What is Lean? Lean is a business system and philosophy approach to identifying and eliminating waste (non-value-added activities) through continuous process improvement by
flowing the product at the pull of the customer.
What is the goal of Lean? The goal of Lean is to turn continuous process improvement into a competitive weapon. Lean is all about shortening order to delivery times, lowering costs, adding higher quality and becoming more flexible simultaneously.
What are the benefits of Lean? Lean can have immediate positive impact on your company. Lean offers many advantages in material handling, inventory, quality, scheduling, personnel and customer satisfaction.
Safety: Some Lean 5S programs actually add a 6th S for safety. An
organization's concern for safety can be a significant contributor to morale and pride. It can be measured by lost time injury rates or other measures of safety performance.
Space: Cleaning out the unneeded material, removing junk will often open significant amounts of space that can be turned into productive work areas. Warehouse storage areas are expensive “real estate” and can be assets or liabilities.
Productivity: Measurement of productivity can occur in many ways and at many levels such as overall company productivity, team productivity, or individual
productivity. Overall productivity is the most important from a competitive viewpoint. Remember, productivity does not necessarily relate to improved performance. Productivity is basically how much is done – performance is how well it is done.
Pride & Morale: Pride and morale are notoriously difficult to measure but critically important. While there are survey tools for such measurements, they can often be very time-consuming themselves. The practical effects are seen primarily in absenteeism, turnover and productivity.
Absenteeism: Absenteeism results from many causes but pride and morale are two of the more important. Improvement in absenteeism, if other factors remain constant, can be assumed as resulting from increased pride and morale.
Wasted Motions: If 5S teams work together through 5S implementation, they can measure reductions in physical motion during their workday.
Kaizen Mind: The rigor, discipline and analysis inherent in Lean 5S can contribute to the development of the “Kaizen Mind.” This is a culturally induced attitude of constantly looking for and implementing improvement, particularly at the level of an individual or work team.
Performance: The ability to accomplish needed processes or tasks more efficiently, with greater quality, and increased consistency will empower teams to raise their own bars for success. Any company operating under this environment will undoubtedly win the battle for the marketplace.
What is the history of Lean?
Lean, like so many innovative ideas, products, or services, was born out of necessity. In post-World War II Japan, the founder of Toyota, Sakichi Toyoda, his son Kiichiro Toyoda, and their chief engineer, Taiichi Ohno, developed the Toyota Production System (TPS). TPS is the philosophy that still organizes manufacturing and logistics at Toyota, including the interaction with suppliers and customers.
These three innovative thinkers from Toyota visited the United States and they observed the great manufacturing empire established by Henry Ford. They were, however, unimpressed. They immediately noticed that while Ford had created a monumental manufacturing machine, he had failed to address what they felt was the key issue for them - waste. They noticed that with Ford's assembly line that tasks were not spaced and timed to enhance work flow. Therefore, the process was often waiting on steps to catch up to other steps, and partially completed work often piled up. In addition, the production system in place continually created a great deal of overproduction, which led to routine shut downs and layoffs and regular restarts and rehires.
Although Toyota (Toyoda) was basically unimpressed with Ford's manufacturing plant, he was very impressed with another US business –- Piggly Wiggly Supermarket. They saw the benefit of only reordering and restocking goods as they were purchased from the customer. They realized that if they were to compete on the world stage in the automotive industry, they would need to apply these same principles to their operation. Thus, JIT, or just-in-time inventory was developed. To do this, Toyota reduced the amount of inventory they would need to hold only to a level that its employees would need for a small period of time, and then subsequently reorder.
Although Toyota is credited with beginning Lean Production with their Toyota Production System, the roots of “lean”date back as far as the 16th century. In 1570, King Henry III of France watched in amazement as the Venice Arsenal built galley ships in less than an hour using
continuous flow process. So, as a conceptual idea, we have known for centuries that continuous flow produces results.
Other companies have taken the Toyota Production System even farther. Motorola implemented Lean Production Systems, and almost immediately noticed a decrease in wastes, an increase in productivity and quality and an increased awareness of safety. Their efforts led to the
development of Lean Six Sigma. Six Sigma basically, defines quality in degrees of sigma with six being the highest and defined as no more than 3.4 defects per one million opportunities.
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