Lean manufacturing is a practice that maximizes productivity while minimizing wasteful activities within a manufacturing operation. Lean principles see waste in any activity that doesn’t add value to the customer. The advantages of lean manufacturing include shorter lead times, savings on operating expenses, and better product quality.
The continuous improvement process, also known as Lean production, is a manufacturing technique that has influenced production systems worldwide and in other industries such as healthcare, software, and service sectors.
How Does It Work?
An essential components of lean manufacturing is eliminating waste to improve a process continuously. Lean manufacturing creates value for the client by delivering process improvements and reducing non-value-added waste.
Processes, operations, products, or services that require time, money, or expertise but do not add value to the customer are known as non-value-added waste. These might include underutilized expertise, excess inventories, and inefficient or wasteful processes and procedures.
Removing these inefficiencies throughout the entire supply chain to the customer can help reduce costs, streamline operations, and ultimately result in savings for a particular product or service.
Why is Lean Important?
Lean manufacturing aims to minimize waste in the workplace, whether it’s idle workers, flawed procedures, or unused materials. The purposes for doing so vary depending on perspective, but they may include increasing profits and offering customer services. Whatever the underlying intentions are, there are four key advantages of lean manufacturing:
- Eliminating waste – Waste negatively influences cost, delivery dates, and resources. It adds nothing to goods or services.
- Improving quality – The increased quality allows businesses to stay competitive and meet customers’ ever-changing demands and wants. Keeping up with these expectations and desires keeps you ahead of the pack, allowing you to maintain high standards in quality improvement.
- Reducing costs – Improving procedures and material management will reduce costs associated with storing more goods than needed.
- Reducing time – Time spent employing inefficient working methods is also a waste of money. At the same time, more efficient approaches result in shorter lead times and enable items and services to be delivered faster.