Lean Manufacturing or Lean Production is a series of methods that are based on the Toyota Production System<\/a> created by Taiichi Ohno. First implemented in the 1940s and developed until the 1970s together with Eiji Toyoda. The term “lean” was taken from John Krafcik\u2019s 1988 article \u201cTriumph of the Lean Production System<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n The main objectives of lean manufacturing are:<\/p>\n These objectives are achieved by following the principles described by the Toyota Production System. They have now become synonymous with Lean Manufacturing principles and are applied all over the world by project management.<\/p>\n These are the principles to follow when applying Lean Manufacturing:<\/p>\n The first step is identifying what is known as the seven wastes of lean. The objective of Lean Manufacturing is to eliminate waste. These wastes are described by the Toyota Productive System as follows:<\/p>\n This waste involves the unnecessary movement of materials or people within a process. It can result in production delays, handling damage and extra time that doesn\u2019t contribute to productivity. Long transportation also impacts communication which affects the quality of the product.<\/p>\n Examples of transportation waste include:<\/p>\n This refers to the storage of raw materials, work in progress or finished goods. It usually means there are problems in the process that are hidden behind rising stock levels. This results in increased operational costs and production lead times.<\/p>\n To address these challenges and optimise warehouse space, businesses can explore the benefits of warehouse mezzanine systems<\/a> offering an efficient solution to maximising vertical space utilisation within a warehouse facility<\/a>.<\/p>\n Although seemingly similar to transportation, it is not the same. The motion refers to the unnecessary movement of people or machines within a process.<\/p>\n Some examples of motion waste include:<\/p>\n This waste involves people or machines waiting for the completion of a work cycle. For example, waiting for raw materials to arrive, waiting for a process to finish or waiting for maintenance.<\/p>\n Over-processing refers to waste related to an operation or process that is not necessary to meet customer demands. Examples of over-processing are:<\/p>\n It means producing sooner, faster, or in greater quantities than customer demand. Over-produced items end up as inventory or scrap, thus creating more waste. Moreover, overproduction takes time away from value-added activities.<\/p>\n Some examples of overproduction are:<\/p>\n It refers to producing products that do not meet specifications. Examples of defect waste are:<\/p>\n These are the seven wastes of lean as described by the Toyota Productive System. However, some experts in the Lean Manufacturing field say there is an important eighth waste that must be considered. They describe it as human waste which refers to talent and skills being misused<\/a>.<\/p>\n After these wastes are identified, it is time to put one or more Lean Manufacturing techniques into practice. Here are some of the most used Lean tools.<\/p>\n There is an important practice in Lean Manufacturing, which is measuring processing times and flow times for each productive process. These times make it possible to calculate the process capacity in order to identify the bottleneck activity.<\/p>\n A bottleneck activity is something that limits the turnout of the process. After identifying the bottleneck, actions are taken to improve the performance of the activity, thus improving overall productivity.<\/p>\n Takt means “cycle” in German. This Lean Manufacturing technique helps to determine the cycle of production.<\/p>\n This time is calculated by dividing the time available in a period by the demand in a period. For example, 480 minutes of work per day (8h) to produce 2400 units results in a takt time of 480\/2400 = 0.2 minutes.<\/p>\n By calculating this time, it is possible to align the pace of production with customer or market demand. As such demands are subject to change, takt time analysis can be considered a form of lean continuous improvement<\/a>. Processes can be continuously optimised in response to live changes in demand. This usually results in a reduction of transportation, inventory, motion, waiting, over-processing, overproduction and defects. So all the seven wastes of Lean Manufacturing.<\/p>\n \n
Lean Manufacturing Principles<\/strong><\/h2>\n
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How to Apply Lean Manufacturing?<\/strong><\/h2>\n
Transportation<\/strong><\/h3>\n
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Inventory<\/strong><\/h3>\n
Motion<\/strong><\/h3>\n
![\"Factory](\"https:\/\/fractory.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/Factory-layout.jpg\")
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Waiting<\/strong><\/h3>\n
Over-Processing<\/strong><\/h3>\n
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Overproduction<\/strong><\/h3>\n
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Defects<\/strong><\/h3>\n
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13 Lean Manufacturing Techniques<\/strong><\/h2>\n
Bottleneck Analysis<\/strong><\/h3>\n
![\"Bottleneck](\"https:\/\/fractory.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/Bottleneck.png\")
<\/p>\nTakt Time<\/strong><\/h3>\n
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