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The Modern Concept Of Lean Management

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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). The integrated activity, know as lean production in supply chain management, is designed to achieve high-volume flexible production using very minimal inventories of raw materials. This is based on the idea that nothing will be produced until it is need. The process is implemented throughout the supply chain with the signal essentially moving backwards from the customer all the way back to raw materials. Lean production is an entire new way of thinking which includes the integration of vision, culture, and strategy to serve the customer with high quality, low cost, and short delivery times (Shook and Womack, 2015). Lean production is generally described from two points of view, either from a philosophical perspective related to guiding principles and overarching goals, or from the practical

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