Question

In no less than 300 words your definition of what lean is?What are the key prinicipals?

Answer 1

Lean manufacturing is nothing but applying lean concept to manufacturing in which appropriate amount of resources are used to produce goods and services with zero waste. Lean is nothing but the process of eliminating waste from supply chain system. It focuses on producing the exact amount of inventory that is needed, when it is needed and where it is needed.

Company and managers want perfection and this can be achieved by focusing on zero waste production. This can be achieved by eliminating unnecessary tools and inventory. Managers need to review operation activities closely and regularly to simplify the task to achieve high efficiency. The company and the managers are responsible to provide training to their employees effectively so that they can work efficiently to meet the quality standards. They need to focus on Just In Time (JIT) concept to have just correct the amount of inventory to conduct the projected production numbers.

The reasons that company focuses on implementing lean concept are:-

• Lean manufacturing improve the quality of product by eliminating waste or defects that is identified and resolved by the problem solving techniques of lean tools.
• It improves the efficiency because of using line balancing which make sure that all the employees are working in most efficient way.
• It reduces the manpower required to complete the task as the work is standardized and promotes higher efficiency.
• Lean manufacturing enables the company to manage work easily as the work is standardized and people are aware of their tasks.
• It eliminates problem by investigating and resolving it effectively.
• It reduce space of production through waste reduction process thus save space.
• It makes the work more organized thus it create safe work environment.

The key principles of lean manufacturing are: -

• Value - Value proposition is nothing but the important and unique attribute of the product that attracts the customer. To improve and maintain the competitive advantage, the organization should focus on value creation by offering varieties of products or services, reducing the cost by improving the processes and managing both the employees and customers.
• The value sream - A value chain in marketing is nothing but the set of activities performed by the firm in particular industry for the purpose of delivering a valuable product or service for the customers. This help the company to identify the waste associated with manufacturing and delivery of the product and/or service.
• Flow - Flow of product or service helps in eliminating the waste. Any waste in value chain will stop the value chain from moving. So, flow across the value chain should be designed in such a way that the waste is minimized and value is increased.
• Pull - Pull system is generally found in JIT environment. A pull strategy is nothing but the strategy that focus on motivating customers to buy their products or to buy a new product if the company has strong brand image so that the customers will demand the products from the channel partners. So, the production is based on actual demand, so using pull system to move inventory is a lean inventory tactic.
• Perfection - Lean manufacturing influence perfection. Total Quality Management (TQM) are practices done by the organization to meet the highest level of quality. The important thing is to improve the operation in order to meet the quality in order to maintain customer satisfaction. It focuses on the fact that the in order to meet the quality, everyone in the organization should work collaboratively towards achieving it.