Bahria University,

Islamabad Campus

Course: Fundamental of Project Management

Term: Fall 2021, Class: MSPM
Submitted by:
Farrakh Muneer
01-398212-027

Assignment # 04
Submitted to:
Ma’am Usra Umran
What is lean?

The Project Management Institute sums it up: “To be Lean is to provide what is needed,
when it is needed, with the minimum amount of materials, equipment, labor, and space.”

Lean project management is the application of lean manufacturing principles to the practice of
project management. The goal of lean project management is to maximize value while
minimizing waste. Lean manufacturing principles were developed by Toyota in the 1950s and
applied in the 1970s to combat the energy crisis. The term “lean” was coined in the late 1980s.
The Project Management Institute sums it up: “To be Lean is to provide what is needed, when
it is needed, with the minimum number of materials, equipment, labor, and space.”

Lean Manufacturing: -

Lean manufacturing identifies three types of waste: muda, muri, and mura (known collectively
as the 3M).

 Muda refers to activities that consume resources without providing additional value
 Muri refers to the overuse of equipment or employees
 Mura is operational “unevenness,” which decreases efficiency and productivity in the
long term

Lean project management aims to reduce the 3M within the project process.

Lean production is an approach to management that focuses on cutting out waste, whilst
ensuring quality. This approach can be applied to all aspects of a business – from design,
through production to distribution.

Lean production aims to cut costs by making the business more efficient and responsive to
market needs.

This approach sets out to cut out or minimise activities that do not add value to the
production process, such as holding of stock, repairing faulty product and unnecessary
movement of people and product around the business.

Lean production originated in the manufacturing plants of Japan, but has now been adopted
well beyond large and sophisticated manufacturing activities.

The lean approach to managing operations is really about:

 Doing the simple things well

 Doing things better
  Involving employees in the continuous process of improvement and as a result,
avoiding waste

The concept of lean production is an incredibly powerful one for any business that wants to
become and/or remain competitive.

Why? Because waste = cost

Less waste therefore means lower costs, which is an essential part of any business being
competitive.

Over-production: making more than is needed – leads to excess stocks

Waiting time: equipment and people standing idle waiting for a production process to be
completed or resources to arrive

Transport: moving resources (people, materials) around unnecessarily

Stocks: often held as an acceptable buffer, but should not be excessive

Motion: a worker who appears busy but is not actually adding any value

Defects: output that does not reach the required quality standard – often a significant cost to
an uncompetitive business

The pioneering work of Toyota (a leader in lean production) identified different kinds of
waste which can be applied to any business operation. These are:The key aspects of lean
production that you should be aware of are:

 Time based management

 Simultaneous engineering
 Just in time production (JIT)
 Cell production
 Kaizen (Continuous improvement)
 Quality improvement and management

What are the benefits of lean project management?

Organizations that use lean project management can expect:

 Reduced lead times

 Lower inventory and storage costs
 Decreased overall costs
 Improved productivity and efficiency
 Greater quality
 Higher customer satisfaction
The five key principles of lean project management

First published in 1996, the book Lean Thinking by James P. Womack and Daniel T. Jones
introduced five key principles that can be used to apply the lean concept to project management.

1. Specify value: What is the project’s

value in the mind of the customer?
2. Map the value stream: A “value
stream” map shows the entire process
for creating the product or project.
Once this process is mapped, it can be
analyzed for waste, such as
unnecessary steps that tax resources or compromise quality.
3. Make value flow by eliminating waste: Creating an improvement plan will eliminate
the waste identified in the value stream. This plan represents a “future state” for the
project’s process.
4. Make value flow at the customer’s demand: The ideal scenario is to move the project
forward or create the product when requested by the customer. Get as close to this as
possible to reduce inventory and save resources.
5. Embrace continuous improvement in pursuit of perfection: Regularly reassess the
project process to eliminate waste and maximizing productivity and efficiency.