Lean production

lean production

• involves practices that reduce waste in operational process , main forms are focused on reducing defects, time wasted and inventory levels.

waste

• can be considered anything that does not add value to the product, seven types of waste a business can reduce

  • motion- unnecessary movement of people

  • transport- unnecessary movement of the product/materials

  • inventory- too much stock

  • defects- faulty products

  • waiting- for processes to end before others start

  • extra processing- adding features that dont add value

  • overproduction- producing products that cant be sold easily

ways of reducing waste

• designing work areas within business so employees tg and are close and in close proximity to resources they require

• designing production facilities to minimise movement

• using effective stock control systems

• adopting quality assurance techniques to minimise defaults

• designing products and services to meet exact needs of cust

• using range of forecasting techniques to predict demand and match production accordingly.

lean production method- Just-in-time

• stock levels kept to minimum, resources and capital freed up

• relies on effective communication and systems for order processing and delivery.

lean production method- Kaizen

• Japanese concept of continuous improvement, eg making marginal improvements in efficiency.

lean production method- lean organisation

• only use processes that add value and are effective, remove anything not necessary, eg; meetings, processes and organisational structure could be re-designed

the difficulties of adopting lean production

• if there are disruptions in production, business may be vulnerable if there is no inventory

• it creates over-reliance on suppliers to deliver on time

• danger of stripping away processes and features that employees and customers value

• puts pressure on workforce to ‘self-check” and monitor own work- do they have the skills?

• Kaizen can bring change that’s resented in workforce