Lean Manufacturing
While
defining Lean manufacturing, James P. Womack, Daniel T. Jones and Daniel Ross
in their book titled “The Machine That Changed the World” quoted that "Lean
Production is lean because it uses less of everything compared with mass
production - half the human effort in the factory, half the manufacturing
space, half the investment in tools, half the engineering hours to develop a
new product in half the time. Also it requires keeping far less than half the
needed inventory on site, results in many fewer defects, and produces a greater
and ever growing variety of products.”
The
recent shift in manufacturing paradigm due to relentless pursuit of lean
manufacturing by business world introduced a new dimension in competition. Your
competitor can produce exactly what a customer wants, when he wants it and at
the price he wants with zero waste.
Lean manufacturing is all about minimization of all resources used in various
activities of the enterprise to create value to customers through high quality
products and/or services. It is a systematic approach to reduce costs, lead-time
and relentlessly eliminating non value-added activities. It helps us to
identify and eliminate waste through continuous improvement techniques.
Lean
manufacturing created by Henry Ford and perfected by
1.
Process
2.
Methods
3.
Movement
4.
Product defects
5.
Waiting time
6.
Over Production
7.
Inventory
According
to researchers Steven Spears and H. Kent Bowen, a standardized way of thinking
at
1.
Structure every activity
2.
Clearly connect every customer / supplier
3.
Specify and simplify every flow
4.
Improve through experimentation at the lowest level possible
towards ideal state
Implementation
of Lean Manufacturing effort based on four rules mentioned above needs a
winning lean strategy. We have developed our strategy based on experience
gained in implementation of lean manufacturing by Fortune 500 companies.
Our Approach
Our approach in implementing Lean
Manufacturing is outlined below:
1.
Form a Executive Lean Council after obtaining strategic
direction, priorities and resources from top management
2.
Develop scope and boundaries of lean manufacturing
3.
Document current status
4.
Train all employees in principles of lean manufacturing and
communicate shared vision
5.
Conduct training in value stream mapping, visual work place
organization, set-up reduction, cellular / flow manufacturing systems, pull /
Kanban systems, Andon Card, TPM, TOC, quality at source, process capability,
PDCA, Poka Yoke, line balancing, activity sampling and methods improvement
6.
Create Value Stream Maps
7.
Identify gaps between desired and existing state
8.
Select appropriate pilot project to implement
9.
Form Core Lean Council
10. Initiate, guide and steer
the process of waste elimination through continuous improvement
11. Sustain the movement till
end result achieved
12. Develop more lean
champions and repeat the process from step 3
We subscribe to the ancient view that every individual has infinite potential. When this potential is nurtured through education and training, nothing prevents the organization in achieving break through results. That is what we strive to achieve.