The aim is to use the existing production factors of operating resources, personnel, materials, planning and organization economically and time-efficiently. This results in a production approach based on the principle of economic efficiency. Lean production was first used by Toyota and other companies in Japan. The realization that the customer is only willing to pay for added value meant that non-value-adding activities should be minimized, ideally even eliminated. It is not possible to clearly allocate a company to one of the four phases of industry mentioned above. Rather, the use of lean production extends from mass production via automation into today’s production environment. In addition to just-in-time (JIT) and just-in-sequence (JIS), frequently used methods include the 5A method, PDCA cycle, Poka Yoke, Kanban, CIP and many more.
Why is lean production important?
Lean production cannot be assigned to a specific time period, but should rather be understood as a basic idea that spans time and areas. There are many areas of application in which at least one method or approach can usually be selected, depending on the desired goal. How can the diverse potential for increasing the efficiency of processes and workflows and reducing costs be utilized? The individual methods differ in terms of the effort and complexity involved in implementation. Improvements in the direction of waste-free value creation are possible at any time. Even if it seems that an improvement only has a minimal positive effect, it should be implemented. Because several “small” improvements together can lead to the desired end result.
Selected methods of lean production
Due to the large number of methods and approaches that are summarized under the term lean production, an overview of the methods is helpful. The focus is usually on approaches that can be implemented quickly and with little effort.
Lean Production in practice: Our services overview brings together the relevant planning and consulting approaches.