Lean Manufacturing
Lean Manufacturing is what I do. That’s what puts the food on my table, and that’s what everyone at work looks to me for. I also happen to find it very interesting and fulfilling, so it’s a great job for me.
Funny thing is that most people have no idea what I’m talking about when I say that I’m into Lean Manufacturing. The semi-technical definition I use for Lean Manufacturing is “a continuous improvement philosophy that focuses on the relentless identification and elimination of waste.” No, I’m not talking about garbage disposal, what I’m talking about is waste in a process: “Thoughtless or unnecessary expenditure, consumption, etc.” according to my little desktop dictionary.
“So what’s so fancy about that?” you might ask. Nothing much, really, except that most people have difficulty actually seeing the waste in a system. About half of the work of someone doing lean is actually seeing waste for what it is, and the Lean way without waste can almost seem counterproductive; for example, if a Lean guy goes to the plant floor and sees an operator finish the work that he has, then picks up a book and reads, that tells him that the line is running well; some other facilities even let off their workers on Friday afternoons for community work, with pay. Off time not a sign of weakness in a Lean system – it means that the system is well-balanced.
Lean Manufacturing is not even new, as it finds a lot of its formal roots in principles put forth by Henry Ford when he started up the Ford Motor Co. His principles were widely copied back in the day, and also built upon, notably by Toyota in its Toyota Production System (TPS). Lean Manufacturing has developed its status today thanks to the success achieved by TPS, and many companies trying to implement Lean today still study the model still being used by Toyota today.
What’s new about Lean Manufacturing is that many manufacturing firms are only now beginning to realize that in their haste to build economies of scale and cash in on the industrial revolution, they have too often focused on making sure that the operations run spectacularly, but have forgotten to react to their customers’ needs. Henry Ford is said to have made this statement: “You can have the Model T is any color you want, as long as it’s black;” At that time, the customer needed lots of cars, never mind the color, but in today’s world, this would be a recipe for disaster.
Nowadays, there is much more competition and everybody are using economies of scale, that it’s now very much a buyer’s market. The customer is flooded with information about the market that they are becoming choosier; they are continually looking for the best value for their needs. More and more, economies of scale are no longer differentiating factors for a business, and people are demanding more attention to their individual needs. When a business needs more value than what the traditional industrial scale can offer, Lean comes in to squeeze more value out of the system (or rather, revealing value by pushing out the waste).
So what exactly is Lean? I’ll write more about this in another article. If you’re interested in this, feel free to drop me a comment, and I’ll see if I can give you more info.
Funny thing is that most people have no idea what I’m talking about when I say that I’m into Lean Manufacturing. The semi-technical definition I use for Lean Manufacturing is “a continuous improvement philosophy that focuses on the relentless identification and elimination of waste.” No, I’m not talking about garbage disposal, what I’m talking about is waste in a process: “Thoughtless or unnecessary expenditure, consumption, etc.” according to my little desktop dictionary.
“So what’s so fancy about that?” you might ask. Nothing much, really, except that most people have difficulty actually seeing the waste in a system. About half of the work of someone doing lean is actually seeing waste for what it is, and the Lean way without waste can almost seem counterproductive; for example, if a Lean guy goes to the plant floor and sees an operator finish the work that he has, then picks up a book and reads, that tells him that the line is running well; some other facilities even let off their workers on Friday afternoons for community work, with pay. Off time not a sign of weakness in a Lean system – it means that the system is well-balanced.
Lean Manufacturing is not even new, as it finds a lot of its formal roots in principles put forth by Henry Ford when he started up the Ford Motor Co. His principles were widely copied back in the day, and also built upon, notably by Toyota in its Toyota Production System (TPS). Lean Manufacturing has developed its status today thanks to the success achieved by TPS, and many companies trying to implement Lean today still study the model still being used by Toyota today.
What’s new about Lean Manufacturing is that many manufacturing firms are only now beginning to realize that in their haste to build economies of scale and cash in on the industrial revolution, they have too often focused on making sure that the operations run spectacularly, but have forgotten to react to their customers’ needs. Henry Ford is said to have made this statement: “You can have the Model T is any color you want, as long as it’s black;” At that time, the customer needed lots of cars, never mind the color, but in today’s world, this would be a recipe for disaster.
Nowadays, there is much more competition and everybody are using economies of scale, that it’s now very much a buyer’s market. The customer is flooded with information about the market that they are becoming choosier; they are continually looking for the best value for their needs. More and more, economies of scale are no longer differentiating factors for a business, and people are demanding more attention to their individual needs. When a business needs more value than what the traditional industrial scale can offer, Lean comes in to squeeze more value out of the system (or rather, revealing value by pushing out the waste).
So what exactly is Lean? I’ll write more about this in another article. If you’re interested in this, feel free to drop me a comment, and I’ll see if I can give you more info.
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