Lean Production

What is lean production?

Lean production is an approach to management that focuses on cutting out waste, whilst ensuring quality. This approach can be applied to all aspects of a business – from design, through production to distribution. Lean production aims to cut costs by making the business more efficient and responsive to market needs.

The Lean Principles

Identify Value

·         Review their product and service from the eyes of the customer

·         How does the product help the customer do his job, accomplish his mission, improve his position? 

·         Determine the unique value their product or service provides.

Map the Value Stream

·         Enables Lean teams to understand how value flows through the organization - and more importantly, where it gets stuck. 

·         A physical ‘map’ of the organization, which outlines every step of the process for each part of the business: production, R&D, marketing, HR, etc.

Create Flow

·          analysing each step in the process, finding ways to maximize efficiencies, and reducing waste.

·         Lean teams optimize flow in all aspects of the business -- not just the production

·         EG: A Lean manager might ask her team: What tools do we need for each step and are each of these tools needed every day for production to run smoothly? Can we abandon the traditional assembly line model and approach the production process in a new way that reduces the lag time between steps?

Establish Pull

·         consider the customer’s perspective on the final product, effectively looking at the operations of the business in reverse on the value stream maps

·         Instead of investing in materials, production, and then storage to be ready for a customer’s order, Lean teams can use the customer’s true needs to direct a more sensible model saving cost, space, time, and resources.

Seek Perfection

·         identifies areas of improvement and implements meaningful change, seeking the most efficient processes to bring the greatest value to the customer.

·         constantly analyse each process for the increase in value (reduced cost, time, resources used, space, etc.).

·          focus on the elements that add value and eliminate those that do not.

·         the goal is not perfection (which is unattainable), but rather, the pursuit of it -- a concept otherwise known as continuous improvement.

Waste

·         The aim of lean is to continually increase productivity due to the constant growing cost pressure.

·          Aiming for the detection and avoidance of waste 

·         Waste refers to all process steps that do not directly contribute to adding value. This waste should be avoided be continually reduced, with the aim of creating virtually waste-free production.

The seven types of waste (Boschrexroth.com, 2019)

Ergonomics

Ergonomics is the study of people's efficiency in their working environment.

Ergonomics considers:

■ The demands on the worker

■ The equipment used

■ The information used (how it is presented, accessed, and changed).

By assessing people’s abilities and limitations, their jobs, equipment and working environment and the interaction between them, it is possible to design safe, effective and productive work systems

Applying ergonomics to the workplace can:

■ reduce the potential for accidents

■ reduce the potential for injury and ill health

■ improve performance and productivity

The 5S Industry Process

5S describes the steps of a workplace organization process.

1.      Sort

o   Distinguishing between necessary and unnecessary things, and getting rid of what you do not need

2.      Straighten

o   The practice of orderly storage so the right item can be picked efficiently (without waste) at the right time, easy to access for everyone. A place for everything and everything in its place.

3.      Shine

o   Create a clean worksite without garbage, dirt and dust, so problems can be more easily identified (leaks, spills, excess, damage, etc)

4.      Standardise

o   Setting up standards for a neat, clean, workplace

5.      Sustain

o   Implementing behaviours and habits to maintain the established standards over the long term, and making the workplace organization the key to managing the process for success

           Here at Part-On we offer a solution to aid the lean journey in your             business'.