Slide 1.

An Overview of Lean Manufacturing

Lean is a methodology to reduce waste in a manufacturing system without sacrificing productivity.
The customer defines what is of value in terms of what they would pay for the product or service.
Through lean management, what adds value becomes clear by removing or reducing everything
that doesn’t add value.
Slide 2. History of Lean Manufacturing

The idea of lean manufacturing was first championed by the Toyota Production System and called
lean in the 1990s. This coincided with the growth of Toyota from a small company to one of the
world’s most successful seller of motor vehicles. The creator of such a management scheme was
Tahiti Ono. Subsequently, an American specialist investigated the system and conceptualized it
under the name “lean manufacturing”. At first, the concept was applied primarily in the
automotive industry. Subsequently, lean manufacturing tools began to be used in health care,
utilities, services, trade, the armed forces, the general government sector and other industries.

Slide 3. How to Practice Lean Manufacturing

The general meaning of lean is that it consists of a set of tools that help to identify and eliminate
waste. That waste can be created through an overburden and unevenness in workloads. The
removal of waste from any system improves quality and production time, while reducing cost.

Some of those tools include:

 SMED (single-minute exchange of die, which is fast way to move from one manufacturing
process to another)
 Value stream mapping
 5S (a workplace organization methodology)
 Kanban boards (visualizes workflow)
 Poka-yoke (error-proofing)
 Total productive maintenance (improves integrity and quality of manufacturing process)
 Rank order clustering (production flow analysis)
 Single-point scheduling
 Redesigning working cells
 Multi-process handing
 Control charts (for checking workloads)
Another way to approach lean manufacturing is called the Toyota Way, as it was developed by the
company. Here the focus is on improving workflow to remove unevenness as opposed to
wastefulness. Kanban is essential for this type of lean management.

The goals for both approaches are the same, but the means to achieve it are slightly different. In
the Toyota Way, improving workflow is the goal, but in so doing waste is also eliminated naturally.
Proponents of this process state it takes a system-wide perspective as opposed to one solely on
waste removal.

Slide 4. Principles of Lean

Some principles that are shared by both methods of lean include:

  Pull processing
 Perfect first-time quality
 Waste minimization
 Continuous improvement
 Flexibility
 Building and maintaining a long-term relationship with suppliers (learn more about vendor
management)
 Automation
 Load leveling
 Production flow and visual control
But Toyota maintains that lean’s main thrust is not the tools, but the reduction of three types of
waste: non-value-adding work, in Japanese called muda; overburden, muri; and unevenness,
mura.

It is through these means that lean helps productivity. It simplifies operational structure to
understand, perform and manage the work environment. To do all this at the same time, Toyota
applies a mentoring methodology called Senpai and Kohai, which translates to senior and junior.
This fosters lean thinking throughout an organizational structure from the group up.

Slide 5. Types of Waste in Lean Manufacturing

Waste is not a simple concept. If approached simply, then the reduction is going to be limited. In
order for lean project management to be most effective, waste is defined in three specific ways.

 Mura: Unevenness, or waste due to fluctuations in demand. This can come from customer
requests, but it can also be due to an organization adding new services and thus additional
work.
 Muri: Overburden, or waste due to trying to do too much at once. This has to do with
resource allocation. When too few people try to do too much work, they often waste time
switching from on task to another.
 Muda: Non-value-adding work, or process waste. This waste comes as a byproduct of
something else. Think about three things: value, work that adds immediate value for a
customer; necessary waste, which are supporting activities that add value; and unnecessary
waste, activities that don’t add value. Therefore, lean maximizes value, minimizes necessary
waste and removes unnecessary waste altogether.
Slide 6. Goals and Strategy of Lean Manufacturing

Reducing or eliminating waste is essential to lean project management, but the ends that it serves
can be different depending on who is asked. Some say it is increasing company profit while others
maintain its improvements are solely to benefit the customer. Some common goals follow.

 Improve Quality: To stay competitive, companies can’t be complacent, but must meet
customers’ changing wants and needs. Therefore, processes must be designed to meet their
expectations and requirements. Adopting total quality management can make quality
improvement a priority.
 Eliminate Waste: Waste is bad for costs, deadlines and resources. It takes without adding
any value to a product or service.
 Reduce Time: Time is money, as the adage goes, and wasting time is therefore wasting
money. Reducing the time it takes to start and finish a project is going to create value by
adding efficiencies.
 Reduce Total Costs: Money is saved when a company is not wasting time, materials and
personnel on unnecessary activities. Overproduction also adds to storage and warehousing
costs. Understanding the triple constraint is the first step to understanding cost management.