Lean Manufacturing
What is Lean Manufacturing?
Lean manufacturing is a production system which requires less in terms of inputs and resources. The basic ideas behind lean manufacturing are waste elimination and flow enhancement, resulting in reduced lead times, reduced operating costs and improved quality. Customers will experience improved and more reliable service, while operators will work at a steady pace in a working environment where activities are balanced amongst the workforce.
Lean manufacturing is based upon five lean principles:
- Specify value from the point of view of the end-customer.
- Identify all the steps in the value stream for each product, eliminating all steps and activities that do not create value for the end-customer.
- Organize the remaining value-adding steps and activities in such a way that they are executed in a chain with a clear sequence and steady pace, ensuring a smooth process flow.
- As the flow is installed, let (internal) customers pull from the next upstream activity.
- Invest in further elimination of waste: hence pursuing perfection through continuous improvement.
Lean manufacturing principles are also known by a variety of synonyms, for example: lean production, continuous flow manufacturing, Toyota Production System (TPS), etc.
How does Stanwick support you in implementing Lean Manufacturing?
Stanwick can assist your company in its 'lean' transformation by:
- Conducting a lean assessment to identify the potential of your production system. By doing so, we gain insight into your business and analyze your current manufacturing strategy. Through value stream mapping, we identify the major areas for improvement.
- Setting up an implementation plan together with local management.
- Organizing awareness sessions in order to mobilize key players. We use a simulation exercise, the Lean Manufacturing Game, to create an insight into the basics of Lean Manufacturing.
- Providing in-house training sessions on lean manufacturing. Basic, advanced and tailored courses are available.
- Conducting hands-on Kaizen workshops: ranging from work cell development (Kanban and Kaizen methods) to production preparation process workshops.
- Organizing, monitoring and reporting of the progress of the lean transformation to management.
