What Is Lean Manufacturing

Lean Manufacturing Techniques And Tools For Businesses

If you are a manufacturer, chances are you must have heard the term lean manufacturing. In case you do not know what is lean manufacturing, you must learn this here in this article. According to the lean manufacturing definition as illustrated in business books, it is a management philosophy of the optimal production of goods. It is based on some lean manufacturing techniques and lean manufacturing principles that focus on the removal of waste and the implementation of the flow in a production process.

Here is a look at some of the popular lean manufacturing techniques and tools.

Quality function deployment or QFD is a popular technique of lean manufacturing. It focuses on identifying the outputs demanded by the customers. The technique helps you to trace these outputs to causal inputs like product design and manufacturing process which you can easily control. This primarily helps in quality planning.

Another popular technique is workplace organization and visual management. It focuses on the 30 second rule that helps you make your workplace so organized that anyone can find anything within 30 seconds. It focuses on workplace organization by sorting things and setting them in order. Also it removes things which are not used regularly. It stresses on the employment of shadow boards, area boundaries, signs and labels in your workplace to help find things which can be easily used.

Then there is the process failure mode and effects analysis technique. This technique helps you to assess the size of the relative risks in the manufacturing process. It also helps you to list all types of potential sources of failure. After that it lets you allocate a weighted points score based on the expected frequency of failure, the chances to detect the failure and the severity of the consequences. It also lets you be sure about the evolution of manufacturing failure modes.

The next technique is poka yoke or fool-proofing. It is a cost-effective lean manufacturing technique that helps to prevent the production of any type of defective product. Then there is the statistical process control technique. It facilitates the establishment of the limits of statistical variability for the output parameter of a system. This means that under normal conditions whenever the output variable goes above the upper control limit or falls below the lower control limit you can stop the process and take a remedial action.

If you want to implement the lean manufacturing techniques properly, it is very important that you undergo proper lean manufacturing training. You can either join a basic lean manufacturing techniques or principles course or even go for a full fledged lean manufacturing certification. This will help you understand the whole process in a better way and will also help you to choose the right techniques for yourself.

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