Lean manufacturing
DEFINITION: Lean manufacturing is a systematic process/method designed to help organizations minimize wastes while maximizing production in a manufacturing system (Feldmeth & Müller, 2019).
SUMMARY
The idea of lean manufacturing originated from Japan in the Toyota production system (Feldmeth & Müller, 2019). The main aim of lean manufacturing was to eliminate and reduce wastes and, at the same time, add value to the final outputs. In a similar vein, there are different lean manufacturing designs that organizations can adopt depending on their needs and wastes they face. Among the different types of wastes include. Defects that result due to products not meeting stipulated commercial needs. Secondly is overproduction that leads to excess inventory hence high storage expenses. The third type of waste is waiting, which leads to customers being dissatisfied. The fourth type of waste is non-utilized talent, and it happens when an organization does not fully use the skills and expertise of its employees. The next type of waste can occur due to transportation expenses. Therefore organizations ought to have suppliers close to the production plants. Other types of wastes common to organizations are; extra processing, motion, and lastly, inventory that occurs when products are stored for long waiting to be sold.
DISCUSSION
It is of paramount importance for business organizations to ensure that they have reliable and robust methods of minimizing wastes and improving production. Lean manufacturing is one of the ways that an organization uses to achieve this objective. However, the process of lean manufacturing takes time before it is fully implemented in an organization. Additionally, there are five fundamental principles of lean manufacturing that organizations ought to consider. These five principles help the organization to attain the objectives of lean manufacturing easily and smoothly, and they include the following. First is the principle of value. Through this principle, the organization gets to understand clearly the value that customers assign to the products and services. Additionally, the value of the product or service determines what the customer will pay for that product. Therefore to minimize value waste, the organization ought to be customer-centered.
Second is the value stream that helps the organization to understand the life cycle of the products they manufacture. Through this, the organization gets an opportunity of knowing where to add value and how to do it to increase customer satisfaction and reducing wastes.
The third principle is the flow. When an organization understands the process of flow, it much helps in eliminating wastes in the production process. Additionally, through this principle, the organization attains a swift way of creating a value chain without any interruptions.
The fourth principle is the pull principle that helps the organization to avoid over-production or production ahead of time. Through this, the organization can avoid the building up of inventory that can interfere with the flow. Therefore the pull principle helps the organization to understand that they only need to manufacture a product when a customer orders it.
The last principle is perfection. This principle guides the organization to remain focused on addressing the root causes of wastes and quality issues so that they can maximize the outputs. Therefore through this principle, the organization gets to know how to remain committed to continuous improvements by eliminating the different types of wastes.