Lean Manufacturing
1.0 Introduction
Lean manufacturing is the systematic elimination of waste from all aspects of an organization’s operations, where waste is viewed as any use or loss of resources that does not lead directly to creating the product or service a customer wants when they want it. In many industrial processes, such non-value added activity can comprise more than 90 percent of a factory’s total activity
Lean manufacturing or lean production are reasonably new terms that can be traced to Jim Womack, Daniel Jones and Daniel Roos’ book, The Machine that changed the world [1991]. In the book, the authors examined the manufacturing activities exemplified by the Toyota Production System. Lean manufacturing is the systematic elimination of waste. As the name implies, lean is focused at cutting “fat” from production activities. It has also been successfully applied to administrative and engineering activities as well. Although lean manufacturing is a relatively new term, many of the tools used in lean can be traced back to Fredrick Taylor and the Gilbreaths at the turn of the 20th century. What Lean has done is to package some well-respected industrial/manufacturing engineering practices into a system that can work in virtually any environment.
2.0 Brief History
Many people and developments have been instrumental in shaping Lean. Key moments are described here.
1913
The first moving assembly line was built at Ford Motor Co. in Highland Park, Mich., USA. A chassis was pulled slowly across the factory floor.
1924
Sakichi Toyoda invented the world 's first automatic loom, which could change shuttles without stopping operation. Years earlier he had invented a device that automatically stopped a loom if a thread broke, preventing waste. The concept of jidoka – automation with a human touch – was born.
1927
Kiichiro Toyoda, Sakichi’s son and the founder (and second president) of Toyota Motor Co., introduced a flow production method using a chain conveyor into the assembly line of a
Lean manufacturing is the systematic elimination of waste from all aspects of an organization’s operations, where waste is viewed as any use or loss of resources that does not lead directly to creating the product or service a customer wants when they want it. In many industrial processes, such non-value added activity can comprise more than 90 percent of a factory’s total activity
Lean manufacturing or lean production are reasonably new terms that can be traced to Jim Womack, Daniel Jones and Daniel Roos’ book, The Machine that changed the world [1991]. In the book, the authors examined the manufacturing activities exemplified by the Toyota Production System. Lean manufacturing is the systematic elimination of waste. As the name implies, lean is focused at cutting “fat” from production activities. It has also been successfully applied to administrative and engineering activities as well. Although lean manufacturing is a relatively new term, many of the tools used in lean can be traced back to Fredrick Taylor and the Gilbreaths at the turn of the 20th century. What Lean has done is to package some well-respected industrial/manufacturing engineering practices into a system that can work in virtually any environment.
2.0 Brief History
Many people and developments have been instrumental in shaping Lean. Key moments are described here.
1913
The first moving assembly line was built at Ford Motor Co. in Highland Park, Mich., USA. A chassis was pulled slowly across the factory floor.
1924
Sakichi Toyoda invented the world 's first automatic loom, which could change shuttles without stopping operation. Years earlier he had invented a device that automatically stopped a loom if a thread broke, preventing waste. The concept of jidoka – automation with a human touch – was born.
1927
Kiichiro Toyoda, Sakichi’s son and the founder (and second president) of Toyota Motor Co., introduced a flow production method using a chain conveyor into the assembly line of a
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