Lean manufacturing is a technique by which businesses can improve the efficiency of their production processes and minimise waste. By minimising or eliminating waste from their processes, they can carry out production more quickly, while delivering high-quality products that better satisfy the needs of customers.

It relies on the five principles of defining value, mapping the value stream, creating a smooth workflow, establishing a pull-based system, and the continued pursuit of perfection. When carried out correctly, lean manufacturing can lead to multiple benefits.

This includes minimal generation of waste during production which ensures greater efficiency and lower production costs. By minimising work-in-progress stockpiles, less inventory space is needed, helping to further reduce warehousing costs. Workflow becomes more streamlined, with minimal lead times required. The resulting products also tend to be of a better quality that can continually be improved upon as the technique is continually repeated in pursuit of perfection.

Here are three illustrations of how this technique can be applied to different manufacturing businesses to achieve the same goals and benefits.

Heating and Air-Conditioning Manufacturing

When Micrometl, an American manufacturer of accessories for heating and air-conditioning equipment wanted to find ways of improving its efficiency and product quality, it chose to try out lean manufacturing. One of the first steps it took was to analyse workflow to identify any encumbrances or delays. They found that there was a part that would travel as far as 1.5 miles through the assembly process while in the plant.

They modified the production process so that the part could be assembled within an area of just 100 feet. This change allowed the company to improve communication, reduce its indirect labour costs by 21%, lower its product pricing, boost market share, improve production efficiency by 7% and retain 25 employee positions.

Automotive Manufacturing

An automotive manufacturing company found that production efficiency tended to decline during shift changes. The company undertook three shift changes each day, with each one lasting about half an hour. During these periods, productivity and efficiency both suffered.

By adopting lean manufacturing, the company was able to reduce downtimes, improve communication and accommodate maintenance work on equipment to be used in the next shift. This resulted in an increase in company revenues by about $1 million per year and an additional 1.5 hours of production up-time each day.

Cable Manufacturing

A cable manufacturing company wanted to improve its efficiency, reduce lead time to market and minimise machine set-up time. Their team adopted lean manufacturing and found ways to better streamline machine set-up and changeover requirements. A scheduling system was introduced to support just-in-time (JIT) manufacturing. JIT manufacturing enables better efficiency within lean manufacturing by ensuring the right level of inventory is available at the right time to meet customer demand, while eliminating stockpiling and the occurrence of shortages.

With JIT, the company was able to better balance upstream production with downstream manufacturing and assembly. It achieved dramatic results such as a reduction in machine set-up time from five hours per day to 35 minutes. This allowed for an additional production uptime of almost five hours each day, which translated to an extra 25 hours per week. The company was able to achieve better productivity and output.