Lean Manufacture
Lean manufacturing or lean production, often simply ‘lean’, is a systematic method for waste minimization (‘Muda’) within a manufacturing system without sacrificing productivity.
In many industries, such as electronics and automobiles, successful companies have implemented some form of lean manufacturing. Symptoms that a company may need to implement lean manufacturing include:
* Excess inventories
* Long lead times
* High levels of scrap and rework
* Excessive motion and waiting by workers
* Lack of standardization in work tasks or procedures
The main purpose of lean manufacturing is to reduce the amount of time and resources necessary to produce high-quality goods and services while maximizing customer satisfaction. In most cases, implementing lean techniques results in faster production times, reduced operating costs, and increased profits.