This is because the process is known to have countless benefits when effectively implemented. For lean production to be effectively implemented, some principles have to be considered. These principles have been discussed in detail in this paper. The different principled in lean production as well as the different principles in effective business communication. How they are related and hence how they lead better production and hence better output from the firm.

The application and implementation of lean principles or thinking is a process that requires commitment from every stakeholder in the organization. This process entails commitment to the organization's workers and to the system itself in order to make changes towards improvement. Generally, the implementation of lean thinking is geared towards continuous improvement through the elimination of waste. However, lean management or implementation of the principles sometimes incorporate mistakes that are made by leaders in the execution process. This is mainly because lean leadership appears to be simple though its complex because of the costs associated with it. The mistakes usually occur because of intrinsic complexities of exploring deeply into organizational philosophies, business strategy, psychology, and macroeconomics.

The original principle of lean production is to identify and eliminate ‘muda’. The term of muda is a Japanese word, which means waste. Then such principle was regarded as lean. The theory of lean is considered that after eliminating waste, there is an improvement in quality and reduction of time and cost (Gershon & Rajashekharaiah, 2011). After that, lean is used to manufacturing, and adding value and fulfilling the satisfaction of customers with less waste become the core idea of lean. According to Ferguson (2006), a successful implement of lean is to lead the whole organization to enhance the value stream.

Lean Construction is inspired from the Toyota Production. Toyota production provided the Transform -Flow –Value(TFV) philosophy of production in 1950’s.(Koskela, 1992).According to this philosophy the production is not only transformation of the inputs to outputs but there exists a flow of resources and information which seeks to generate

Lean Manufacturing Systems were first introduced in Japan by the Toyota Motor Corporation. The Lean movement is a type of a system that relies on simple visual cues in order to manage production stages that are based on customer demand. The system is a is also a kind of manufacturing that put great emphasis on the minimization of resources, time included, that is utilized in various activities of manufacturing and provides techniques for uninterrupted quality improvement. Although this system has gained enormous momentum and respect over the last decades, some companies have found it difficult to use Lean Manufacturing Systems, and, as a result, the companies have ended up failing. The concept of Lean Systems is best understood when companies familiarize themselves with certain key insights that are utilized during the course of systems architecting. The article provides a synopsis of the lean and is divided into four parts that will be mainly used for the purpose of this review.

Operations and supply chain management is a concept that has flourished in domains such as manufacturing and express industry by offering a methodology to solve and relieve waste problems. There are two main approaches in operations and supply chain management: lean approach and conventional approach. In this assignment, I will compare the two approaches by summarizing their characteristics and analyzing the strengths and weaknesses of each approach. Finally, I will discuss the key problems faced by transitioning from conventional to lean approach.

Todd(2000) defines lean production as “initiative, whose goal is to shrink the waste in human effort, inventory, time to market, and manufacturing space to become highly responsive to customer demand while producing world class quality products in the most efficient and economical manner”. The Lean approach consists of several practices, which aim to improve efficiency, quality, and responsiveness to customers. Lean manufacturing is industrialized by Taiichi Ohno at Toyota Motor Company in the 1950’s (Motwani 2003). It was like “an innovation technique based on the minds and hands philosophy of the

Lean must be brought into the discussion as a possible means of supplementing and strengthening lean manufacturing in situations where its principles may fall short. In this Project we want to emphasize on three methods

Lean manufacturing is a method of reducing waste (muda) in the manufacturing system. It also considers the waste due to overload and waste dude to over burden. Lean manufacturing also best known as Toyota production system or kaizen production system. Although the Toyota production system was introduced more than a century ago it has continue to develop over time. It was practiced by the Henry Ford for the manufacturing of Ford model T which was very successful between the years 1908 to 1920 which almost sold 2 Million cars a year. Later on it was developed by the Toyota in Japan. The main idea behind the lean manufacturing is to value the customer needs by reducing the waste and achieving good products with more value by consuming less resources. Muda is defined as the material or the activity for which the customer is not willing to pay. The main task of lean manufacturing is to identify Muda and to get rid of it. These products are created by using less human effort, less space, less capital, less time to produce high quality.

Figure 1 provides a conceptual framework of lean principles across the supply chain of the enterprise thereby yielding value to the customer. Lean thinking helps in providing flexibility to the needs of the customer. Emphasis is also put on organization of workplace which leads to more simplified work environment. Ease of access in the workplace and good ergonomic designs are some of the by-products of lean thinking methodology. Lean enterprises are more adaptable to changing market trends and also provide prompt delivery to products and services. [3]

The main aim of lean manufacturing is to limit inventory, excess workers and waste. The basic principles can be broken down into five practises – value, value stream, flow, pull and perfection [1]. It is essential to map the value that the product provides to the customer. Decisions need to be well thought-out, and implementations should be rapid. It is also important to ensure that each step provides value thus maintaining the value stream. Flow recognises the processes that ensure that the movement between the value creating steps is smooth. Lean manufacturing requires the customer to pull the output from the previous step and hence avoid overproduction. Finally, the vendor needs to continually strive to improve their quality and processes. Lean manufacturing emphasises on continuous improvement in quality and work should be stopped as soon as quality starts suffering.

Article two is about Application of Kanban system for implementing lean manufacturing and it provide a background on lean manufacturing, present an overview of manufacturing wastes and introduce the tools and techniques that will help companies for future betterment . Manufacturing approach is to be on cost reduction by eliminating Non- Value added activities that the idea of lean. This paper provides an overview of implementation of lean manufacturing in Engine valve machining cell in a leading auto components manufacturing industry.

When it comes to Lean Enterprise, it focuses mainly on reducing cycle time and also waste in the process. Lean Enterprise was at first developed by Toyota Motor Corporation as the Toyota Production System which became popular after 1973. The energy crisis facilitated the increasing demand at that time. “The term ‘Lean Enterprise’ is used to broaden the scope of a Lean programme from manufacturing to embrace the enterprise or entire organization”. (Alukal, 2003)

The modern concept of lean management as used today can be traced back to the Toyota Production System (TPS). The manufacturing philosophy was pioneered by Japanese engineers to emphasize the minimization of waste and focus on “doing it right the first time” (Davis and Heineke, 2005). Engineers knew that waste was something that customers were not willing to pay for thus they should try and eliminate it. This led to the discovery that inventory is essentially waste. Keeping parts and products in stock adds no value to a company, and should be eliminated. Although lean production began in Japan, it now has been successfully implemented across the globe (Agus and Hajinoor, 2012).