ME334: Metrology and Quality

Assurance
Lecture # 03
What is Lean?
 Lean?
• Lean means creating more value for customers with fewer
resources.
• Lean is minimizing the waste, thereby improving the value.
• Waste is defined as any extra time, labor, capital, space,
facilities, or material that does not add value to the product or
service for the customer.
• Value-added activity is one that must transform the product or
service; have a customer who is willing to pay for it and be
produced correctly the first time.
 Lean?
This concept embodies a set of principles, tools, and application
methodologies that enable organizations to achieve dramatic
competitive advantages in development, cost, quality, and
delivery performance.

It is not a tactic or a cost reduction

program, but a way of thinking and acting
for an entire organization.
 Lean Principles
1. Specify value from the standpoint of the end customer
by product family.
2. Identify all the steps in the value stream for each
product family, eliminating whenever possible those steps
that do not create value.
3. Make the value-creating steps occur in tight sequence
so the product will flow smoothly toward the customer.
4. As flow is introduced, let customers pull value from the
next upstream activity.
5. As value is specified, value streams are identified,
wasted steps are removed, and flow and pull are
introduced, begin the process again and continue it until a
state of perfection is reached in which perfect value is
created with no waste.
 Lean Fundamentals
The basics of lean are:

• Types of waste, categories of waste

• Workplace organization
• Inventory control
• Visual management
• Kaizen
• Concept of flow
• Value stream
Types and Categories of Waste
 Workplace Organization
In order to establish an effective product or service flow, the workplace must be
organized using the 5S’s system.

Note that many

organizations add a
sixth S, which is safety
5S
 Inventory Control
• All products and/or materials in store for any duration, outside or inside the factory.
In lean management, inventory is a sign of a sick organization or factory.
• Lean inventory is an organization's philosophy that means performing tasks as
cheaply and simply as possible while offering fast service and superior quality to the
customer.
• Efficient control of inventory is necessary to eliminate waste.
• Tools used for inventory control:
 Just-In-Time (JIT)
 Kanban
 Takt time
 JIT System
• JIT denotes a production system in which components and materials are
delivered just before they are needed in the production process. JIT
seeks to reduce or eliminate inventory.
• Just in time (JIT) is a well-known element of inventory control. It means
that the right material arrives at the workplace when it is needed—not
too soon and not too late—in the amount required.
• Just In Time production and the identification of the seven wastes, along
with other tools and techniques, became collectively known as the
Toyota Production System.
• Also known as pull system
 Kanban
• It is used as an enabler for JIT. In a lean enterprise, a pull signal or
kanban is used to initiate the replenishment action.
• Kanbans can be a card, container, empty space, bar code or some other
trigger.
 Takt Time
• Takt time is the maximum amount of time in which a product needs to
be produced in order to satisfy customer demand.
• If a company has a takt time of five minutes, that means every five
minutes a complete product, assembly or machine is produced off the
line because on average a customer is buying a finished product every
five minutes.

For example, a factory operates 1,000 minutes per day. Customer demand
is 500 widgets units per day.
The takt time, then, is:
1,000 / 500 = 2 minutes
 Concept of Flow
• From the time the first action begins until the product or service
reaches the end user, the flow should be continuous with minimum
variation.
• It never stops for an equipment breakdown, delays, inventory, nor any
other waste.
• In order for this utopian situation to exist, there must be one-piece
flow, which is one unit at a time rather than a number of units at one
time.
• One-piece flow means that parts are moved through operations from
step to step with no work-in-process (WIP) in between either one piece
at a time or a small batch at a time
 Value Stream
• The term value stream refers to the specific activities required to
design, order, produce, and deliver a product or service to consumers.

• It includes the flow of materials from suppliers to customers; the

transformation of the raw materials to a completed product or service;
and the required information.

• A value stream map (VSM) is used to graphically describe the sequence

and movement of the activities associated with the value stream.

• Value stream mapping & analysis is a tool that allows you to see waste,
and plan to eliminate it.
Value Stream Map Symbols
Value Stream Map
Value Stream Map Symbols