De-mystifying the fundamentals of Lean Principles
Earlier this month when we were speaking to a consortium of Industries related to adoption of Lean Manufacturing System, a Senior Vice-President of a large engineering industry mentioned that they use lean manufacturing as a method to reduce frontline manpower. Many industry stalwarts’ cherry-picked Lean tools as their method of adopting Lean Manufacturing System.?We present this article to clarify the readers about the fundamental misconceptions regarding Lean Manufacturing.
1. Lean Manufacturing System implementation as a standalone project
Lean Manufacturing is a STRATEGY and not a Project. Lean must first start by deploying a crystal-clear vision all the way down to the entire organization of the company. All employees of the company must clearly understand the company vision and direction and must also understand all KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) and measurements used. When deployed as a project, companies consider Lean as being accomplished only after a couple of years of implementation, but, in fact, only 10 to 20% of the power of this approach is being realized. It cannot be considered a project at all because Lean is a long term and endless strategy for a company; a strategy of growth in sales and earnings through constant waste elimination.
2. Lean doesn’t mean zero inventory
Lean doesn’t mean ZERO inventory. Even with lean there may be a need to keep some finished goods on hand or some inventory in a supermarket. It means the right inventory at the right time at the right quantities and in the right place. Every company needs buffers, but they must be well planned and controlled. Things to consider are the demand of the customer and the time necessary to replenish the material.
3. Lean Manufacturing kills the creativity by focusing on standardization
People are often anxious that Lean efforts, including standardized work, will turn them into tactless robots. Many Lean methods are used so that abnormalities are clearly visible and therefore can be responded to. Lean creates a baseline so improvement can happen by opening up intellectual ability from doing the daily schedule to contemplate how the interactions could function better. A genuinely Lean culture regards individuals and connects with them in persistent improvement.
4. Lean manufacturing is applicable only for frontline workers
Lean is intended to include the entire organization. Being set in motion in just a single area isn't expected. It is an administration reasoning which ought to incorporate all aspects of your association. This advances the idea that everybody in the organization is essential for the group. Genuine Lean assembling needs the contribution of everybody coming into contact with the organization's product and its customer.
5. Lean manufacturing doesn’t mean manpower reduction
If you're using lean tools to think about how you can reduce your staff, you're not running a lean organization. If our process improvement work finds that people have additional time on their hands, we think about how we can use these additional resources to serve the organization in different ways.
6. Lean manufacturing as a tool kit to fix their problems
Tools do not solve problem but rather people do. It is not about the tools it’s how they are applied. A large number of organizations have failed to produce the desired results from the direct and prescriptive application of Lean tools. The tools themselves have been proven to work in many situations. The difference must then be in how the tools were applied, their appropriateness, but not the tools themselves.
7. Lean manufacturing is not about getting more work done from less employees
As mentioned above Lean manufacturing is not a head-count reduction system; instead, Lean manufacturers understand employees on Gemba know their work best. Lean manufacturers don’t want employees to work harder, or faster – they want employees to work more efficiently. Lean manufacturing focuses on improving employees, providing more value to the workforce, and, overall, establishing a dependable and stable workforce.
8. Lean manufacturing doesn’t mean as a pure cost cutting program
Lean is strategic. The philosophy behind it will allow you to create a complete business system focused on delivering more value to your customers by removing the waste from your existing processes. Any decent lean implementation will have the side benefit of significant cost reduction. Unfortunately, dramatically lower costs which are but side benefits, cause people to see lean as a cost reduction program.
Re-align your current activities to lean principles by thinking about three core questions:
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