Developed by Toyota in the 1970's, "Lean Manufacturing" is a strategy for remaining competitive by identifying and eliminating wasteful steps in products and processes.
 "In Lean manufacturing, the value of a product is defined solely by the customer"
- Value-adding activities transform the product closer to what the customer wants
- Non value-adding activities don't create customer value
- Anything that is not value-adding is defined as waste
The term "lean" is used because lean manufacturing uses less:
- Human effort in the factory and outside the factory
- Manufacturing space
- Capital investment
- Materials
- Time between the customer order and the product shipment
The basic goal is to get more done with less by:
- minimizing inventory at all stages of production
- shortening product cycle times from raw materials to finished goods
- eliminating waste
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| Evolution of lean Manufacturing |
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Traditional |
Lean |
| Production |
Based on forecast |
Based on orders |
| Layout |
Based on function/department |
Based on product flow |
| Batch Size |
Large |
Small |
| Processing |
Batch&Queue |
Continuous Flow |
| Quality |
Lot Sampling |
Assured during processing |
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Lean Manufacturing incorporates the following concepts;
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