Lean
Lean
What is lean?
• Lean is a manufacturing philosophy, that if
followed will ensure that the company will run
more efficiently. Lean focusses on reducing
waste, increasing value for customers and
creating a work environment that encourages
employees to problem solve creatively.
Lean history
• Lean is first and foremost inspired by the Toyota
production system (TPS). Kiichiro Toyoda and Taiichi
Ohno were inspired by Henry Ford’s success with
the Model T, however they saw faults in the system,
specifically Ford’s inability to deal with variation in
the production system. It can also be argued that
Kiichiro Toyoda and Taiichi Ohno were inspired by
TWI (training within industry), a manufacturing
philosophy employed by the allies during WWII.
• TPS shifted the focus in manufacturing from
machine utilisation to product flow. And
introduced tools such as value stream
mapping, the A3 method, 5S, SMED and
created the idea of Kaizan(continuous
improvement)
• The first mention of lean was in the book “The
machine that changed the world” by James P.
Womack, Daniel Roos, and Daniel T. Jones.
Kiichiro Toyoda
Kaizan
• Kaizan is arguably the central pillar on which
lean is built. Kaizan refers to a company
culture of continuous improvement. In lean
enterprises, all employees are encouraged to
use their brains to continuously improve the
system they are part of. Only by instilling this
culture in the employees will the organisation
truly thrive. The Process of kaizan is never
finished, because perfection is unattainable.
The seven Wastes
The Seven Wastes of Lean Manufacturing are:
• Transport
• Inventory
• Motion
• Waiting
• Over-Processing
• Overproduction
• Defects
The acronym TIMWOOD is useful when trying to remember
the wastes.
The waste of transport
• Transport is the movement of materials from one location
to another, this is a waste as it adds zero value to the
product. Why would your customer (or you for that
matter) want to pay for an operation that adds no value?
• Transport adds no value to the product, you as a business
are paying people to move material from one location to
another, a process that only costs you money and makes
nothing for you. The waste of Transport can be a very high
cost to your business, you need people to operate it and
equipment such as trucks or fork trucks to undertake this
expensive movement of materials.
The Waste of Inventory
• Inventory costs you money, every piece of product tied
up in raw material, work in progress or finished goods
has a cost and until it is actually sold that cost is yours. In
addition to the pure cost of your inventory it adds many
other costs; inventory feeds many other wastes.
• Inventory has to be stored, it needs space, it needs
packaging and it has to be transported around. It has the
chance of being damaged during transport and
becoming obsolete. The waste of Inventory hides many
of the other wastes in your systems.
The Waste of Motion