20.04.2006

Lean manufacturing concepts were developed over the last five to six decades, primarily in Japan, particularly for the Toyota production system. These concepts met various tests for many many years and passed the test of time very easily.

Lean manufacturing revolutionaries the manufacturing process. It was not a fine tuning of the existing manufacturing processes. These manufacturing techniques are conceptually different from the traditional process. For an example, traditional manufacturing works based on inventory. But lean manufacturing questions the role of inventory

and defines as a waste it self and also as the reflector of the imperfections a system has. This example, itself shows the conceptual deference between the traditional manufacturing system and lean manufacturing system.

Sometimes it is very hard to believe that a system like lean manufacturing was born with a simple set of concepts. But it is true. Principle on which lean manufacturing operates is very simple. For an example it identifies the fact that “customer will not pay for the mistakes, but only for the value of the product or the service they receive”. The impact on this thinking is huge on the manufacturing process. It changed the way people looked at the manufacturing process. It made people to define value of the product from the customer’s point of view, not from the internal manufacturing point of view.

To successfully implement lean manufacturing, it is necessary to understand the differences between the lean manufacturing concepts to the conventional manufacturing. Failing to do this, will eventually kill your success.