Lean Manufacturing Basics

Description

Lean is a set of time-tested, widely implemented management practices that creates value from the perspective of the customer, improves flow, and promotes respect for people. This class will introduce the tools that contribute to a continuous improvement process that can be applied to any type of organization.

Lean’s systematic approach helps to reduce process cycle time, improve delivery time (or overall efficiency), and provide an optimal setting for continuous improvement toward a desired condition state.

With Lean, businesses or organizations focus on eliminating in-house waste and activities that add no value to the customer. Lean enterprise refers to an entire supply chain or industry operating under compatible Lean systems and processes. This course from QSG covers the Lean Core Tools, what Lean is, why it matters, and how to lay the groundwork for a successful Lean journey.

What it comes down to is this: Lean removes waste. Waste is broken down into seven distinct areas:

• Transport
• Inventory
• Motion
• Waiting
• Over-Processing
• Overproduction
• Defects

All these wastes have a direct impact on your costs, they are all non-value adding operations, operations that your customer would not be happy to pay for and add no value to the product or service that you provide. Studies prove that we only add value for around 5% of the time within our operations, the remaining 95% is waste. Imagine if you could remove that 95% wasted time and effort, what would it do for your operations?

Lean manufacturing is also used to:

• Improve delivery performance
• Develop better customer satisfaction
• Improve employee morale and involvement
• Improve quality performance with fewer defects and rework
• Initiate faster development
• Operate with fewer machines and process breakdowns
• Operate with less space required