Premium Essay

Top 5 Benefits of Lean Manufacturing

In:

Submitted By sunnycao
Words 463
Pages 2
Top 5 Benefits of Lean Manufacturing
Jingchen Cao
Oct, 4th 2014

Lean manufacturing is a management philosophy whose goal is to remove wastes and achieve perfection through kaizen with a set of lean principles and tools. The birth of lean was in Japan in Toyota around 1940s. It has many tools or techniques including Kanban, 5S, Value Stream Mapping, JIT and so on. This article will introduce you to the top 5 benefits that you should know your company is considering implementing lean manufacturing.

1. Eliminate wastes
Generally, lean thinking considers 7 major forms of waste including overproduction waste, waiting time waste, transportation waste, processing waste, inventory waste, motion waste and defects waste. Lean manufacturing is an effective way for companies to investigate wastes and remove them. Then companies will abolish time spend on non value-added activities.

Source: Lean Operations Handouts

2. Save Time
It is true that less inventory leads shorter lead-time. Lean manufacturing generates fewer inventories and less non value-added tasks, so the lead-time will be reduced correspondingly. Furthermore, employees will work more efficiently and save more time due to implementing lean manufacturing. Standard operation process in lean manufacturing guarantees employee fewer mistakes and higher efficiency.

3. Control Quality
One lean manufacturing tool is single-piece flow, which suggests working on one product at a time instead of batching and lot production.
Figure 3.1 is the traditional shop floor and Figure 3.2 is single-piece flow.

Figure 3.1

Figure 3.2

Source: QualityInspection.org (http://qualityinspection.org/14-quality/)

Single-piece flow ensures less opportunity to quality defects due to single batch size. Employees can inspect or test finished products as long as it is launched. Furthermore, it is much easier to

Similar Documents

Premium Essay

Systematic Review

...Journal A systematic review of Lean Six Sigma for the manufacturing industry Saja Ahmed Albliwi Jiju Antony Sarina Abdul halim Lim Article information: Downloaded by North South University At 22:57 26 January 2016 (PT) To cite this document: Saja Ahmed Albliwi Jiju Antony Sarina Abdul halim Lim , (2015),"A systematic review of Lean Six Sigma for the manufacturing industry", Business Process Management Journal, Vol. 21 Iss 3 pp. 665 - 691 Permanent link to this document: http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/BPMJ-03-2014-0019 Downloaded on: 26 January 2016, At: 22:57 (PT) References: this document contains references to 63 other documents. To copy this document: permissions@emeraldinsight.com The fulltext of this document has been downloaded 961 times since 2015* Users who downloaded this article also downloaded: Saja Albliwi, Jiju Antony, Sarina Abdul Halim Lim, Ton van der Wiele, (2014),"Critical failure factors of Lean Six Sigma: a systematic literature review", International Journal of Quality & Reliability Management, Vol. 31 Iss 9 pp. 1012-1030 http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/IJQRM-09-2013-0147 M.P.J. Pepper, T.A. Spedding, (2010),"The evolution of lean Six Sigma", International Journal of Quality & Reliability Management, Vol. 27 Iss 2 pp. 138-155 http:// dx.doi.org/10.1108/02656711011014276 Diego Pacheco, Isaac Pergher, Guilherme Luís Roehe Vaccaro, Carlos Fernando Jung, Carla ten Caten, (2015),"18 comparative aspects between Lean and Six Sigma: Complementarity ...

Words: 13381 - Pages: 54

Premium Essay

Lean

...LEAN Principles in Today’s Manufacturing World Cock Sucking Strohm BUS 520: Leadership and Organizational Behavior Dr. Laura Jones Embry Riddle Aeronautical University Worldwide October 05, 2015 LEAN Principles in Today’s Manufacturing World LEAN is an innovative way of manufacturing that was first developed in a standardized manner by Henry Ford in 1913. When the automobile industry became large enough for the need to streamline the manufacturing process, Henry Ford took the lead and laid out steps in a process with the use of special-purpose machines and equipment. This standardized work and process became what was known as an assembly line. Henry Ford called this flow production. However, the innovation of Mr. Ford’s flow production was flawed. His system was only suited for one type of automobile with no variations except at the end of manufacturing offered by third party vendors (A Brief History of LEAN, 2015). When the World market wanted variety, other automobile manufacturers began to look for ways to improve on Henry Ford’s flow production system. One of the first to improve, modify, and fine tune the flow production system was Mr. Kiichiro Toyoda and a team of engineers at the Toyota plant. Mr. Toyoda realized that developing machining techniques to meet actual demand and to make those machines capable of being altered to develop different parts when needed was the next step in the flow production vision. This was the beginning of the Toyota Production System...

Words: 1625 - Pages: 7

Premium Essay

Art Research Paper

...challenges of lean applications in SMEs Written by Sundara Pavan Kumar Raavi Department of Industrial Management University of Central Missouri Submitted to Ms. M. Joleen Byerline Department of Industrial Management UNIVERSITY OF CENTRAL MISSOURI Abstract The prime objective of this paper is to find out the lean manufacturing adaptation hurdles in SMEs. In this study, a few SMEs are consider for experimental study and we can understand the overall idea about the ideology of SMEs functioning. Lean manufacturing is based on the principle of getting the same result with less human interference as well as less machine and material involvement. The scope of lean implementation is not only restricted to automotive industry but also has recognition in manufacturing industries in US. The in information in this study is collect from the professionals who have implemented and those who did not implemented the lean manufacturing tools in business. The research speaks some of the barriers, which came across while adopting manufacturing technique. Keywords: SMEs, Lean-manufacturing implementation, General view about Lean, Productivity...

Words: 3926 - Pages: 16

Premium Essay

Lean Thinking

...The Lean Enterprise System, Total Quality Management, Six Sigma And Related Enterprise Process Improvement Methods Kirkor Bozdogan Center for Technology, Policy and Industrial Development Massachusetts Institute of Technology Cambridge, MA USA 02139 Tel. 617 253-8540 bozdogan mit.edu ESD-WP-2010-05 August 2010 esd.mit.edu/wps ESD Working Paper Series Towards An Integration Of The Lean Enterprise System, Total Quality Management, Six Sigma And Related Enterprise Process Improvement Methods Kirkor Bozdogan Center for Technology, Policy and Industrial Development Massachusetts Institute of Technology Cambridge, MA USA 02139 Tel. 617 253-8540 bozdogan mit.edu ESD-WP-2010-05 August 2010 esd.mit.edu/wps TOWARDS AN INTEGRATION OF THE LEAN ENTERPRISE SYSTEM, TOTAL QUALITY MANAGEMENT, SIX SIGMA AND RELATED + ENTERPRISE PROCESS IMPROVEMENT METHODS Kirkor Bozdogan # Center for Technology, Policy and Industrial Development, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA USA 02139 August 5, 2010 Key Words: Lean manufacturing; just-in-time-production (JIT); Toyota Production System (TPS); lean enterprise system; total quality management (TQM); six sigma; lean six sigma; theory of constraints (TOC); agile manufacturing; business process reengineering (BPR); enterprise change and transformation; evidence-based management practices Abstract: The lean enterprise system, total quality management, six sigma, theory of constraints, agile manufacturing, and...

Words: 10496 - Pages: 42

Premium Essay

Lean

...MSRSAS - Postgraduate Engineering and Management Programme - PEMP Module Code Module Name Course Department EMM515 Lean Operations and Management of Lean Organizations M.Sc. in Engineering and Manufacturing Management Mechanical and Manufacturing Engg . Name of the Student Reg. No Batch Module Leader Liju G BUB0912004 Full-Time 2012. SANDEEP. N M.S.Ramaiah School of Advanced Studies Postgraduate Engineering and Management Programmes(PEMP) #470-P, Peenya Industrial Area, 4th Phase, Peenya, Bengaluru-560 058 Tel; 080 4906 5555, website: www.msrsas.org POSTGRADUATE ENGINEERING AND MANAGEMENT PROGRAMME – (PEMP) ASSIGNMENT i Declaration Sheet Student Name Reg. No Course Batch Module Code Module Title Module Date Module Leader LIJU G BUB0912004 EMM Full-Time 2012 EMM515 Lean Operations and Management of Lean Organization 13-05-2013 SANDEEP. N to 15-06-2013 Batch Full-Time 2012 . Declaration The assignment submitted herewith is a result of my own investigations and that I have conformed to the guidelines against plagiarism as laid out in the PEMP Student Handbook. All sections of the text and results, which have been obtained from other sources, are fully referenced. I understand that cheating and plagiarism constitute a breach of University regulations and will be dealt with accordingly. Signature of the student Submission date stamp (by ARO) Date 15-06-2013 Signature of the Module Leader and date Signature of Head of the Department...

Words: 9715 - Pages: 39

Premium Essay

Lean and Six Sigma

...With the changes in the global market scenario and the increasing competition, the manufacturing organizations face a constant need for improvement. The manufacturing paradigm has shifted from craft manufacturing to mass production and more recently to a newer approach – the lean manufacturing. In mass production, large quantities of the product were produced and the focus was more on quantity than quality. But with the increase in competition and the gradual saturation of the market the need to develop a new paradigm that focuses more on the process i.e., improved quality, delivery and cost performance has emerged. This has led to the introduction of Lean Manufacturing which focuses on waste elimination and creation of flow within an organization. In the words of Shigeo Shingo “The most dangerous kind of waste is the waste we do not recognize.” Lean and six-sigma are methodologies backed by powerful tools that help in improving quality and productivity thereby improving overall profitability and competitiveness. The lean philosophy was initially pioneered by Toyota manufacturing company and aims at various methods of eliminating waste and improving the process flow. Six Sigma on the other hand, focuses on reducing variation using problem solving and statistical tools. It was first implemented in the Motorola Company as a safety margin for product performance. SIX SIGMA Six Sigma is a continuous improvement strategy that focuses on minimizing defects and variation and aims...

Words: 1466 - Pages: 6

Premium Essay

Lean Production

...The term ‘lean production’ came about to describe the Toyota production system in the late 1980’s. This came to pass through a research group from MIT who over five years analysed the automotive industry in fourteen countries. It was called ‘lean manufacturing’ rather than the Toyota production system to make it easier for competitors and organizations to adopt this type of system. The concept of lean production in a manufacturing organization basically means to try and maximise the use of materials to achieve optimum customer value and at the same time reducing waste and ensuring the same standard of quality in the finished product. Reducing the resources means it will cheaper for the organization to create the product plus also for the customer to buy it. With regards to a manufacturing organization ‘lean production’ is basically a list of rules, tools and techniques which improves the organization in questions manufacturing processes. The main concept of ‘lean’ in a manufacturing organization is to reduce waste which can be broken down and understood as the seven wastes:- 1. Over-production – One of the worse types of waste which is the manufacture of the product before it is actually needed. This can create excess inventory. 2. Waiting – Time between the manufacturing processes 3. Motion – Time wasted from moving people around 4. Transport – Time wasted from the movement of materials from each manufacturing stage. 5. Inventory – Having too much stock...

Words: 1075 - Pages: 5

Premium Essay

Comparing the Quality Management Practices in Uk Smes

...Strathclyde, Glasgow, UK, and Quality management practices 1153 Received 5 May 2008 Revised 23 June 2008 Accepted 17 July 2008 Jiju Antony Centre for Research in Six Sigma and Process Excellence (CRISSPE), Strathclyde Institute for Operations Management, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, UK Abstract Purpose – The last two decades have witnessed an explosion of research into the area of quality initiatives (QI) such as ISO, total quality management, lean, Kaizen and its application within small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). However, very few empirical studies have reported the application of Six Sigma in SMEs; the reasons may be attributed to several myths associated with Six Sigma. The purpose of this paper is to assess the current status of QI in the UK manufacturing SMEs and report the differences in the quality management practices of Six Sigma SMEs against the ISO certified firms. Design/methodology/approach – A survey-based approach was adopted to understand the established quality management practices in the UK SMEs. A short survey instrument was designed by reviewing the literature on quality improvement initiatives in SMEs. A sample of 500 manufacturing SMEs across UK was selected through stratified random sampling technique. Findings – A response rate of 12.7 per cent was achieved and included respondents at senior management and middle management level across the manufacturing industry in the UK. Data analysis on the history of quality initiatives (QI)...

Words: 6237 - Pages: 25

Premium Essay

Toyota: Lean Accounting

...Toyota | | Lean Changed the Auto Industry Introduction In order for any business to succeed, the business needs a strong leader. Taiichi Ohno, Toyota’s businessperson and engineer, led the implementation of Lean during the 1950’s and 1960’s. Prior to Ohno leadership, he learned the auto industry from Toyota founder Kicchiro Toyoda. In the post World War II recession, Toyota was near bankruptcy, and workers went on strike. In 1950, Toyota began to restructure their company and settle the strike. In the settlement, Toyoda and other top executives resigned (1). After the strike, Toyota utilized Lean to save their company from bankruptcy. In the process of developing Lean, Toyota became a leader in the auto industry. They sold 10.23 million vehicles in 2014, which ranked them number one in global sales (15). The report show and pinpointed how Toyota developed and used Lean Accounting and Manufacturing to become the number one seller of automobiles. The Development of Toyota Production System Taiichi Ohno, the primary architect, and his consultant Shigeo Shingo designed the Toyota Production System (TPS). The TPS emphasizes on avoiding any waste. Toyota lacked resources to invest in new production equipment or carry inventory. The TPS concept is the anti economies of scale. Cho and Taiichi preached this concept to their employees as they transformed into a lean organization. They could only afford to purchase the exact amount of materials needed to produce...

Words: 2471 - Pages: 10

Premium Essay

Six Sigma

...Can any organization achieve six sigma levels of quality if there is strong leadership from the top, an aligned reward system, and a well trained workforce? In 1995, Jack Welch, the chairman of General Electric, proclaimed that Six Sigma1 was the most important initiative GE had ever undertaken. Six Sigma places special emphasis on the tangible cost savings achieved by minimizing waste and use of resources, while increasing customer satisfaction through the improvement of quality2. A leadership from the top, an aligned reward system and a well trained workforce are indispensable factors for achieving six sigma of quality, but there should be more aspects to be considered, such as considering all stakeholders interests, finding the “True North”3 and sparing no effort to quality improvement. Six Sigma places emphasis on the customer satisfaction, while inputs contributing to customer satisfaction are not necessarily contributing to shareholder’s interests. This inherent conflict will lead managers confused about the “True North”, which is, whether implementing six sigma levels of quality is doing the right job. The concept of enterprise can explain something about “True North”. It is just as important to serve the shareholder, the workforce, suppliers and partners4. In this case, designing the whole work process concerning about process and product management and human resource management become extensively crucial before the production implementation. Designing the work should...

Words: 619 - Pages: 3

Premium Essay

Keller Gm588 Quality Focus Paper

...------------------------------------------------- Quality Focus Paper Just-in-Time Production and Lean Manufacturing Keller Graduate School of Management Spring Semester, May 2010 Session GM588: Managing Quality (online) Instructor: Robert Lee 5 June 2010 Table of Contents I. Introduction 3 What is it? 3 Background 5 History 7 II. Literature Review 9 Significance in Practice 9 JIT and Lean Thought Processes 10 JIT & Lean Thinking – General Principles 10 Advantages/Benefits of JIT/lean 10 Major Advantages/Benefits of JIT 11 Major Advantages/Benefits of Lean Productions 11 Relevance of JIT/lean in Today’s Businesses 11 Mistakes of Implementation 13 Additional Challenges 13 III. Demonstrations and Applications in the Business World 16 Survival Strategy for Business 16 List of Companies that use JIT/lean production techniques 18 Best Practices & Successful Implementation 18 IV. Conclusion and Reflection 20 References 22 Introduction * What is it? Just-in-Time (JIT) production is a set of principles applied to manufacturing and inventory to control the purchase of materials to produce units on a need-basis. JIT is set on the philosophy that controlling raw materials purchased for production to bring them into the manufacturing process as they are needed leads to cost savings and production efficiencies. JIT focuses on realizing that holding little or no inventory has economic and quality values for the organization. Manufactures receive...

Words: 4589 - Pages: 19

Premium Essay

Lean

...SCHOOL OF BUSINESS University of Aarhus MASTER THESIS Challenges in Lean implementation Successful transformation towards Lean enterprise Ana Valentinova Kovacheva Supervisor: Ana Luiza Lara De Araújo MSc in Strategy, Organization and Leadership January 2010, Aarhus 2 Abstract The paper is based on a systematic literature review that examines how the implementation of Lean could bring value to the organization processes and contribute for achieving an operational excellence. Different organizational factors which have importance in the implementation process, are thoroughly examined. Key success factors that enhance the implementation process are identified - human resource practices, management style, organizational strategic vision, organizational culture, external partnerships. The research outlines the challenges that companies experience when they change their business model towards implementing a new to the company management system – Lean concept. For better understanding of the term the paper suggests definitions from the authors acknowledged in the field. Part of the research considers some critical points that impede the implementation of Lean. The conclusions are drawn upon considering lean as a complete business system, which change the way organization thinks in striving for a competitive advantage. Keywords: lean implementation, lean enterprise, Lean, challenges, process improvement 3 Table of Contents: Introduction...

Words: 19306 - Pages: 78

Premium Essay

Research

...ASSIGNMENT DETAILS Contents 1. Introduction: 1 2. Brief Discussion of Relevant Literature 2 3. An Exposition of the Measured Variables Looking at the questionnaire, it is divided into 3 Sections: 5 4. Frequency Tables and Descriptive Statistics of the Variables 8 5. The Profile of the respondents in terms of background variables 14 6. Specific questions relating to outcome of survey 15 7. Conclusion 18 8. List of References 20 1. Introduction: The purpose of the study, as stated is to determine the impact of the implementation of a lean programme on employee satisfaction, motivation and loyalty and to provide guidance in order to increase the sustainable success of the implementation – focusing on the Johannesburg Operations Shared Services Centre of Bank X. If the relationship is positive, this will imply that it also positively affects customer satisfaction, retention and hence the overall performance of the organisation. The main research question is what the success factors in the implementation of the lean programme would be. The research paper starts with a brief discussion of relevant literature on lean programs. Various programs that can be implemented by banks are explained briefly. 2. Brief Discussion of Relevant Literature Since the global financial crisis that occurred in 2008, the uncertain economic outlook in South Africa and the pressure on financial institutions to operate more effectively and efficiently, there has been...

Words: 3149 - Pages: 13

Premium Essay

Lean Management in Automobile Industry

...Lean Management In Automobile Industry Lean Management In Automobile Industry Arvinder Singh, Bargavi Poloju, Inderpreet Kaur, Inderjeet Kaur, Jaskaran Singh Gill Eastern Institute of Technology September 10, 2015 Abstract Lean and six sigma are widely known business improvement processes for industries /organisations these days for achieving drastic results, which are majorly cost cutting, quality maintenance and time management by specializing in processes to boost performance. Nowadays, There are some industries that are even integrating lean and six sigma into a more cohesive strategy i.e., lean sigma in order to establish even more powerful and effective process which focuses at eliminating wasteful activities and retaining most of the strengths of each activity. Lean Sigma aims to combine waste eliminating strategies of Lean Thinking with variability reducing techniques of six sigma to promote growth and increase revenue from the bottom line of organisations(M. Kumara). Lean management is outlined as a consistent and a methodical approach to determining and eliminating waste through continuous improvement, flowing the merchandise at the pull of the client in pursuit of perfection. The idea of lean management was developed for maximizing the resource utilization through reduction of waste, and eventually lean was developed in response to the unsteady and ever-competitive business organisations. For organisations to face major challenges and competition can be...

Words: 4468 - Pages: 18

Premium Essay

British Airway

...GLOBAL SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT MO255 NIKKI WONG XIAO XUAN NORTHUMBRIA UNIVERSITY (2897 Words) Executive Summary The objective of this report is to develop Singapore as a premier global hub port and international maritime centre, and to safeguard Singapore strategic maritime objectives. Research for this report includes evaluating the application on Lean and Total Quality Management (TQM) in logistics and supply chain networks to achieve Maritime Port Authority (MPA) objectives such as quality of service, competitiveness, reliability and efficiency. The major findings shows that lean implementation improves processing times achieving more work in less staff time and bringing services up to standard. (Radnor, Walley, Stephens, & Bucci, 2006). It also changes the focus of management from optimizing separate technologies, assets, and vertical departments to optimizing the flow of products and services through entire value streams that flow horizontally across technologies, assets, and departments to customers. Lean helps to eliminate waste along entire value streams, instead of at isolated points, creates processes that need less human effort, less space, less capital, and less time to make products and services at far less costs and with much fewer defects, compared with traditional business systems. Also, it requires keeping far less than half the needed inventory on site, results in many fewer defects and produces a greater...

Words: 4102 - Pages: 17