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IMPORTANCE OF LEAN PRINCIPLES

  • Amruta Bhaskar
  • Jul 7, 2020
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Without a proper system in place, businesses are experiencing the negative effects of wasting many products, that could’ve otherwise been better utilized. To combat this problem, businesses can follow through the process of lean manufacturing.

The concept of Lean management is discussed to help understand the needs for process improvement. The principles of Lean management are enumerated, and the tools employed to achieve process improvement are explained. Lean management is based on the Toyota production system which was established in the late 1940s. Toyota put into practice the five principles of lean management with the goal being to decrease the number of processes that were not producing value; this became known as the Toyota Way. By implementing the five principles, they found that significant improvements were made in efficiency, productivity, cost efficiency and cycle time.

Lean management is a systematic approach to the management of an organisation to achieve continuous improvement. It is a philosophy that aims to ongoing effort to continuously eliminate the waste, in all the processes, through small and incremental improvement. It improves quality and reduces defects, as well as enhances the overall manufacturing flexibility.

Lean management uses methods for eliminating factors that waste time, effort or money. This is accomplished by analysing a business process and then revising it or cutting out any steps that do not create value for customers.

The Lean Management Principles are derived from the Japanese manufacturing industry and include:

1.      Specify a value from the standpoint of the end customer by product family.

2.      Identify all the steps in the value stream for each product family, eliminating whenever possible those steps that do not create value.

3.      Make the value-creating steps occur in tight sequence so the product will flow smoothly toward the customer.

4.      As flow is introduced, let customers pull value from the next upstream activity.

5.      As value is specified, value streams are identified, wasted steps are removed, and flow and pull are introduced, begin the process again and continue it until a state of perfection is reached in which perfect value is created with no waste. 

These lean principles ensure that the processes involved with bringing a product to market remain cost-effective from beginning to end.

The principles of Lean Management focus on improving every aspect of a work process and involves all levels of a company’s hierarchy, thus making it a very popular approach. The benefits of adopting Lean Management in the organisation include:

1.      Focus: By cutting down on activities that do not add value the workforce will be focused on activities that bring value.

2.      Improving productivity and efficiency: Chasing value allows the workforce to have well-defined tasks which improve productivity and efficiency.

3.      Smarter process: By employing a pull or demand-based system, work will be delivered only when there is a demand.

4.      Better use of resources: When production is based on demand, resources will be used efficiently.

The money saved on product storage and inventory management adds additional cash flow in the company. However, fewer employees mean additional training for workers but with clear work instructions and standardized work, the job is easily and more eagerly performed. Managing satisfied workers is easily conducted and makes any business prosper in the long run.

Lean Manufacturing is a business philosophy which has proven highly successful since it can reduce costs, eliminate waste, increase productivity, maintain high levels of quality and thus make a significant increase in your profit.

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