The purpose of this post is to highlight a few of the fundamental components of lean that are important to remember when considering a lean manufacturing implementation.
Lean manufacturing is founded on guiding principles representative of lean culture. The five fundamental principles of lean manufacturing are:
This simply means that customers need to be able to define the value (the specific benefits) a given product will provide.
In short, you should be able to define and create value without waste.
Streamline value-added processes throughout the workflow within your organization.
Implementing a pull system means allowing the customer to pull value from the product.
Quality should be actively pursued and make imperfections visible.
Lean principles are designed to improve competitiveness and customer satisfaction. These five principles should be satisfied when implementing a lean system.
MUDA is a Japanese term that means "waste." Lean is about eliminating waste in the manufacturing process. There are 9 areas of most commonly identified “fatty” areas, or MUDAs, in traditional manufacturing systems:
Lean implementation must satisfy the five Principles of Lean and is necessary to address the nine key areas of waste. These principles are designed to insure that the improvements are customer-centric, solve critical waste issues and can be sustained.
Lean and six sigma ideology are fundamentally interchangeable, because both are directly involved with reducing waste and product defects. Arguably, Six Sigma is considered the overarching discipline, with lean being subordinate to it. Either way, when lean manufacturing and six sigma are applied properly, the desired outcome should be the same. Here you can read more about the key elements of six sigma.
Lean manufacturing is not something that you stop using once improvements are seen or the systems are implemented; lean is an ongoing process your company can use to continually see improvements in:
Lean manufacturing is implemented by specific MUDA resolving tools. Some lean tools that CMTC offers are:
For more quick tips on lean manufacturing, click here.
Building a lean culture is not limited to just the production line. It is applied from the office workspace through production and distribution. The lean strategies and visions for an organization need to be clearly communicated in order for lean cultural changes to occur. Also, remember that lean is an ongoing process and that it takes time; sometimes lean goals can be reached in a matter of weeks, but most are reached after a few months if there is a company wide acceptance of cultural change.
If you need more direction or a consultation on how lean can be implemented in your organizations, you can click here.